Sermon for July 27, 2008

Pictures of the Kingdom

Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

Rev. Shannon Mang

The Kingdom of God is like…

Over and over we hear that phrase as the lead in to a parable- the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed (or a pine nut as in today’s reading); it is like yeast; it is like a treasure hidden in a field; it is like a merchant finding a pearl of great value; it is like a net thrown into the sea that catches fish of all kinds; and lastly from today’s batch of parables… it is like a householder who brings out both new and old treasure.

Jesus is all about Kingdom of God- so what is it? - well- it certainly is “elusive”

Jesus’ teaching in the parables give us glimpses; as do the miracle stories; as do the healing stories…. All we get are glimpses of the core message of Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of God defies clear definition- it can only be interpreted.

Today, even the language of God’s Kingdom is problematic – a kingdom is an anachronism for us in 21^st century Canada. Jesus’ audience was made up largely of peasants who knew exactly what it was like to live in an occupied territory under a puppet Jewish king who served the occupying empire. Jesus’ teaching about a kingdom where the first are last and last are first; a kingdom where women (who are unclean creatures) hide disgusting yeast in dough - are used as a metaphor for what the kingdom is all about; and where ideas like a net that catches all manner of fish is just plain wrong- any self respecting fisher in Jesus’ time would know that there are different nets to catch different fish… these are the stories that captivated the listeners that gathered around Jesus… these are the stories that deeply threatened the authorities of the day… these are the stories that lead Jesus to the cross… and… they are the stories that ultimately made sense of the resurrection of Jesus.

How can we recapture some of the original electricity of Jesus’ pictures of the Kingdom. I continue to use the language of Kingdom, but it has serious problems. Not only is kingdom an anachronism- it carries with it concepts of chauvinism, imperialism and domination. These would have been present in Jesus’ day—and these concepts would have been a part of that powerful response in Jesus’ listeners since he was taking their reality and turning it upside down. Brian McLaren has been playing with the concept of the kingdom of God for several years looking for modern metaphors that would infuse similar life into Jesus’ teachings for today. Realizing that all metaphors have a limited cultural shelf life he does offer 6 metaphors for catching a fresh glimpse into what Jesus was all about in his teaching and healing ministry:

The dream of God- the Greek word that is translated as “will” in the Lord’s Prayer- “thy will be done” can also be translated as “wish”. This is not some fairy-tale sort of wish, it is deep desire.. or one’s greatest dream. We could think of Jesus’ central message as an expression of God’s dream for us and all of creation. Our call as Christians would then be to align our deepest dreams with God’s dream for us all.

The revolution of God- this gets at the radical nature of Jesus’ message but revolution carries with it it’s own set of challenges so to get at the really crazy nature of Jesus’ revolution we’d need to talk about Jesus’ message of God’s peaceful revolution or God’s revolution of reconciliation.

The medical mission of God- Jesus’ message is all about healing and reconciling. Most everyone who has stepped into the healing ministry of today’s church will attest to how their lives have been deeply changed and through their prayers and healing hands true healing of mind, body and spirit takes place in the lives of lots of people—healing that goes way beyond just “cure”. One of the modern parables of God’s medical mission might be that it is like virus that heals indiscriminately- heals our illnesses- heals our fears- heals our hearts.

The party of God- this metaphor catches some of the humour that Jesus used in his parables and encounters with the “scribes and the Pharisees”. Brian McLaren talks about this metaphor using a story of a group of church folks who gather on a street corner in a poor neighbourhood frequented by the homeless. Their purpose is to feed the hungry, but before they bring the food out they take garbage cans and other trash that they can find and start a drumming circle using available trash items. They create a street party getting those who are attracted by the fun to take part—there is music and dancing and laughter…. And then there is food.

The network of God- in the world of the internet and importance of social networks Jesus’ message is all about plugging people into God’s life-giving network; getting connected to God and to one another. We can have access to direct downloads that will change us. God also provides anti-virus and de-bugging for our hard drives and operating systems. God’s network breaks down the walls of small destructive networks and invites all into the world-wide web of unconditional love.

The dance of God- this metaphor reclaims one of the most powerful images of the early church- that of the Trinity being engaged in a dance and in that dance all of creation comes about…. The dance is everlasting, and so is our on-going creation. All of creation from the bits that make up our cells, to the flow of galaxies are included in this dance of God. There is a note of hope for us human creatures who have broken with the rhythm of the dance, because we can always get back in tune. The Way of Jesus is one of the means to reconnect with the original dance.

Brian McLaren’s metaphors offer for us the possibility of exploring any number of our own metaphors for the central message of Jesus. Jesus’ message to his original listeners was so dynamic that some of them stopped and dropped their lives to follow him. The message still has the power to stop us in our tracks, to make us see our lives in a radically new way and feel as though there is nothing more important than to follow this teacher and live in his presence. The possibilities are not limited to expressions of words- poetry, art, story, architecture, drama, song, dance all offer means to express the amazing, life-giving message of Jesus.

I’m not suggesting that we leave the Gospel accounts alone and just ride off to explore our own new metaphors of the Kingdom of God. It takes some work to unearth the original zing of Jesus’ Kingdom of God pictures, but they are worth unearthing even if the flavour or the original can never be truly replicated. Digging into the parable pictures, along with what we now know of their cultural context does give us a sense of their power to change people’s lives.

Eugene Peterson’s use of the pine nut instead of the mustard seed is intriguing as it gets to the majesty of greatest of all trees image in The Message… but I have to say that I like the humour that is imbedded in Jesus’ original parable of the mustard seed. This tiny little seed becomes a mighty… shrub, well, actually it becomes a nasty weed. To suggest that someone would actually “plant” a mustard seed is like talking about planting a crop of dandelions. Mustard was, and is, a pernicious weed. The image of mustard growing into a tree and providing shelter for birds in its branches is just funny… and wrong. At best, ground nesting birds might find shelter in a mustard patch.

One of my personal images for the Kingdom of God it this: quack grass. I hate quack grass- but I also love it because every summer as I’m out in my yard struggling to bring each year’s abundant crop of this stuff under control I find myself meditating as I dig it up how quack grass will not be controlled by my vain efforts. Like the Kingdom of God it thrives in spite of my efforts to snuff it out. If I just yank on the grass it breaks off leaving the vast network of roots beneath the soil to sprout again. And if I but much of my back into its eradication, and I fork it out to get all the roots, inevitably I leave a tiny bit of the root broken off that will reestablish the crop soon enough. Quack grass makes me smile because its attributes are so like Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God- it thrives where the soil appears to be poor and it will not ever completely leave my world.

Take time to be amused and bothered by Jesus’ pictures of God’s Kingdom and take time to explore your own images for the Kingdom in your own life. Allow yourself to be lead by the everyday and the mundane parts of your lives and allow them to speak deep truths to your hearts.

May it be so.