Sermon Notes for June 18th
June 18, 2006
Mark 4:26-34
”When the Grain is Ripe”
1. Tell about trip to England and Westminster Abbey where all the kings and queens are buried.
My English friends, the Careys, have always been a little poo-poo about the Royalty. They think is all a side show.
But, Mrs. Carey is warming up to Camilla. She has the common
Touch.
But of course Kings and Queens went out of business in America. In fact,
The whole Revolutionary War was all about getting rid of the Monarchy – Mad King George and all that.
The Founding Fathers were inspired by the ideas of the enlightenment and wanted to create a country that would not
allow any one person to have all that much power.
In short, in America there would be no king. And without a king there is also No Kingdom.
2. Today, although we do have Presidential libraries around the country, there is no Westminster Abbey where the bones of all
the Kings and Queens are buried. (It’s like a cemetery above ground.)
So, the whole idea of Kingdoms and Royalty is foreign to us now in the 21st Century.
In fact the whole idea of kings and kingdoms is becoming a word that is going out of use. For when we think of kingdoms is sounds a little like a fairy tale world. And in addition, Kingdoms often evoke images of mail chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and Emperors like Caesar -- which clash with newer concepts like freedom, liberation, individual rights and many other things we cherish today.
I have always had a problem, therefore, when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God. What does that mean in today’s world?
3. Well, a very popular church renewal author, Brian McLaren, takes up this case in an recent article in Sojourners magazine.
McLaren is particularly known for being involved in the emerging church movement which is trying to reach out to the unchurched in America and he says that when we in the church talk about “God’s Kingdom” it falls short of creating much excitement with many people today.
In short, we in the church sound out of date talking about something which sounds “churchy” doesn’t resonate with todays world.
In fact, McLaren says that if Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t
Use the language of kingdom at all.
So, what then?
4. McLaren comes up with a plethora of possibilities, some good, some not so good:
The dream of God – which is kind of like “the will of God” or
“God’s wish.”
The Revolution of God – this is more of a social justice concept in that it seeks to overthrow the powerful forces which enslave us such as fear, illness, oppression, death.
The Mission of God – which means “to be sent.” More like a calling. As Christians were are called to serve not merely to be subjects of a King.
The Party of God - as in the banquet to which we are all invited.
For this is kind of the sense of communion.
The Network of God - where we are all interconnected in our common faith.
The Dance of God – a dynamic relationship which is creative and not static.
5. Well, it’s interesting. But nothing quite works as well as the Kingdom of God.
One person responded to McLaren by saying that one of the problems people may have in America with the idea of Kingdom is that as free democratic people we don’t like to have anyone telling us what to do – right? We don’t like the idea of having to obey someone. And yet, he points out that Jesus does call one us to obey, to trust, and to serve. In short, the Kingdom of God is not just a free ride where we can do anything we want and God will bless it.
So there has to be a balance in the idea of God’s Kingdom between the power domination theme of an autocratic ruler on the one hand and a God who is rather wishy washy on the other.
Well, it is just hard to come up with a better metaphor than the kingdom of God, I guess. So, no matter how we try to describe it … the question remains one of what kind of God is God and what is his “kingdom” all about?
6. With that in mind let us take a look at today’s scripture reading about Parable of the Mustard Seed
30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Now like most parables there are many layers of meaning and many possible interpretations. I am going to just elaborate on one or two ideas (or we could be here all morning!).
7. First, some background. Most nations would like to believe that they are invincible … isn’t that right?
Therefore, to maintain some level of pride and confidence, leaders must show progress, win battles, over come obstacles … so the people will be strong – or so we think. And all nations have certain beliefs about themselves which are kind of mythical statements. Like believing that we are “the leader of the free world” back when we were in conflict with communism. We were “free” – they were not.
Now a myth is often what holds people's lives together. Groups, communities, nations all must have myths. Myths are a necessary attempt to resolve the tensions of everyday life by promising an idealized future in which we will be rescued from all the problems of ordinary life. However, when a myth begins to falter, great leaders may try to find ways to recapture the glory of earlier days, like John F. Kennedy's effort to rekindle the American dream by sending a man to the moon. American astronauts did go to the moon, but meanwhile the Vietnam war devastated the prestige of American invincibility and with it the American dream. In some ways, we are still suffering from the Viet Nam War – even today.
8. Well, the same was true of Israel in the time of Jesus. What had happened was that for the Israelites of Jesus' time, the tension between everyday reality and their mythical vision of Israel as God's chosen people was felt with particular urgency. From the heyday of national power and prestige during the reigns of King David and King Solomon, Israel had been on a downhill slide for several centuries, its kingdom conquered and divided several times over. Now if one lives in occupied territories, as the Israelites of Jesus' time did, the question naturally arises, "Is this ghastly oppression by the Romans a punishment from God, or is our suffering just part of the human condition?" So, we can see that in the particular myth in which the people of first-century Israel were living, the Kingdom of God had specific connotations of power, triumph, holiness, and goodness.
The kingdom, when it came, the Israelites believed, would introduce a glorious new age of universal peace, with God's chosen people at the head of the nations. That was their understanding of the Kingdom of God.
9. Instead, Jesus proposed this parable, "What is the kingdom of God really like? It is like a mustard seed"--proverbially the smallest and most insignificant of all seeds--"that someone took and sowed in his garden." For an alert hearer of Jesus' day, the detail about the garden would be a tip-off. In the Jewish view of the world, order was identified with holiness and disorder with uncleanness. Hence there were very strict rules about what could be planted in a household garden. The rabbinical law of diverse kinds ruled that one could not mix certain plants in the same garden. A mustard plant was forbidden in a household garden because it was fast spreading and would tend to invade the veggies. In stating that this man planted a mustard seed in his garden, the hearers are alerted to the fact that he was doing something illegal. An unclean image thus becomes the starting point for Jesus' vision of the kingdom of God in this parable.
For, if the starting point of the parable is an unclean image, the rest of the parable becomes even more perplexing. What do we know about a mustard seed, botanically speaking? It is a common, fast-spreading plant, which grows to about four feet in height. It puts out a few branches, and with some stretch of the imagination, birds might build a few down-at-the-heel nests in its shade. Not exactly a powerful image.
Steeped in their cultural images of the great cedar of Lebanon, the hearers would be expecting the mustard seed, Jesus' symbol of the kingdom, to grow into a mighty apocalyptic tree. Jesus' point is exactly the opposite. It just becomes a bush. Thus the image of the kingdom of God as a towering cedar of Lebanon is explicitly ridiculed. According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which some man illegally planted in his garden. It became a shrub and a few birds nested in its modest branches. That's all. The parable subverts all the grandiose ideas about what the kingdom is going to be like when it finally arrives.
10. In other words, Jesus idea of the Kingdom of God is not what they expected. In fact, far from it. Jesus is saying “don”t wait for God in some distant future which may not happen at all. Stop, look around, God is at work in the world right now. In large and small ways. God is here right now. Right now, today.
What then are we to do?
Father Thomas Keating, a well known Catholic spiritual teacher has this to say…
If we are looking for a great expansion of our particular religion, nation, ethnic group, social movement, or whatever, into some great visible organization that fills the earth, we are on the wrong track. This is not God's idea of success. Where are the mightiest works of the kingdom accomplished? in our attitudes and hence in secret. Where there is charity, there is God. Opportunities to work for the homeless, the starving, the aging, are all readily available. No one may notice our good deeds, including ourselves. The kingdom of God manifests itself in the modest changes in our attitudes and in the little improvements in our behavior that no one may notice, including ourselves. These are the mighty works of God, not great external accomplishments.
To paraphrase this parable we might say…
"To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?" Jesus asked. The kingdom is manifested in ordinary daily life and how we live it. Can we accept the God of everyday life? If we can, then we can enjoy the kingdom here and now, without having to wait for an apocalypse, the end of the world or someone powerful Messiah to deliver us from our difficulties.
11. Well, you know I don’t tell parables myself, but I do tell stories.
Let me try to illustrate Father Keating’s and Jesus’s teacher with a story about some friends of mine (and myself)
In brief, I had two friends and one of them was going with this girl. But, they broke up. And she started going with the other guy!
It was a mess. And they couldn’t move out until the end of the term. Eventually, the first guy started falling behind in his studies. He was getting into real trouble. So, what to do, I thought. I need to get him out of there, somehow.
What I ending up doing was to take took him with me to the library every night to get him out of the dorm and to get him to study. It worked and he was able to get his grades up by the end of the term. Then, I moved in with him and the other guy moved out. Years later, he said, “you saved me from flunking out of school.” I said, “gee, I don’t even remember it” – and I didn’t.
It was a small thing. I wasn’t trying to be hero. I was just reaching out to try to get him to survive. And besides, I needed to get my grades up, too.
A small thing … an insignificant thing … a small seed which turned out in the long run to be a great big bush! That is what the Kingdom of God is all about.
Amen
Mark 4:26-34
”When the Grain is Ripe”
1. Tell about trip to England and Westminster Abbey where all the kings and queens are buried.
My English friends, the Careys, have always been a little poo-poo about the Royalty. They think is all a side show.
But, Mrs. Carey is warming up to Camilla. She has the common
Touch.
But of course Kings and Queens went out of business in America. In fact,
The whole Revolutionary War was all about getting rid of the Monarchy – Mad King George and all that.
The Founding Fathers were inspired by the ideas of the enlightenment and wanted to create a country that would not
allow any one person to have all that much power.
In short, in America there would be no king. And without a king there is also No Kingdom.
2. Today, although we do have Presidential libraries around the country, there is no Westminster Abbey where the bones of all
the Kings and Queens are buried. (It’s like a cemetery above ground.)
So, the whole idea of Kingdoms and Royalty is foreign to us now in the 21st Century.
In fact the whole idea of kings and kingdoms is becoming a word that is going out of use. For when we think of kingdoms is sounds a little like a fairy tale world. And in addition, Kingdoms often evoke images of mail chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and Emperors like Caesar -- which clash with newer concepts like freedom, liberation, individual rights and many other things we cherish today.
I have always had a problem, therefore, when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God. What does that mean in today’s world?
3. Well, a very popular church renewal author, Brian McLaren, takes up this case in an recent article in Sojourners magazine.
McLaren is particularly known for being involved in the emerging church movement which is trying to reach out to the unchurched in America and he says that when we in the church talk about “God’s Kingdom” it falls short of creating much excitement with many people today.
In short, we in the church sound out of date talking about something which sounds “churchy” doesn’t resonate with todays world.
In fact, McLaren says that if Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t
Use the language of kingdom at all.
So, what then?
4. McLaren comes up with a plethora of possibilities, some good, some not so good:
The dream of God – which is kind of like “the will of God” or
“God’s wish.”
The Revolution of God – this is more of a social justice concept in that it seeks to overthrow the powerful forces which enslave us such as fear, illness, oppression, death.
The Mission of God – which means “to be sent.” More like a calling. As Christians were are called to serve not merely to be subjects of a King.
The Party of God - as in the banquet to which we are all invited.
For this is kind of the sense of communion.
The Network of God - where we are all interconnected in our common faith.
The Dance of God – a dynamic relationship which is creative and not static.
5. Well, it’s interesting. But nothing quite works as well as the Kingdom of God.
One person responded to McLaren by saying that one of the problems people may have in America with the idea of Kingdom is that as free democratic people we don’t like to have anyone telling us what to do – right? We don’t like the idea of having to obey someone. And yet, he points out that Jesus does call one us to obey, to trust, and to serve. In short, the Kingdom of God is not just a free ride where we can do anything we want and God will bless it.
So there has to be a balance in the idea of God’s Kingdom between the power domination theme of an autocratic ruler on the one hand and a God who is rather wishy washy on the other.
Well, it is just hard to come up with a better metaphor than the kingdom of God, I guess. So, no matter how we try to describe it … the question remains one of what kind of God is God and what is his “kingdom” all about?
6. With that in mind let us take a look at today’s scripture reading about Parable of the Mustard Seed
30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Now like most parables there are many layers of meaning and many possible interpretations. I am going to just elaborate on one or two ideas (or we could be here all morning!).
7. First, some background. Most nations would like to believe that they are invincible … isn’t that right?
Therefore, to maintain some level of pride and confidence, leaders must show progress, win battles, over come obstacles … so the people will be strong – or so we think. And all nations have certain beliefs about themselves which are kind of mythical statements. Like believing that we are “the leader of the free world” back when we were in conflict with communism. We were “free” – they were not.
Now a myth is often what holds people's lives together. Groups, communities, nations all must have myths. Myths are a necessary attempt to resolve the tensions of everyday life by promising an idealized future in which we will be rescued from all the problems of ordinary life. However, when a myth begins to falter, great leaders may try to find ways to recapture the glory of earlier days, like John F. Kennedy's effort to rekindle the American dream by sending a man to the moon. American astronauts did go to the moon, but meanwhile the Vietnam war devastated the prestige of American invincibility and with it the American dream. In some ways, we are still suffering from the Viet Nam War – even today.
8. Well, the same was true of Israel in the time of Jesus. What had happened was that for the Israelites of Jesus' time, the tension between everyday reality and their mythical vision of Israel as God's chosen people was felt with particular urgency. From the heyday of national power and prestige during the reigns of King David and King Solomon, Israel had been on a downhill slide for several centuries, its kingdom conquered and divided several times over. Now if one lives in occupied territories, as the Israelites of Jesus' time did, the question naturally arises, "Is this ghastly oppression by the Romans a punishment from God, or is our suffering just part of the human condition?" So, we can see that in the particular myth in which the people of first-century Israel were living, the Kingdom of God had specific connotations of power, triumph, holiness, and goodness.
The kingdom, when it came, the Israelites believed, would introduce a glorious new age of universal peace, with God's chosen people at the head of the nations. That was their understanding of the Kingdom of God.
9. Instead, Jesus proposed this parable, "What is the kingdom of God really like? It is like a mustard seed"--proverbially the smallest and most insignificant of all seeds--"that someone took and sowed in his garden." For an alert hearer of Jesus' day, the detail about the garden would be a tip-off. In the Jewish view of the world, order was identified with holiness and disorder with uncleanness. Hence there were very strict rules about what could be planted in a household garden. The rabbinical law of diverse kinds ruled that one could not mix certain plants in the same garden. A mustard plant was forbidden in a household garden because it was fast spreading and would tend to invade the veggies. In stating that this man planted a mustard seed in his garden, the hearers are alerted to the fact that he was doing something illegal. An unclean image thus becomes the starting point for Jesus' vision of the kingdom of God in this parable.
For, if the starting point of the parable is an unclean image, the rest of the parable becomes even more perplexing. What do we know about a mustard seed, botanically speaking? It is a common, fast-spreading plant, which grows to about four feet in height. It puts out a few branches, and with some stretch of the imagination, birds might build a few down-at-the-heel nests in its shade. Not exactly a powerful image.
Steeped in their cultural images of the great cedar of Lebanon, the hearers would be expecting the mustard seed, Jesus' symbol of the kingdom, to grow into a mighty apocalyptic tree. Jesus' point is exactly the opposite. It just becomes a bush. Thus the image of the kingdom of God as a towering cedar of Lebanon is explicitly ridiculed. According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which some man illegally planted in his garden. It became a shrub and a few birds nested in its modest branches. That's all. The parable subverts all the grandiose ideas about what the kingdom is going to be like when it finally arrives.
10. In other words, Jesus idea of the Kingdom of God is not what they expected. In fact, far from it. Jesus is saying “don”t wait for God in some distant future which may not happen at all. Stop, look around, God is at work in the world right now. In large and small ways. God is here right now. Right now, today.
What then are we to do?
Father Thomas Keating, a well known Catholic spiritual teacher has this to say…
If we are looking for a great expansion of our particular religion, nation, ethnic group, social movement, or whatever, into some great visible organization that fills the earth, we are on the wrong track. This is not God's idea of success. Where are the mightiest works of the kingdom accomplished? in our attitudes and hence in secret. Where there is charity, there is God. Opportunities to work for the homeless, the starving, the aging, are all readily available. No one may notice our good deeds, including ourselves. The kingdom of God manifests itself in the modest changes in our attitudes and in the little improvements in our behavior that no one may notice, including ourselves. These are the mighty works of God, not great external accomplishments.
To paraphrase this parable we might say…
"To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?" Jesus asked. The kingdom is manifested in ordinary daily life and how we live it. Can we accept the God of everyday life? If we can, then we can enjoy the kingdom here and now, without having to wait for an apocalypse, the end of the world or someone powerful Messiah to deliver us from our difficulties.
11. Well, you know I don’t tell parables myself, but I do tell stories.
Let me try to illustrate Father Keating’s and Jesus’s teacher with a story about some friends of mine (and myself)
In brief, I had two friends and one of them was going with this girl. But, they broke up. And she started going with the other guy!
It was a mess. And they couldn’t move out until the end of the term. Eventually, the first guy started falling behind in his studies. He was getting into real trouble. So, what to do, I thought. I need to get him out of there, somehow.
What I ending up doing was to take took him with me to the library every night to get him out of the dorm and to get him to study. It worked and he was able to get his grades up by the end of the term. Then, I moved in with him and the other guy moved out. Years later, he said, “you saved me from flunking out of school.” I said, “gee, I don’t even remember it” – and I didn’t.
It was a small thing. I wasn’t trying to be hero. I was just reaching out to try to get him to survive. And besides, I needed to get my grades up, too.
A small thing … an insignificant thing … a small seed which turned out in the long run to be a great big bush! That is what the Kingdom of God is all about.
Amen
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