St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 27, 2008
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-49a
The Rev. Deacon Art Bass

Learning to Live for the Kingdom

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Thy kingdom come,” do we fully and completely comprehend what we are praying for?

The fact is, in this broken world with all its limits and imperfections, to fully understand that which is infinite, holy and perfect simply is not possible. So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Yet, the Kingdom is certainly not something which can be ignored or just be taken for granted. Far from it. As Christians, we are meant to try to understand as much about the Kingdom as possible.

In Matthew’s gospel, there are no less than twenty-five teachings by Jesus on the subject of the Kingdom. That’s far more than on any other topic. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus teaches more about the Kingdom than he does about the Messiah. That should tell us something.

Most of Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom are in parable form. Nowhere does Jesus say directly “the Kingdom of heaven is” thus and so. Instead, he says, “the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to” this or “the Kingdom of heaven is like” that. Jesus always uses comparisons, similes and the occasional metaphor.

Jesus describes aspects of the incomprehensible Kingdom by referencing things familiar to his listeners in their daily lives: the planting of seeds, the growing and harvesting of crops, the baking of bread, and the craft of fishing.

For the past two Sundays, the gospel readings have centered on Kingdom parables. Two weeks ago, we heard the Parable of the Sower, and last week, the Parable of the Weeds - - one parable for each of those Sundays. But in today’s gospel, we actually have five Kingdom parables.

The first and best known of these is the Parable of the Mustard Seed. A mustard seed is tiny, a mere speck, but when sown, it takes root and develops into a very large bush. In truth, not even a Middle Eastern mustard plant will ever develop into a tree, but unlike the mustard plants we know, it could easily become the largest shrub in the garden.

The point is that it takes time for that tiny seed to make the transformation into the great plant which it is ultimately meant to become. The people in the time of Jesus were looking for instant results upon the Messiah’s arrival, a powerful King who would drive out the Romans and make Israel great among the nations of the world. Even John the Baptist had called for a Messiah who would come in power and at once begin executing judgment. But Jesus is saying, give God time; the Kingdom has to grow, even from seemingly insignificant beginnings. All that is necessary now is that the Kingdom be planted, that it be started. God will see it to the fulfillment of its purpose in his time.

Jesus advances much the same theme with the parable of the yeast. With just the smallest sprinkling of yeast added, the three measures of flour, of which the parable speaks, could produce almost 40 liters of bread, enough to feed a hundred people. Hearing this parable in the present time, I cannot help but be reminded of how the church developed and grew after only twelve apostles received the Holy Spirit.

After the Parable of the Yeast, Jesus says that the Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The finder of that treasure, in his joy, sells all that he has and buys the field.

In case that one leaves you a little confused, Jewish law in the time of Jesus directed that anything buried in the earth belonged to the landowner, not the finder. The finder had to buy the land in order to claim title to the treasure.

The purpose of the parable is to illustrate the great, ultimate worth of the Kingdom. Possessing the Kingdom is more valuable than anything, and there is great joy to be had in attaining it.

Linked to the Parable of the Treasure is the Parable of the Pearl Merchant, who was always searching for fine pearls. Then one day he found a pearl that was extraordinary, a pearl of great value. On finding that pearl, the merchant sold all that he had in order to buy that one special pearl. Here again, the Kingdom is presented as being of such great worth that one should be willing to give up everything to attain it.

These last two parables may represent the two ways in which people come to God. For some of us, God comes into our lives suddenly, perhaps even unexpectedly, like the experience of the finder of the treasure. For others, coming to God is a process, a process that is gradual, but deliberate and intentional, like the merchant whose life’s work was the search for fine pearls.

Our last parable for today is the Parable of the Dragnet. A great net is thrown into the sea and is returned full of fish of every kind. But after they are brought ashore, the fish are sorted. The good fish are kept in baskets, but the bad fish are thrown out. Jesus concludes this parable by saying: “So it will be a the end of the age.”

This parable is obviously closely related to last week’s Parable of the Weeds. The fish represent the people of the world, and the net is the church. It is not our role, nor the role of the church, to look into the souls of humanity and judge who is good and who is bad. Like the fisherman who sits down later and sorts through the catch, God will make that determination, but not now, only at the end of the age.

Taking and summarizing all of these teachings together, it appears that the Kingdom of Heaven has begun. It began when Jesus, the Messiah, came and declared its beginning. But that beginning was the start of a process. The Kingdom must have time to grow, to grow in the world and to grow in each of us individually. This process, this Kingdom process, will proceed according to God’s plan and will only conclude in ultimate judgment when God is ready for that conclusion.

But the coming of the Kingdom is not just some distant, future event. It has begun and it is in process now, in us, with us, and around us.

The church is here now and the Spirit is here now, and both are alive and active. The church is often said to be an imperfect reflection in this world of the perfection that is the Kingdom of heaven. The church is meant to mirror and represent the Kingdom to the world, and it does that through us, the community of the baptized.

This is why it is so important that we ponder and strive to understand and comprehend the Kingdom. But we are not Gnostics. Our attempts to better understand the Kingdom are so we can better understand and carry out our mission, our role in helping the Kingdom to grow and reach its fruition. It is so we can better learn how to live for the Kingdom.

This is our true calling, and we answer this calling through the imitation of Christ, by taking Jesus as our role model and by doing ministry to the world and to one another in his name.