The Kingdom's Like...

Sermon for 6.14.09 - 2nd Lord's Day after Pentecost
Mk 4.26-34

Intro: We are citizens of God’s kingdom, members of God’s family.
- We’ve been talking about this idea lately.
- We are first and foremost citizens of God’s kingdom.
o Our church’s mission statement affirms it: “With God’s help we will love into the kingdom all God’s children.”
o Celebrating baptism affirms it: whatever kingdom we were born into, God’s kingdom supercedes it.
- But what does it mean to be people of God’s kingdom? What does God’s kingdom look like? (really)
- Well...Jesus knew his disciples would have questions about this, just like we do today. Generally, all of Jesus’ parables are meant to show what God’s kingdom is like, what it looks like to be kingdom people.
o So what do you think? According to Jesus’ parables today, what’s God’s kingdom like?

A Tree & Hospitality:
- In order to understand what Jesus is telling his disciples of every age about the kingdom of God in today’s parables, it helps to know some of the tradition he’s building on.
- People in Jesus’ day knew scripture, especially the males. Depending on skill and circumstance, males had potentially years of school primarily studying – even memorizing a good deal of – the Hebrew Scriptures. So, when Jesus spoke these parables, especially about the mustard seed, the people would have heard echoes of another scripture – Ezekiel 17.23:
o “On the mountain height of Israel
/ I will plant it, / in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
/ and become a noble cedar. /
Under it every kind of bird will live; /
in the shade of its branches will nest
/ winged creatures of every kind.”
o So, the kingdom of God is like a big tree – a big tree under which creatures will find shade and rest, in which countless birds will nest.
o A place where tons of different creatures call home: this sounds like an issue of hospitality to me.
 (Full disclosure, our Annual Conference theme this year was on Radical Hospitality, one of the six signs of discipleship embraced by our Conference plan).
 Radical hospitality; Heartwarming worship; Risk-taking mission and justice work; Vital faith formation and prayer; Gracious generosity; and Connectional joy and commitment.
- The kingdom of God is a radically hospitable, inclusive place. Being kingdom people means being a people of radical hospitality – hospitality that takes us out of our comfort zones, out of our norms, and into new relationships. (Echoes other parts of our congregation’s mission statement: Going with God into new relationships, we can be a light to those who are desperately searching for love and acceptance).

Hospitality, Inclusion, & Exclusion:
- On Sunday at our mission/vision retreat, I asked if we are excluding anyone from the family of faith and the kingdom of God.
o We had some fruitful, honest conversation about exclusion from the kingdom of God and if we are entering God’s kingdom ourselves.
o Exclusion is, in many ways, the opposite of hospitality. Exclusion, does not look like a tree sheltering all the creatures.

Inclusion/Hospitality:
- Our congregation is a welcoming, inclusive, hospitable congregation. We can celebrate this as one of our God-given, and discipline-grown gifts.
o E.g. my friends and family’s comments;
 Others: elevator access almost led to new building.
 it’s almost a matter of pride for our congregation.
 greeters, bread ministry, Doyle praying with names, communion w/ names, Hispanic ministry, children’s night for members and non-members, AA group, and Recovery group
o We are opening ourselves and others to God.
Exclusion:
- We have much celebrate, but let’s be honest with ourselves. Look around.
o Who, what groups of people, are not present in our fellowship? Why?
 E.g., Young adults, and more children; Hispanics; African immigrants.
- It’s not that we exclude by intention.
o This isn’t at all because we’ve literally said to others, “You’re not welcome here.”
 Quite the opposite, our very mission statement and our conversations and invitations say, “Come and join us.”
o But have we made a place for these others in our fellowship? Do we offer things they need? Do we even know them? Or see them at all? Do we have any contact with them? And if not, why not? And should we?

Transition
- Jesus, by his actions, shows us that we should. He sought out, he intentionally spent time with, the outsiders and the strangers to the established community of faith.
- Remember Jesus’ parable drawing on Ezekiel’s prophesy from God: the kingdom of God is like a tree that gives shelter to all the creatures.
o If we are called to be kingdom people, if we claim to be about welcoming into the kingdom all God’s children, that means our congregation is where all these others finds home, finds community with God and others, finds peace.
- This is what Jesus is building on when he speaks these parables about what God’s kingdom is like. But let’s look at them.

Kingdom – Mustard Seeds & Bushes
- It’s ironic – it doesn’t quite fit with our expectations.
o We like the Ezekiel passage – being referred to as mighty cedars, like redwoods or sequoias only pleasingly fragrant too.
- But the mustard seed and shrub….?
o The seeds aren’t literally the smallest, but they are proverbially small – they’re known for their tiny-ness.
o And it’s a bush, not a tree. Not majestic at all, though you can make a nice condiment from the seeds.
- But the size doesn’t matter; the impression doesn’t matter. It’s just right for God’s purpose – bringing shelter to the creatures.
- We’re like mustard seeds and bush.
o We’re not the biggest or the most known; but we’re doing some great things in Jesus’ name.
o We’re just right for God’s purpose of sheltering all creatures, all God’s children in Grand Island. All.

Kingdom – Seeds
What’s going on in the parable of the seeds?
- Who’s planting or spreading? God? Us? God through us?
o It must not be God b/c the planter doesn’t know how it grows and bears fruit. So it’s us.
- How do we spread seed? What’s seed?
o Spreading the gospel – the good news of being God’s children and included in the family and kingdom of God.
o It’s also spreading the inclusion of God, the hospitality of God.
o The gospel message, the good news, is that the Son lived and died for the salvation of all.
 This is radical, life-costing.
 This is hospitality, for salvation is being brought into the home, into the family, into the kingdom of God.
 It is being welcomed as one lost who is now found.
- Of most importance: We don’t make the plant grow or bear fruit. The person goes to sleep and rises while the seed sprouts and grows, and he doesn’t know how it happens.
o God does. God grows the seed so that it can bear fruit. That is, God grows disciples so that they can be kingdom people.
- This is freeing.
o It frees us from a results-driven mentality.
o Sure we must work, must plant, but if some things don’t appear to be growing, we don't have to fret. We don't have to feel defeated.
o And what else? We don't have to feel like it must happen over night.
o The planter went to be and got up and did it again. And the germination time is undefined.
 There’s no package that says how long like my herbs in the pots.
 So we don’t have to worry. We spread the gospel and God makes it grow.

Orchards & Grace
- Whether it’s apples or grapes, they have to grow for 2-3 years before they’re allowed to bear fruit for harvest.
- It’s a long-term, long-vision investment and commitment.
- And, you don’t know if they’re going to make it and don’t have final control.
o You plant them. You water, prune, and protect them.
o But at the end of the day, you just go to bed and get up and find they’ve grown.

Prevenient Grace
o Grace = an unmerited (deserved) free gift.
o Prevenient = coming before
o God’s grace is actively working in each of us even before we’re aware of it.
- What does this have to do with hospitality or planting the seeds of the gospel?
o The sharing is our task. The spreading the seed, or planting, is our ministry as baptized Christians.
o But we’re not the ones who get the growth going. We’re not even the ones who prepare the soil. God does all the big stuff. We just toss the seeds out there. God is going before us as we do. And then, we can go to bed, and rise, and find that God has grown disciples into kingdom people.

Ending:
- So we don’t have to worry about the ministry of evangelism, the ministry of spreading the seeds of the gospel. We just do it, knowing that God does the work.
- This is especially true in terms of radical hospitality.
o We need to do some thinking about, some praying on, and some living out radical hospitality.
o We need to find those people who are absent from us, wherever they are: at work, at restaurants, at softball games and bowling leagues.
o And we need to find a way to invite them into our lives, for our lives are part of the kingdom of God.
- Yet, these are the easy things. God does the hard part.
o We just toss the seed of our inclusive love and hospitality out there.
o We just spread it out on the earth that God has already prepared.
o And then we rest, knowing that God is doing it all: going before us, and walking with us, and tending after us.
- God grows us and others into kingdom people, to be the community, the tree under which all find shelter, home, and God.