A Glimpse of the Kingdom
Watch a video of the sermon on YouTube.
A Glimpse of the Kingdom by Rev. L. John Gable
November 17, 2019
The first recorded words we hear Jesus speak as He begins His public ministry are these: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” These first words set the stage for everything else He said and did: Jesus came introducing the Kingdom of God. Many would assert, and I would agree, this is the central message of Jesus’ ministry. The Gospels are written to expand on and to demonstrate what Jesus means when He says, “The Kingdom of God has come near, or is upon you”, later He will say “is within you; so repent, turn around, and believe this good news.”
So what is this Kingdom of God to which He is referring? I often speak of it as being “life as it one day will be when God finally has His way with us.” Bible scholar Dale Bruner refers to it as “God’s other world breaking in to our world”, or as we’ve spoken “God’s upper story breaking in to our lower story.” Many think of the Kingdom of God in the same way they might think of what heaven will be like. They think of it as something that will happen someday, in the “sweet bye and bye”. Other’s make it more personal as they think of it as having a changed heart when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and submit to Him as Lord. In this respect it is not so much an eternal destiny or an escape from the present reality, but it is a new and very present reality that impacts every aspect of our lives when we live life under God’s Kingly rule, such as within the parameters laid out in the 10 Commandments we’ve been studying recently or Jesus’ great commandment to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. As Malcolm Muggeridge put it, “Jesus’ good news was that the Kingdom had come…and He was the Kingdom.” In this sense, to accept Jesus is to accept His Kingdom. Still others think of the Kingdom in a more social or communal way. It is something more than heavenly homes or personal decisions; it is the whole human society living under the reign and rule of God, in peace and justice and harmony, so we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
So, given that this idea of the Kingdom of God is so central to Jesus’ teaching and ministry we might assume He would be very careful to explain exactly what it is, what one must do to enter it and how then they are called to live as part of it, right? So, how did Jesus explain the Kingdom of God? He told stories, parables to be more exact, which to my way of thinking is a crazy idea, but then again I’m not Jesus. (Let all the people say, “Amen!”)
C.H. Dodd explains “At its simplest, a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life which arrests the hearer by its vividness or strangeness and leaves the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application so as to tease it in to active thought.” Really, Jesus? You want Your central message to leave us with sufficient doubt as to its precise application? Apparently so, because that “sufficient doubt” invites us to keep thinking about what He means which eventually leads us having to make a decision as to whether we accept it or not. And given that the vast majority of Jesus’ parables are stories told about the Kingdom, then to accept or reject the Kingdom is in effect to accept or reject Jesus Himself. Brilliant!
The Greek word for parable means to “lay or throw something alongside something else.” It is a story which compares one thing to another, a familiar to an unfamiliar, or as many think of them, “they are earthly stories with heavenly meanings” and Jesus was the Master parable-teller in that He used this method of teaching almost exclusively to explain the Kingdom of God. Using the parables He invites His listeners, then and now, to enter into the story, to wrestle with its meaning, to be surprised by a twist or turn in it, which then leaves them with the decision as to what to do with it. So His teaching about the Kingdom of God was not so much teaching in the classical sense, as it was an invitation or revelation, like faith itself; not so much something we learn as something we discover or experience. As Jesus frequently said, “Let those who have eyes, see and ears, hear.” The parables invite us to listen and see what Jesus has to say.
So, using this story-telling format, since stories are always easier to hear and remember than are bare facts, Jesus teaches His followers about the Kingdom of God. In our lesson this morning He teaches that the Kingdom of God, or as Matthew says the Kingdom of Heaven, same principle, that the Kingdom of God “may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.” So the Kingdom of God is like a farmer who has both wheat and weeds in his field and decides to leave them until harvest time to sort them out, right? Exactly, you’ve got it!
But it is also like a “mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field” and the smallest of all seeds grows to be the greatest of shrubs and a tree that the birds can make a nest in. So the Kingdom isn’t a farmer it is a seed, right?
Maybe, but it is also like “yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until it was all leavened.” So the Kingdom isn’t just a farmer or a seed, it is also yeast, and reading on, it is a net that catches fish, and a man who gets robbed on a dangerous road, and a treasure buried in a field, and a pearl of great price, and a father who has two sons, and there are 40 more parables similarly told.
So, why does Jesus teach in this way? Because He wants us to listen carefully and to think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions, even when those conclusions might be different than the conclusion arrived at by the person sitting right next to you, because that then invites us to explore together what it is Jesus is teaching us, and that working it out together is also part of the Kingdom of God. He teaches in parables to get His listeners, then and now, to wrestle with what it means for God’s Kingdom to break into the earthly kingdoms we’ve set up for ourselves, for God’s way of living to interrupt our way of living which forces us to make some decisions about what it means to live as God’s people, here and now, not just someday there and then. Jesus teaches in parables in order to get us to open our eyes and our ears to see and hear what God is doing all around us.
And if Jesus can use parables to teach His truths, then He says we can as well. At the end of this section of story-telling Jesus asks His disciples, “Have you understood all this?” They all nod their heads in agreement saying “yes”, while I’m guessing they are really thinking, “Not a chance”. But Jesus then says, “Therefore everyone who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the master of the household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” In effect what He is saying is, if I can tell earthly stories with heavenly meanings, so can you.
I met a wonderful pastor at the last Credo conference I led in North Carolina a month or so ago. Nancy Love serves a two-point charge, two churches, in rural SE Iowa. She is also married to a farmer and they have 9000 head of hogs. She is a delightful blend of pastor and farm wife and I thoroughly enjoyed striking up a friendship with her. As we talked she said she titles her monthly column in the church newsletter “Love Notes” and she described them to me as spiritual reflections on her everyday life, which intrigued me, so I asked her to add me to her mailing list. Listen to her “Love Note” a couple of weeks ago.
“November is almost upon us and the harvest should be in full swing. Instead, our farmers, who had a less than stellar start to the growing season, are experiencing the effects of creation that are keeping them out of the field: drizzle one day, fog the next, and then gale force winds that make the dust fly and leave one wondering how much of the grain actually made it to the hopper on the combine. Indeed, I actually miss getting stuck behind tractors and wagons that are waddling down the road full of grain when there are empty wagons in the field waiting for the dust to settle.
“And so the question is this: what is keeping you out of the sanctuary on Sunday morning? We can be certain that the earthly drizzle will be transformed into the waters of baptism. We can be certain that a peek through the dense fog will give us a glimpse into the Kingdom of God. And we can be certain that the divine gale force winds will blow upon us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the divine harvest is in full swing, and you can be certain that the holy wagons will be filled to overflowing as we wait for the earthly dust to settle, the dust that keeps us from having a meaningful relationship with God. And I don’t know about you, but the next time I get stuck behind a tractor waddling down the road with wagons full of grain, I’ll stop and praise God for the magnificence of creation!” That kind of sounds like a parable to me! And if Nancy can see a glimpse of God’s Kingdom in her everyday life, then we can as well, and that is the charge and encouragement I left you with last week, to open your eyes and ears to where you see God at work, where you see glimpses of the Kingdom and you responded.
You told stories of men from different backgrounds and walks of life sitting in a circle on Saturday morning reading Scripture, challenging and encouraging one another, and of women on retreat laughing and learning and sharing life together.
You spoke of an act of forgiveness following a deep offense with no residual sense of bitterness; of sharing the good news of Jesus with a doctor during a routine visit; of praying for a brother who has made some bad decisions and wants to turn his life around.
You talked of being overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support and notes and cards following the death of a loved one; of a singer who got choked up while singing a solo because she was actually listening to the words she was singing; and of a grandchild who asked her grandmother to pray for one of her friends at school.
You spoke of the snowfall this week; its beauty and the peace and cleansing it blanketed on the creation, like the blanket of God’s beauty and peace and cleansing that covers us.
You spoke of seeing a glimpse of the Kingdom this past Wednesday at the Open Door as people sat at tables, neighbors and Tab members alike, enjoying a wonderful meal and good conversation. As blankets donated by you were being distributed one of our neighbors also organized a clothing give away with tables piled high with clothing and shoes. In one corner of the room needle pricks were taken and blood pressures were given by a visiting nurse, and in another tables were set out with chess and checkers boards at the ready. You told of acts of kindness extended by total strangers and of neighbors helping neighbors, and I could go on. Each of these tell of seeing God at work in the everyday of our lives and each gives a glimpse of the Kingdom.
In January of 1930, Frank Laubach, life-long missionary in the Philippines, tried an experiment. He committed himself to cultivating a habit of turning his mind to Christ for one second out of every minute. After only four weeks he wrote this in his journal, “I feel simply carried along each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far beyond myself. This sense of cooperation with God in little things is what so astonishes me, for I have never felt it this way before. I need something, and turn around to find it waiting for me. I must work, to be sure, but there is God working right alongside me.”
Imagine that! Being able to catch a glimpse of God’s Kingdom one second out of every minute in the everyday of our lives and all we need do is to turn around and open our eyes because the Kingdom of God has come that near. That, my friends, really is Good News!