RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - July 27, 2008

“Glimpses of the Kingdom”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-55

And he spoke to them in parables, the Gospel writers tell us. The rabbi and master storyteller taught the common folk using little tales that had big points. Often the stories were more like riddles, and those who listened really had to work at figuring them out - so they could go home and live by what they had learned.

Using common images, Jesus shared the secret of the kingdom of heaven (Ssh! Listen carefully), which was that this holy realm was not some far off futuristic place, but rather – thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth….now…..in this time.

And because his message was one of such hope for the ragtag bundles of humanity that followed him, his stories became their stories – and when they went home - all the farmers and fishmongers and bread bakers and birds of a feather flocking together, they went home seeking glimpses of the kingdom of heaven, of God’s realm, in their own backyards, their own fishing spots, their own kitchens.

And all because he spoke to them in parables. The Kingdom of heaven, he preached, is like, well, it is like the tiniest of mustard seeds that eventually grows to be the biggest of plants, so big that birds - whole flocks of birds – birds of a feather - nest in it because in the abundance of branches there is room enough for everyone.

The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast, silently bubbling and doing its yeast thing in the bowlful of dough set out in a warm place in the sun and soon – voila! – out of the oven comes a loaf of bread, its sweet odor wafting through the open kitchen window. Then out pops another loaf and another, enough to feed all of the hungry ones.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that an old tenant farmer finds when he is plowing one warm spring day. He thinks the plow has just hit a rock, but no, it is a treasure, real treasure. And along with the treasure, oh, what joy he discovers, because it is not every day that you find something like a treasure buried in a field when you think it is just a rock.

The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl, but not just any pearl, rather a pearl of such great worth. It is perfectly formed and the creamiest of color, with just a touch of pink and a hint of blue, no blue green, like the ocean it came from. And – imagine – it has been there all along among the other lesser pearls and trinkets in the dusty box in the corner of the ancient rickety booth in the hidden away part of the flea market where almost nobody comes.

The kingdom of heaven is like a heavy hemp net that two ancient fisher folk cast into the roiling sea. The net slowly sinks to the bottom and when the pair pull it back in hours later, lo and behold, it is filled with all sorts of marine life – big fish and small ones, scallops and a lobster, plus some seaweed, a plastic gallon milk jug, and an old worn boot.

Yes, Jesus spoke to them – the folks long ago who gathered with their picnic baskets on the hillside – he spoke to them in parables. And so he speaks to us in parables as well – all these millennia later.

Glimpses of the kingdom – that is what he illumines for us in these five little parables, one after the other fairly tumbling forth from the Gospel of Matthew. Like a kaleidoscope, these five mini-stories are five ways of understanding God’s kingdom, five different lenses through which to visualize the world as it should be, the world that is real, God’s real. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth…now, in this time.

These parables are also five ways to remind us again and again that, when you come right down to it, Jesus’ ministry is all about the kingdom of heaven, the realm of God, the here and now. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth….

The Kingdom of Heaven “is like finding the technology stock you bought in the 1980s for $50 and suddenly realizing you are a millionaire. It is like the owner of DeBeers finally finding the perfect diamond and selling a billion dollar empire to have it. It is like the physician tired of the U.S. healthcare system selling home and BMW and finding bliss and his treasure in a mission (hospital somewhere in Africa). It is like the crack addict waking up with a clear head and ready to choose a new life.” (Todd Weir)

The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is like nothing we have ever really known. In its fullness, it is more than we can possibly imagine. The kingdom of heaven is all about surprising us, even us. It is all about subverting the norms. The Kingdom of heaven is about change – upending, uprooting change - because Jesus himself is all about change. The kingdom of God is all about taking something old – like this cynical and jaded world – and making from it something new and real, God’s real.

To me, what is most striking about these five parables is that not only do they illustrate the common theme of the kingdom of God, but they also all have something to do with being hidden. The tiny mustard seed is hidden in the soil. The yeast is hidden in the bread dough. The treasure is hidden in the field. The perfect pearl is hidden among the imperfect trinkets. The net is hidden in the sea.

As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “If the kingdom is like these, then it is not something that is readily apparent to the eye but something that must be searched for, something just below the surface of things waiting there to be discovered and claimed... It seems like we ought to start (looking) some place really holy, some place really extraordinary...

Unless of course God has resorted to the oldest trick in the book and hidden it in plain view. There is always the possibility, you know--that God decided to hide the kingdom of heaven not in any of the extraordinary places that treasure hunters would be sure to check but in the last place that any of us would think to look--namely, in the ordinary circumstances of our everyday lives --like a silver spoon in the drawer with the stainless, like a diamond necklace on the bureau with the rhinestones--the extraordinary hidden in the ordinary, the kingdom of heaven all mixed in with the humdrum and ho-hum of our days, as easy to find as an amaryllis bulb in the dark basement that suddenly sends forth a shoot, or a child’s smile when she awakes from sleep, or the first thunderstorm after a long drought, all of them signs of the kingdom of heaven, clues to all the holiness hidden in the dullest days.

Jesus knew it all along. Why else would he talk about heaven in terms of farmers and fields and women baking bread and merchants buying and selling things and fisherman sorting fish, unless he meant somehow to be telling us that the kingdom of heaven has to do with these things, that our treasure is buried not in some exotic far off place that requires a special map but that “X” marks the spot right here, right now, in all the ordinary people and places and activities in our lives."

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that the kingdom of heaven is here, right here, in the midst of us, your Body in Raymond, Maine? Is that the secret of the parables – that we can glimpse the kingdom in what often seems like the small and insignificant things we do around here?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that we are like a mustard seed that has the potential to someday grow so large that it will enable us to evermore extend our welcoming branches to everyone – everyone - who needs a spiritual home?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that within this church family is yeast, bubbling silently so that – voila! – one day we shall have the potential to fully shift our paradigm and realize that our primary role as your Body is to reach out and care for the poor, feed the hungry, come to the startling conclusion that we can indeed be bread for the world?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that within our doors are hidden treasures – singers and knitters and readers and woodworkers and preachers and pot roast supper feeders and Sunday School teachers and potters and painters – all who have answered the call to be your disciples, your hands and feet and voice in the world?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus that even within the vast array of large churches and mega-churches, even though we often seem hidden from view because of our size, we have the potential to – and really must - bring forth the kingdom in our own special way?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that when we finally get the courage and confidence to cast out our net, when we decide to tell our neighbors that the community they seek is already happening in this place – in worship and fellowship, education and mission – that our net has the potential to be overflowing?

Do you mean to tell us, Jesus, that RVCC has the potential to be a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven, of what is real, God’s real? Well, as your pastor, I believe it is, or I would not be up here preaching week after week. I see glimpses of the kingdom sparkling and glittering all over RVCC. Our challenge is to see them for what they are, believe they are real, and invite others to experience them too.

Fred Craddock tells the story of a man who was once sitting next to an old full-blooded greyhound dog.

The dog turned to the man and asked, "This your first visit to Connecticut?"

"No," the man answered. "I went to school up here a long time ago."

"Well, I guess you heard. I came up here from Miami," said the greyhound.

“Oh, yeah, you retired?" the man asked.

“No, is that what they told you? No, I didn't retire. I tell you, I spent 10 years as a professional, racing greyhound. That means 10 years of running around that track day after day, seven days a week with others chasing that rabbit. Well, one day, I got up close; I got a good look at that rabbit. It was a fake! I had spent my whole life chasing a fake rabbit! Hey, I didn't retire; I quit!"

Well, I say to you - don’t quit being a full time follower of Jesus here at RVCC. Take your role in this church seriously because, if you do not, I believe that you will be missing the kingdom, what is real, God’s real. You will be missing the seed, the yeast, the treasure, the pearl, and the net.

You see, the glimpses of the kingdom that I see around here are not fake – though our culture may tell us that we in the church are way off base, that this is dog eat dog world and we better recognize it. Every man for himself. Grab your share because there is not enough to go around.

No – THAT is what is fake. On the contrary, THIS church is what is real. This is God’s real. Our mission, our sense of community and family, our depth of caring, our need to speak out for justice and compassion - this is what life in the kingdom is all about.

When we help people pay their rent, when we fill oil tanks, when we encourage people to freely use our space, when we welcome people not only to our worship but also invite them to sing in the choir, to work at the suppers, to come to our Bible studies, when we offer people hope and give them comfort, this is what is real, God’s real. This is the kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth.

This is the mustard seed, the yeast, the pearl, the treasure, the net. This is real, and we are glimpses of it.

Sermon - July 27, 2008

“Glimpses of the Kingdom”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Matthew 13:31-33, 44-55

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-55