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Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Romans 8:26-39 First Part of Sermon – Youth sharing their stories about the Mile High Mission Trip to Denver, CO where they did urban, inner-city ministry. SHOW VIDEO SLIDE SHOW Where to from here? Youth will be doing more service this year on their way to New Orleans next summer. Jesus, Justice, Jazz – which is the ELCA National Gathering in 2009 - will really be focused on service – kinda like this youthworks trip but with 35,000 people Also, if you’d like to have an experience like this, we’re doing an Adult Mission Trip to Gulf Coast in September
I wanted to talk about this today because what these kids experienced fits right along with what Jesus is talking about in our gospel lesson today from Matthew. Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven and he’s actually comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to some pretty unsavory things. For example, the first thing Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to is a mustard seed. Doesn’t seem too bad at first, but back in Bible times, especially in Israel when Jesus was around, the mustard plant wasn’t a desirable plant. It was forbidden by the Jewish law to be planted in gardens because it wasn’t a true vegetable, and it basically grew up around Israel as a weed. Its nothing that you would ever plant and want in your yard. I guess for a modern day equivalent, you could say that the Kingdom of Heaven is like dandelions or crab grass that start off as a nuisance, but end up being the most prolific of all weeds. They can take over your whole yard and are hard to get rid of. The next example Jesus uses is that he says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that is worked into dough by a woman. This little analogies contains two things that people would probably find offensive. First, the fact that a woman has anything to do with heaven would be shocking. They were thought to be unclean and impure and weren’t even allowed in certain parts of the Temple. They were treated much like we treat illegal immigrants in today’s world – important for the economy, yet kept hidden and silent and often discriminated against by the rules of the day. The Kingdom of Heaven is like these who are persecuted against and thought to be unclean. And yeast, well, yeast back in Bible times didn’t come in nice little packages that you poor into your dough. Leaven was made by taking a piece of bread and placing it in a dark, damp corner of your house until it was all moldy and nasty. This was then worked into the bread and it is this that Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven too. Not exactly our nice picture of paradise. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who we wouldn’t expect and to those who are on the fringes and found in the dark corners of our society. And then Jesus uses two more examples – a treasure hidden in a field and a pearl that a merchant finds. Both of which the finder goes and sells all he has so he can possess it. Not necessarily honest, not necessarily wise, not necessarily moral. Were Jesus around today, he might say instead, The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who lusted after a woman and left his family, his friends and his job to pursue this woman. Or rather, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a drug addict, who is so possessed by his drug that he goes and pawns all his possessions, leaves his job and his life in order to seek out and find more drugs. This is the effect that the Kingdom of Heaven can have on people – it can catch you in its grasp and like a drug, not let you go and make it so you are never satisfied without it. And finally, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net full of fish that catches all the fish and all the bad stuff too. The thing about this one is that as we are being dragged up to heaven, we’re in the middle of all the rotten stuff and surrounded by things that smell bad, look bad, and that make us uncomfortable as we are being taken to an unknown destination….almost like riding in the back of a garbage truck. Only at the end will all the bad stuff be sorted out, and most of us are far from that end and stuck in the net for a long time. I kind of hope some of these modern day images caught your attention – crab grass, illegal immigrants, mold, adulterous man, a drug addict, and a garbage truck. The Kingdom of Heaven is like these offensive, controversial and difficult things. Our youth had some first hand experience with the Kingdom of Heaven in Denver – and it certainly wasn’t a clean, neat suburban view of paradise. The Kingdom of Heaven was there in the nursing homes, with people with Alzheimers and cranky old ladies. The Kingdom of Heaven was there in the drug addicts and homeless people on the streets. The Kingdom of Heaven was there in the projects and with the children with no parents, and with the people who had more piercings and tattoos than all of us put together. We know, we experienced it. Stacie & Erik / Jose & Nikki – I hope this doesn’t scare you off as you bring your child forward in a few minutes for Holy Baptism. Alison’s / Ezra’s life won’t be perfect because the the Kingdom of Heaven is coming to them today. In fact, if their faith grows like that mustard plant, odds are that their life will be much more difficult, more messy, and more controversial to the rest of world because of their faith. God will likely lead them to some nasty, broken, and hurting places to do ministry and to bring the Kingdom of Heaven. But the cool thing, and everyone here, please hear me when I say this, the cool thing about the Kingdom of Heaven is that just when we go somewhere that we think God forgot – when we go to inner city or to nursing homes or to funeral homes or to hospital beds or to our own broken places – when we go to these kinds of places, hoping to bring with us the kingdom of Heaven, we will realize that God is already there ahead of us. There is no place that we can go that God has not already gone or is not currently. When we feel like our life is being overtaken by weeds or mold, when we feel like the whole world is against us, when we feel trapped or hopeless or scared or sad, it is here where Jesus reminds us that we are not outside God’s realm. That is where God is with us the most. For as Romans 8 reminds us, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Absolutely not! I said it last week and I’ll say it again, the Kingdom of Heaven and our God is bigger than these. Amen.
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