Kingdom Questions

Lectionary • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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We are so busy looking for the end result that we often pass up on the journey just so we can reach the end. But the truth is that our home is really the journey, not the destination and, of course, that means that we have been asking all of the wrong questions. Kingdom Questions should lead us toward movement, toward Christian Service...as opposed to retirement.

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FOCUS STATEMENT

We are so busy looking for the end result that we often pass up on the journey just so we can reach the end.

The truth is that our home is really the journey, not the destination and, of course,

that means that we have been asking all of the wrong questions.

Kingdom Questions should lead us toward movement…

toward Christian service...

as opposed to retirement.

POINT OF RELATION

I remember when I was 3 or 4 years old and I knew that I was called to be a pastor.

As I have recounted before, I would use my mom and dad’s 8-track tape tower as my pulpit

and upon it I would open up my children’s Bible

and point to the illustration of a happy Jesus holding children on his lap.

“God says lub one anuber”, I would preach with sincere conviction.

Growing up as that little boy, I saw being a pastor as a way to serve God...who I loved with all my heart.

With that said, I also saw that as my destination.

It was why I was alive, to become a pastor.

That was the fate set out for me,

that was the ultimate thing I would work toward being.

Of course, as a teenager, that was not the destination I wanted to head in.

That’s actually the funny thing about destinations:

THEY CAN BE CHANGED…

and we can end up so lost after awhile, that we forget just exactly why we’re traveling to begin with.

So, I changed destinations...then changed destinations again.

I kept asking the following questions,

“Where am I heading”?

“What religion do I belong to”?

“Where will I end up?”

“What will happen to my immortal soul”?

The idea was that there was somewhere I needed to be

and I needed to find out where that was...

that is what prevailed in me during that time.

From my teenage years came my early adulthood years.

After several years outside of the Christian context, I came back to Christ in 2004 and quickly remembered the call I had as a young boy.

I WAS CALLED TO BE A PASTOR.

That was my destination, right?

The steps along the way included

finishing my Associate, Bachelor, and Master degrees,

as well as go through the United Methodist Ordination process.

Once all of that was done...I WOULD BE ORDAINED...

I WOULD BE A PASTOR. I would reach my destination.

So, as far as I could tell, my destination was ordination...

and that gave me my directions as to how to get to said destination.

There was just one glaring oversight in this destination-driven mission:

Once I got there, then what?

What would follow that? Retirement?

Obviously not...not for quite some time anyway.

It became clear, especially as I went through Seminary and led my first congregation...

THAT DESTINATION (BEING A ORDAINED) WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING...

really, it wasn’t a destination at all...but a milestone...a new starting point in the journey.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Many look at the Kingdom of God,

which we also consider to be the same as heaven and/or the Kingdom of Heaven,

as our final destination...

the place where we arrive once we’ve “been good”, stayed in God’s “good graces”, and died from our earthly lives.

We look at heaven as that “SPIRITUAL PLACE”, that exists “up there” in the clouds,

where the angels float, and the streets are filled with the saints.

This kingdom, of course, has the pearly gates which is guarded by Saint Peter.

Of course, I am being facetious (somewhat) and recognize that most people understand this view of heaven to be more cartoonish than real;

still, there are many who expect heaven to be something close to the above description.

The truth is that we need not go anywhere to attain that destination.

We’re already here.

Seriously, check out Revelation 21-22.

The entire last book of the New Testament ends with heaven being established on a a newly reborn earth.

That’s right, HEAVEN will be ON EARTH.

So, clearly, questions centered on the location of the Kingdom of Heaven is missing the point.

Now don’t get me wrong, asking where one is heading is never bad as it gives us a sense of direction;

however, knowing the destination does not mean we have direction.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

Let us look at what Scripture says in regard to what sort of Kingdom Questions we should be asking in order to find our destination.

In our passage today, we see Jesus teaching two parables.

In fact, before we get into the parables themselves,

Mark explains that Jesus taught the majority of people in parables.

The only exception to this was when he was alone with his disciples.

He taught them what the parables meant;

however, everyone else had to figure it out on their own.

Why is this? It’s a bit of a mystery.

According to Mark, Jesus only ever taught in parables during his public ministry,

teaching them as much as people could understand.

According to Matthew, however, Jesus taught in parables in order to seemingly confuse people and/or keep them from understanding.

I think to understand this seeming discrepancy, we need to understand them in light of each other.

First, Mark’s Gospel was the earliest one written and, therefore,

we have to assume that Matthew knew of and even referred to Mark’s account.

That is quite evident when you read the two.

Second, the difference between the two passages are subtle.

In Matthew 13, Jesus stated to his disciples

11 You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not.

12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

13 That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

Well, Jesus’ wording in Mark and Matthew kind of go hand-in-hand.

On the surface, they sound as if they are contradictory and confusing;

however, they can be easily and reasonably be understood together.

In Mark, Jesus said that he taught in parables so much as the crowd could understand.

In Matthew, Jesus teaches the crowd in parables to fulfill Isaiah 6:9-10

where God says the people will hear and see the word of God,

but they will not understand nor comprehend what they hear and see.

Clearly, the people hearing and seeing Jesus were fulfilling this ancient prophecy by Isaiah.

Most of the crowd was hearing and seeing;

however, they did not fully understand nor comprehend the events taking place.

They heard and saw and, following that...NOTHING. They went back to their lives.

But for those who did not...

they were given the secrets to the kingdom.

For those who truly listened and understood that there was something deeper too what Jesus was teaching,

they stuck around, became disciples, and learned the secrets.

In other words, they saw that they were asking the wrong Kingdom Questions...

and sought the one who could refocus them!

Indeed, Jesus did refocus them.

Take the parables taught to us today, the Parable of the Growing Seed and the Parable of the Mustard Seed,

they were used by Jesus to teach the crowd.

Within those parables is the Truth that is accessible to anyone in the crowd who is opened up to learning it.

In the parable of the growing seed, Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to a Farmer.

To a PERSON...

who works on a farm...

who plants things...

seeds in particular.

Let’s say that again:

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE A...

FARMER...

A Farmer who SCATTERS SEED...

on the ground.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD...

A seed-scattering farmer.

And that farmer HAS NO CLUE what happens after that.

She knows to scatter the seed

and she knows that will result in the seed growing to plants.

That, of course, will require a harvest.

That is all the farmer knows.

The farmer does not know the finer mechanics of how the seed actually contains life that,

given the proper conditions and water,

can grow into a full plant.

Next, Jesus uses another unexpected analogy to illustrate the Kingdom of God.

In verses 31-32, Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to a teeny, tiny mustard seed...

the smallest of all seeds.

Everyone hearing Jesus would know the seed,

and they would know the annoying, invasive, overpowering weed/shrub that seed would produce.

There was nothing seemingly redemptive about the mustard weed;

however, Jesus stated that instead of becoming an unruly shrub,

it grew into a gigantic bush or tree, the largest in the garden, so that even the birds of the air found shelter and protection in its branches.

WOW! UNEXPECTED! SO LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT:

The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who plants seed and,

despite not knowing exactly how it happens,

produces a massive harvest

(including more seed to be planted in a new season).

What’s more, the Kingdom of God is like a teeny-tiny mustard seed...

it is small when planted by the farmer...

yet it takes over in a way that provides shade, shelter, and sanctuary to birds and other animals.

So, the Kingdom of God is both like a farmer who plants seeds,

and it is like the seed being planted.

It is both clueless of the inner-workings of the seed

and it is the seed itself, including all of its inner-workings.

To some, this is just gibberish. It is much to do about nothing.

How can the kingdom be a person?

How can the kingdom be a seed?

The latter could possibly be argued metaphorically perhaps,

but how can a Kingdom be the lowly farmer planting a crop…at the same time as being the crop itself?

But, truth be told, the message of the parable is really simple if we are opened to it:

We, as in you and I, are the REPRESENTATIVES of the Kingdom of God.

With that said, we are not THE KINGDOM OF GOD itself.

No, we are the farmers planting the seed that is going to shock the hell out of all of us.

It will grow large than us and anyone else...

as it will be the largest tree in the garden.

That, my friends, that IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD,

and in its entirety, you and I are a part of it...a part of ushering it in!!!

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

Friends, what sort of Kingdom Questions have you been asking in your life?

Perhaps you have wondered if there is a heaven and, if so, where it is.

Perhaps you have seen your life as being on a path toward heaven...

an escape from WHAT IS to a hopefully better WHAT WILL BE.

Or, perhaps, your Kingdom Questions have been around your identity

and/or place in God’s Kingdom.

Whatever your Kingdom Questions have been,

I pray that the Holy Spirit refocuses you on the REAL question at hand:

what does God want me to do for the Kingdom?

If you humble yourself enough to ask that question...

to prayerfully and pleadingly question what your role in the Kingdom is...

then you will be of the sort who follow Jesus and have the Kingdom Secrets revealed to them.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US

Sisters and brothers, here are some Kingdom Questions for us:

what are we doing to plant the Kingdom of God?

Are we sowing seeds?

If so, where?

Is the seed falling on fertile soil, or is it getting wasted?

Are we trusting God to work out the inner-mechanics of seed growing and preparing for the harvest to come?

Do we have planters and harvesters among us?

Kingdom Questions lead us to two Gospel truths.

FIRST: We are the Kingdom or, as Paul put it, we are the Kingdom’s ambassadors

and we are the way in which the Kingdom will spread.

SECOND: If we represent the Kingdom, and we bring the Kingdom with us,

it is ON US (through the power and help of God)

to spread the Gospel until that point when Christ returns

and God’s Kingdom is here...ON EARTH...in all of its fullness...in all the GLORY OF GOD!!!

These are the answers to your KINGDOM QUESTIONS:

Yes, you are ALREADY a citizen and you DO represent God’s kingdom...

AND...YES...You have been called to be a part of building that kingdom

through spreading Christ’s love and reign.

Here’s the Kingdom’s Question for you:

will you accept that invitation to not only be from the Kingdom...

but to represent it along with Christ and his chosen ones?

That is the kind of Church we will be...

a God believin’, Christ followin’, world changing church. Amen?

Let me hear you say God believin’...Amen.

Let me hear you say Christ followin’ ...Amen.

Let me hear you say World Changin’ ...Amen!

That’s the kind of church we are...

God believin’...

Christ followin’...

world changin’!

Devil better check himself! Amen.

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