Holy Aliveness!

Matthew 13:31-33 (NRSV)

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

First, a quick note that Kingdom of Heaven is how Matthew phrases what Luke terms "Kingdom of God."

And now the parables.

These are two of my favorite parables of Jesus. I'm pretty sure I've talked about them here before.

We talked about them last night in the Bible Study group I lead at St. Paul's. We are reading Brian McLaren's We Make the Road By Walking. Last night the topic was "Kingdom of God," and I used these two parables as my favorite examples of how God's Kingdom works.

First, Brian McLaren used some other more current, modern words in place of Kingdom of God. Words like:

God's Beloved Community.

The Global Commonwealth of God

God's Regenerative Economy

and my favorite: Holy Aliveness!

But whatever term you use, that movement of God breaking in to our world is what stands out.

And why I love these parables is we see how clearly that movement works. Like a tiny mustard seed which becomes an invasive, territorial huge bush (really more than a tree), or how a loaf of bread is made bountiful and delicious by a small bit of rotted food, God invades us.

Bombards us.

Dares us to live.

We talked last night in our Bible Study about all the things that make us miss it. That cause us not to see it.

This Kingdom of Heaven that is invading.

But whether we miss it or not, it is there. Present. 

Inviting us - daring us - to live - fully live - in peace and community and aliveness.

Holy Aliveness.

Lord you are here! Your commonwealth of peace is here. The life you offer is here. Open my heart and my eyes to drink it all in! Amen

God's Confounding Kingdom

Luke 19:11-28 (NRSV)

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’ When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’ He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’ He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’ Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’ He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ (And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’) ‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.’”

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Here's what I know after reading this passage:

- Just when you think you have the Kingdom of God figured out, you don't.

- This difficult, troubling parable is the last one Jesus tells before he enters Jerusalem for the final time. Everything he's done to this point has brought him here. The next thing he will do is instruct his disciples to untie a colt for his ride into Jerusalem.

Somehow in my mind, that fact strongly affects what's happening in this parable. Up until now, the kingdom of God has had a comforting feel to it. Jesus has used it to show of God's abundant grace.

And yet, it is also terrifying.

It is both now.

And it is also not yet.

Both now and not yet.

Comforting and terrifying.

Peaceful and earth-shattering.

Completely confounding.

The truth is what we can't wrap our minds about the full breadth of paradox that encompasses our faith story. God's ways are not our ways. God's mind is not our mind.

And we live right now in that in between place. That place sandwiched between now and not yet.

So while Jesus leaves us with his upsetting story, we know it is not the end. From here, Jesus' journey is just beginning. We may be caught off-balance, but the ride is going to sweep us along to something else. Something unexpected.

And yet completely expected, if we'd been listening to Jesus all along.

Lord, awake me to your ways, those both expected and those that utterly confound me! Amen

Kingdom of God and the Rich Man

Luke 18:19-25 (NRSV)

Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

What happens to this passage if you think of the Kingdom of God as a state of being that is both now and not yet, as opposed to simply a future paradise or heaven?

It becomes not so much a threat, as a reality check.

When it comes right down to it, you could say I'm rich. Certainly compared to a huge and staggering number of people on the planet.

And the things that often keep me from God and from seeing God's kingdom right in front of me are those very things that make me rich.

"Both now and not yet" is an important phrase for Christians to remember. We live in God's time and God's kingdom comes in that time. Time that folds into the chronological time we see before us as well as time that folds into that which we cannot yet see or understand.

I am kept from the Kingdom of God now when I hold on tightly to all those treasures that I put before God. I miss, then, what God is doing now.

Being part of what God is doing now is the blessing itself. Begin swept up into God's great plan. God's dream for the world. God's kinship with creation.

Have you ever been swept away by something?

That's what the Kingdom of God is trying to do to us. Sweep us away.

Both now...and not yet!

Help me to see your Kingdom, Lord, by removing the obstacles that I've put in the way! Amen

Receive the Kingdom Like a Child

Luke 18:15-17 (NRSV)

People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

I remember when my daughter Alex was a little child. About one or two. And when I really, really wanted to see her smile, sometimes all it took was handing her the simplest thing: a box, a magazine, my cell phone to play with, and a smile would light up her face.

As we get older, that sense of whimsy doesn't seem to stay, does it? Not consistently anyway.

Every now and then though, you get a gift that just makes the child in you grin from ear to ear. It touches you in just that place in your heart that makes you remember what it's like to  be that child.

To be that open. To be that joyful. To be that excited and grateful.

God wants us to receive the Kingdom of God just like that.

If we think of the Kingdom of God as being now. Present. Among us, as we read yesterday, then that rush of excitement in receiving that gift can capture us any moment.

That joy at receiving the gift that fills our heart is available any time. 

We've become very practiced and used to ways that keep the joy at bay. Expectations, busyness, competing priorities, emotional upheavals, suffering, and anger all work to prevent us from seeing that which is right in front of us. All work to tell us that we are capable, competent adults who should handle our own problems, fix our own issues, rather than children of God who can rely on a gracious redeemer who wants nothing more than to fill us to the brim with abundant love and grace.

It is true that life will sometimes wear us down. That we aren't always going to feel the joy of a little child. 

But that joy is always there beckoning us. Ready for us to open our arms and our hearts and dive right in.

Lord God, I am your child. Remind me always and open my eyes to the joy your offer! Amen.

The Kingdom of God is Among You

Luke 17:20-21 (NRSV)

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

Can you tell when you are smack dab up against the Kingdom of God?

Can you feel it? 

Can you sense it?

Jesus says that you can't say "here it is" or "there it is," so it sounds like you can't just reach out and touch it.

Yet if it is among you - if it is present - we sure would want to know it, wouldn't we?

How can we know?

Maybe one way is to pay attention. 

To make sure we are in the moment, noticing...everything.

The sounds, textures, emotions, smells, tastes of the now.

Rather than the stresses, worries, plans, of what is to come.

Or what was.

Sometimes I've noticed that when I've been so caught up in worrying about the future or hanging on to arguments or disagreements of the past, I've completely missed those moments of Kingdom that are trying desperately to capture my attention now.

The Kingdom won't announce itself. It won't say "Here I am, Allison! Notice me!"

I need instead to be looking up, ready for it!

Lord, keep my eyes tuned to this moment. And this moment so that your kingdom may come in me. Amen.

The Kingdom of God is a Party

Luke 14:1;7-24 (NRSV)

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. 

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Here is one of those rare places where the Kingdom of God is related to the afterlife.

Although note that that isn't really what Jesus is doing here. Yes, he talks about those who help the poor, the blind, the lame, etc. being repaid at the resurrection.

He doesn't, however, say that the resurrection IS the Kingdom of God. Instead, one of the guests takes Jesus' talk of the resurrection and uses it as a way to connect to the Kingdom of God.

And then what does Jesus do?

He goes into a parable. A parable about a very earthly type of banquet. One, perhaps, not completely dissimilar (although certainly grander) than the meal at which he and his companions were eating. So in the parable he brings everything back to the here and the now. He describes what the Kingdom of God is like, rather than giving it a chronological time.

And what is it like? 

A dinner party where you invite only the outsiders.

I'm not sure about you, but I think about every dinner or party I've ever planned and all the stress that went into the invitation list.

And who did I leave out?

Who do we leave out in the images we have of God's Kingdom?

Who's in? Who's out?

Lord help me to throw open the doors to the party you are hosting to invite in those whom everyone else might forget. Amen.

The Kingdom of God Has Come

Luke 10:1-11 (NRSV)

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

The Kingdom of God has come near.

Has come.

Jesus says this twice in this story of the sending of the 70.

Here he doesn't say it is coming.

He says it has come.

Each week we gather for worship and the last words of before we leave are what?

"Go in peace to serve the Lord."

Like the 70 we are being sent.

So what does that mean?

Maybe in this case another way we can describe the Kingdom of God is as a "who."

Who is the Kingdom of God?

We are. We are sent into the world to bring the Kingdom of God into that world. Into a broken, hurting, but hopeful world.

Worship doesn't end then at the end of the liturgy. It doesn't end as we stream into the parking lot.

It continues as we serve and bring the Kingdom out beyond our walls.

Now. Right now. This moment. And the next.

The Kingdom of God HAS come.

Lord, I am an agent of your Kingdom. Equip me to be sent. Amen.

The Kingdom of God is like a Mustard Seed

Luke 13:17-19 (NRSV)

When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Not to correct our Lord, but I have one bit of disagreement with Jesus here.

Tree probably isn't the best word to describe what the mustard seed grows into. Shrub, or bush would be a better description.

However, it's easy to accept Jesus' botanical inaccuracy as hyperbole. OK, so maybe the bush was so big that it passed for a tree. A tree big enough to hold up the birds of the air and their nests.

And that is certainly a possibility.

The Kingdom of God then we know starts as something small and grows into something big and strong and powerful.

That's not a bad image. If we stopped with that image, I'd say we would be well on our way to beginning to understand the Kingdom of God.

But calling it the shrub that it is rather than a tree tells us something else about the Kingdom of God. Something more in line with the second part of this parable.

What do shrubs and yeast have in common?

They invade. They take over. They grow and grow and grow until they spoil what's around them, turning what's around them into something else altogether.

What?

The Kingdom of God spoils?

Spoils the way yeast "spoils" flour turning it into delicious bread.

Spoiling the way shrubs take over the other plants getting in their way.

Make no mistake. The Kingdom of God is an invader. It isn't about us harmoniously waiting to get our cloud in a peaceful Heaven.

It's about Heaven taking over earth. Spoiling our best laid plans and turning them into something new. Something terrifying.

Something beautiful.

Something amazing.

The Kingdom of God is meant to spread like wildfire. Burning away all our assumptions, our judgments, our anger, our hostility, our racism, our sexism, our consumerism, and all our other isms so that God can get about the work of saving this world.

The Kingdom of God is meant to destabilize us and remind us whose world this is.

So the next time something you hear about God, about faith, about life, about worship, about theology, or about Jesus and it scares you...

Or it confronts your assumptions or challenges you...

The Kingdom of God might just be working its way into you just like that yeast being worked into that loaf of bread.

Lord, spread your good news like wildfire and let me not get in your way! 

The Kingdom of God - Introduction

Luke 4:42-44 (NRSV)

At daybreak (Jesus) departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.

Happy New Year!

I am late getting into writing for the New Year after being sick last week. And I admit also to struggling with what to write about.

But a kind soul made a suggestion to me that I like. 

Let's talk about the kingdom of God.

What is it? Where is it? When is it?

Jesus talked perhaps about nothing more than he did The Kingdom of God. It was his most central teaching. It was, and is, wrapped up tightly with the good news itself.

In the gospel of Luke alone it is mentioned 32 times.

So what do we talk about when we talk about the Kingdom of God?

How did Jesus proclaim it?

How do we proclaim it?

Is it Heaven?

Are we waiting for it?

Is it even a place at all?

Your Kingdom come, Lord. Amen