Seedy Relief Living the Kingdom of God
the sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa 13 June 2021 – 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings:
Psalm Psalm
20
First
Reading:
1
Samuel
15:34-16:13
Second Reading:
2
Cor
5:6-10,14-17
Gospel:
Mark
4:26-34
What I want to say:
Explore
what the Kingdom of God looked like for Jesus hearers, and Marks listeners.
Last
week we looked at Kingdom of God in terms of the trinity and the nature of the relationships
within the Trinity. They are marked by mutuality, compassion, generosity,
aroha, peace, love. But that invitation to live this way is hard when it come
to people and issues we have strong feelings about. Introduce Parker Palmer –
truth is found in the gap
The
Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed – helpful but popping up in unexpected
places.
Today’s seed stories offer some hope and relief –
the Kingdom of God is mostly about the work of God, not us. We are like the sower
who carried on with life, unaware of what God is doing even with the little
seed we are able to sow.
With what might we compare
the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is like a gorse bush, growing in
unexpected places and sharp and prickly
What I want to
happen:
Where might
I need to let go of some of my certainty and find truth in the gap between my
standpoint and the others?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
What’s a good image for God’s
kingdom? What parable can we use to explain it?
this is a really interesting question
how would you respond to that?
ð Talk neighbour.
When Jesus asked that question
answer pretty obvious.
-
looking to a
restoration of Kingdom of David (1st reading)
represented best time
kingdom God was when all live in presence of
living God under Law Moses without fear
that meant
end Roman rule
end to corruption of High Priests and Temple
leadership
end to Herod and other Roman sycophants
including Jerusalem elite
end harsh taxation – led to so many families
losing their lands
end to mass impoverishment and enriching of
few Jerusalem based families
on the flip side - included
restoration of land back to families –
traditionally owned it
restoration of true temple leadership and true
temple worship
not
sham going on time Jesus
restoration line David
and time where all had more than enough to thrive
on
kingdom God summarised everything they longed
for
one day soon would fight and die for
2. Mark
By the
time Mark wrote this gospel all this was dust
-
Jerusalem
destroyed
-
Temple razed
-
Hundred’s
thousands Jews – killed or enslaved in Jewish rebellion
That dream of the kingdom of God was faint
dream.
How then were community Mark writing for to
live?
-
Meld in Roman
empire be invisible and safe?
-
Join revolution?
-
Another way –
third way?
3. Trinity
Last week we looked
at relationships that exist within Trinity
-
How they
shape how we live lives
explored the
traditional image of a non-hierarchical or equal relationship within God
-
Relationship
marked by mutuality,
-
Mutuality
defined by generosity, compassion, completeness, wholeness, shalom, aroha
ð This is love.
WE are invited into
the heart of this relationship in Jesus
We are invited as
followers of the way to live this out in our everyday lives
This is Mark’s third
way
Asked how we live
that out, using our experience of Te Pouhere – church constitution, in some
current discussions/controversies in Tauranga
We saw how hard that
is.
Especially when
issues we feel strongly about.
It is hard to bring
any kind of mutuality
-
Mutuality
defined by generosity, compassion, completeness, wholeness, shalom, aroha
To accept as Parker Palmer
suggests
-
That truth
is not found in my firmly held opinion, but in the gap between what I think/believe,
and what the other believes
o
It is hard
to be open to build relationships based
§ Mutuality defined by generosity, compassion,
completeness, wholeness, shalom, aroha
o
It is hard
to live Kingdom of God
4. Seedy parable
Brings us back to our seedy parables
one things we can say about Jesus is that he
is constantly trying to shake people up
trying knock them out of their assumptions
about God
about what meant to be the people of God
constantly inviting them to go bigger
that is what is going on here
in first big block teaching in Mark
-
Jesus several
parables about seeds
-
We get the last
two
both well known
both honest
little bit confusing
first farmer who sows seeds
goes away
comes back and there is a harvest
farmer sows and reaps, but the rest is up to
the seed and the earth.
Just about all of it is up to seed and soil
When it is hard I am not sure how many
seeds I am planting
Not sure what I am doing for God’s kingdom
God’s kingdom takes what I can do
-
Few seeds I plant
-
Does the rest
itself
second uses mustard seed
well
known health properties and is used lot cooking
and
sowing during winter to help renutrientise the soil
small seed that ends up a reasonable sized
shrub
Mark
is not prone to same exaggeration as Matthew – not a tree
which is also bit of weed
once planted it you will never get rid of it
just keeps reseeding
growing
all kinds places didn’t intend
bit of a relief
God can take my small efforts
My struggles
Take those seeds into places, even within me
That I never thought possible
5. Jesus parables and me
those parables shake us loose from our
certainties
should make us a lot less sure about ourselves
parables say to us
kingdom of God is
·
lot less
describable than we think
·
luckily not just
about us and what we do
o
we have a role –
but kingdom grows even while we sleep
·
we are not in
control – mustard seeds have bad reputations germinating all kinds of places
people don’t want them
·
kingdom of God is
not ours to define
·
is happening all
around us , just as seeds are germinating all around us
·
finally - fruits
are important part of kingdom rather than structure
o
communities of
justice and peace
o
lived in and
marked by Trinitarian mutuality
§ generosity,
compassion, completeness, wholeness, shalom, aroha of God
Kingdom of God is now when we do these things,
and
when they are done to us.
6. Conclusion
Today’s seed stories offer some hope and
relief – the Kingdom of God is mostly about the work of God, not us.
-
We are like the
sower who carried on with life,
-
unaware of what
God is doing even with the little seed we are able to sow.
With what might we compare the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is like a gorse bush, growing in unexpected places and sharp
and prickly
Where might I need to let go of some of my
certainty and find truth in the gap between my standpoint and the others?
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