JC Disciples
The Kingdom of Heaven Is
I Kings 3:5-12, Psalm 119:129-136, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
What will heaven be like? It’s a question nearly everyone asks. And nearly everyone speculates on the possibilities. I must admit that on my very first plane trip, when the plane soared up through the clouds, I half expected to see angels sitting on those clouds just outside my window. Although the sky had been rather gloomy and overcast while I was on the ground, the clouds were amazingly white on top.
Imagination is a wonderful thing – and few things spur the human imagination to greater heights than to contemplate the mysteries and possibilities of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Wondrous as life in heaven will be, if we focus only on the glory of the kingdom to come, we will miss the reality of the kingdom now. And it is this thought, the kingdom of God here and now, that Jesus communicates again and again in the series of parables that comprise our gospel reading this evening.
None of the images in these parables truly matches our fanciful imaginings of heaven. The parables don’t speak of a paradise to come, a place of peace or bliss with streets of gold and castles on clouds. The images used in the parables are drawn from the daily life of people in the time of Christ. They are images that are not so foreign to us. These images speak to us of the kingdom of God as something precious, which is unfolding in and around us right now if we are willing to see it.
At the time of Christ, the growth of seeds and the work of yeast were still mysterious things. You plant the dry, seemingly dead seed and water it; a green plant comes up in time. You work some of the dough left over from yesterday into fresh dough, let it stand for awhile, and the amount of dough doubles. People knew these things happened. They had seen it happen time and again. They just didn’t know how it happened or why.
Today, in our more enlightened age, we know why seeds grow and dough rises. But even though we may understand these processes, we can still marvel at them. A tiny seed can eventually grow into a very large plant. Think about the acorns and maple seeds; look at the massive trees that grow from them. I frequently bake bread and I have a lot of fun showing my kids how the dough has increased from when I mixed it or kneaded it. This amazes them.
Perhaps even more amazing than these examples is the growth and development of a human being. Think about it. We all begin as single cell about the size of a dot made with a very sharp pencil, barely visible to the naked eye. From that very tiny start, comes all the incredible wonder of a single person. We know much about how this happens, but it is still a wonder and a mystery.
So is the kingdom of heaven. But it isn’t just a someday wonder of a mysterious place in some time to come. The kingdom of heaven already is. It is around us. It is in us. It is planted as a seed in this world as the Church. It is planted as a seed in our hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is here; it is now. The kingdom of heaven is being worked into our lives just as the baker woman of Jesus’ parable worked the yeast thoroughly into her dough. God is at work in our lives, infusing the kingdom of heaven into us. Just as seeds grow into plants and yeast grows in bread dough, God’s kingdom is growing right now inside of us.
Soil doesn’t produce plants; seeds do. Dough doesn’t rise by itself; yeast makes it rise. Likewise, we don’t produce the kingdom of God all by ourselves. God does it, not us. Through the living Word of God, through the Holy Spirit living in us, God causes the kingdom to spring up in our lives. The kingdom of heaven is within us, growing inside of us even now. And it is also in our world. It is around us – if we have the eyes to see it. Consider the two treasure parables in the lesson: the Parable of the Treasure in the field and the Parable of the Pearl.
In the first parable, a person finds a treasure hidden in a field. Having found this treasure, he hides it again. Then he does whatever he must in order to make the treasure his by buying the field which holds the treasure. The field isn’t what he’s interested in; it’s the treasure within that field that this person desires.
Like the treasure in the field, the kingdom of heaven is hidden in the world. It’s here even now, but it isn’t easily seen. In fact, as we look around our world, it would seem the kingdom of God has no place in this world where there is so much evil, so much destruction, so much suffering.
Was it really any different when Jesus spoke these words? Weren’t tragedy, violence, and grief just as familiar to those who first heard this parable? Sometimes much of what we see depends on what we are seeking. If the treasure in the parable was hidden, how could anyone find it? Someone could find it only if he was looking for it. If we are to find the kingdom of heaven in the midst of this world, then we have to look for it.
And what do we do about it once we find it? We know we don’t earn our citizenship in heaven by what we do or by what we refuse to do. We are admitted into the kingdom of God solely by God’s grace poured out for us in Jesus Christ. We can’t buy our way into the kingdom with any sort of money, skill, or some other thing of value. This parable isn’t calling us to earn our way into heaven but rather to invest ourselves in the kingdom of heaven.
The man in the parable gave up everything he had in order to buy the field, which held the treasure. Although his interest was the treasure, he received the field as well. Our primary interest may well be the eternal paradise of God to come. However, so long as we’re here, we get the earth too. It’s part of the package. The kingdom treasure hidden in our world, in our lives, influences how we spend our time, how we conduct ourselves publicly and privately, the work we do and how we do it, how we speak, how we live. We invest ourselves, our time, our energy, and our money in those things of the world that serve the purposes of God.
The Parable of the Pearl is another image of seeking and finding. In this story, the merchant is specifically seeking pearls rather than a more generic treasure. We can easily imagine this merchant scouring every vendor’s booth at every marketplace he comes to, seeking the finest pearls available. But in this parable, the kingdom of heaven is the seeking merchant. Therefore, not only are we seeking the kingdom of God here on earth, the kingdom is seeking us.
And where are we in this parable? We are the pearls. Think not? Think again. There is something unique about a pearl that distinguishes it from all other gemstones. All other gemstones are mined from the earth; pearls are not. Pearls are harvested from oysters. They are produced by living creatures in response to the pain inflicted by grains of sand imbedded in their flesh. Likewise, in God’s hands, our hurts and failures are embraced and transformed into something new that glows with that same sort of ethereal radiance for which we prize those pearls from oysters.
God, like the merchant of our story, seeing some incredible value in us, gave up everything to possess us. In Jesus, God Almighty took on human flesh, human life with all its limitations, and lived among us. Jesus gave his life so that we might also have life. He did it for each one of us in this room, for every single person in the world.
We are seeking for and we are being sought by the kingdom of heaven, hidden, and yet active, even now on the earth. There is wonder, beauty, incredible goodness, and unspeakable joy in our daily life here on earth right now. These things are not hopes for a someday, somewhere better world yet to come. They are already part of our lives.
However, all is not good here on the earth. I don’t need to draw up a list for you. Each of us in this room is already thinking of the things in life that aren’t so good, things that are wrong, things that are clearly evil. That, too, is part of our world, as much a part of our reality as the kingdom of heaven. Our world isn’t entirely bad, but it is far from the good and perfect ideal of the kingdom of God for which we long.
What are we to make of it? We aren’t to make anything of it. According to the Parable of the Net, at the end of the age, everything will be gathered up as a fishing net captures everything within its area. Then the angels will sort through it, separating the good from the bad just as fishermen sort their catches. What is good will be preserved; what is bad will be destroyed.
It isn’t clear if the good and the bad refer to people, souls, deeds, or all of these things. But it is clear that the angels, those faithful servants who perfectly follow God’s direction, will do the sorting. It isn’t our job. We have the comfort of knowing that whatever is good, whatever has been saved by God’s grace will be preserved. All wickedness, all evil, everything contrary to God will be gone forever.
These parables are all so short, so small, that they seem almost insignificant. Yet lodged in each of these little pictures is an incredible panorama of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has been placed inside of us. Like seeds in earth or yeast in dough, the kingdom can grow within our lives, shaping us, giving us purpose. The kingdom of heaven is also around us. If we look, we can see it. If we are willing, we can invest ourselves in it, doing whatever we can to make the reign of God a reality now. We are also being sought for the kingdom. In God’s sight, in the light of God’s grace, we have infinite value.
These are the treasures of the kingdom, and they are ours now. But they aren’t for us to hoard. In Jesus’ final parable, the master of the household brought treasures both old and new from his storeroom. Our treasure is for sharing. May we allow our lives to be shaped by God’s reign so that we live each day – even this one – in the kingdom of heaven, shining with radiance from God, sharing the joy of the kingdom. Amen.