Pentecost 6

Pentecost 6 (Mark 4:26-34) “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God?”

The Kingdom of God is like nothing any one ever expects.

Nobody expected the Messiah to follow the path Jesus followed. Nobody expects the Kingdom of God to be the Real Presence of Divine love and compassion.

Religious and secular people alike expect the Kingdom of God to manifest institutionally in programs and policies. We expect the Kingdom to be like the kingdoms we create. We want the Kingdom to manifest with divine knowledge and power to fix the problems and, if we are honest, to impose our will on other people, nature and our own frailty.

We expect and demand the Kingdom to be the perfection of our individual needs and desires in one pure political and economic system.

This is not the Kingdom of God. This is the kingdom of self will, fear and pride. Self-will that says: do it my way. Pride that says: I know what is best for me, for you and for everyone. Fear that somehow other people will subvert the perfect will of God in the perfect Kingdom of God. Fear that produces inflexible uncompromising demand backed by the threat of punishment.

One of my favorite bumper sticker quotes is: God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. One of my favorite seminary jokes is: any committee of four Episcopalians will issue a report with five different opinions.

The Kingdom of God is none of these things. Not only is the Kingdom of God not anything that we can imagine, it is not anything that we initially want.

The truth that humans reject the Kingdom of God when we actually experience it is in the observation of dozens of people recorded in the Bible. And, it is most vividly revealed in the condemnation, torture and execution of Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God can only be expressed in parables, stories drawn from human experience. It can only be expressed in this fashion because the Kingdom of God emerges from a personal relationship with the person God sent into the world to bring forth the Kingdom. That person is Jesus Christ.

In these parables, Jesus describes the organic quality of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is about life. It is about the humble beginning of all life. It is about the process of growth and maturation. It is so unassuming that it is easy to dismiss. It is so powerful in its gradual manifestation that we can draw back in confusion and fear.
Preeminently, the Kingdom of God is a personal relationship with the infinite and eternal God. It is God who initiates the relationship. It is God who seeks us and finds us. God seeks us and finds us by uniting our humanity with His Divinity in a single individual: Jesus Christ.

The categories of the Kingdom are principles of relationship. Among those principles are choice, response, time, attention, affection, loyalty, change, growth maturation.
The Kingdom of God is the transformation of human beings in the Real Presence of God manifesting in our world, among our species and within our own souls through the co-eternal Beloved of God, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is the gift of God to all people, in all places at all times.

The Kingdom of God is like the scattering of seed on the ground. It is an active dynamic process that is both universal and particular, both fundamental and personal. It is life giving and life transforming. It is slow, steady, incremental and filled with surprises and delights.

The Kingdom of God can be compared to the dynamic inter relationship of the Trinity who is the pattern for all human relationships.

The Kingdom of God can only be compared to the ordinary processes of life that God designed into the universe according to the pattern, plan and purpose of life. That pattern, plan and purpose is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God.

As with the Word Himself, the Kingdom of God is supple, adaptable, gentle and courageous. It is the infinite life of the co-eternal Beloved of the Infinite God manifesting in the particular life of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus offering to you His forever friendship.