Sermon preached at St. John's Glenbrook, Nevada, Sunday, June 17, 2012
Jesus is not trying to make a botanical statement of fact
when he said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. He is using proverbial and metaphorical
language common in the parables of the New Testament. When we hear Jesus say the mustard seed is like, I
underscore like, we know he is trying to make a point but not a fact. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard
seed that is small and becomes something much bigger then we would expect. Today I want to reflect on the way we
are mustard seeds that build up the earthly kingdom of God.
Let’s begin with evaluation of the success of God’s kingdom
on earth. In a recent report by
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life it was reported that the number of
Christians has quadrupled in the last 100 years from about 600 million in 1910
to 2 billion. The major shift that has taken place is from Europe and the
Americas being the center of Christianity in 1910 to Africa and Asia now as the
center. Though Christianity began
in the Middle East and North Africa, today that region has the lowest
concentration of Christians. 90%
of Christians live in countries where Christians are in the majority. Only
about 10% of Christians worldwide live as minorities. The Kingdom of God has grown far and wide with
proportionality changes along the way.
With the Pew Forum’s statistical analysis we are easily
misled to exclusively associate God’s kingdom with the number of Christians in
the world. At one point in our
Anglican history we were exclusively about making the entire world
Christian. The kingdom of God was
equivalent to the British Empire and the Church of England who through its
missionary efforts brought their religion to the entire empire in Britain’s
foreign parts including America.
In our postcolonial society the kingdom of God is not
exclusively equivalent to the size of the Christian Church. The Church is a part of the kingdom of
God, but it is not the kingdom.
Some theologians would disagree with me. Roman Catholic theologians, particularly, the more orthodox,
Vatican centered ones understand the church as the fulfillment of the kingdom
of God. They see equivalence
between church and kingdom.
Anglicans of which we participate through our Episcopal
tradition tend to see the church more often as a means but not as an exclusive
end. Anglicans have an
incarnational theology.
Incarnational is the way we participate in the life of Christ in our
day-to-day life in the world in real, fleshy and earthy ways. It is lovely that we all have roles in
the worship life of The Episcopal Church as priest, deacon, acolyte, lector and
more. Our incarnational roles do
not stop with our service in the church but reach out through our working lives
in the world.
It is in this sense that I want to explore with you the way
we are each a reflection of the kingdom of God. Each of us are in some sense the tiny mustard seeds. How do we live as Christ centered seeds
in the world and reflect the love of the kingdom of God in our lives?
As I thought and prayed over this question this past week I
began to think of mind maps. A
mind map is a tool to help people draw on paper their big ideas into smaller
elements. Through mind mapping
people write words, draw symbols and pictures on a page in a random way. The graphics are meant to flow freely
in a non-narrative manner, so that thinkers visualize the abundance of ideas in
their mind to make connections to see the bigger picture. I have seen scholars write huge mind
maps that literally cover an entire lecture hall.
I see value in the use of a mind map to reflect on the
impact of our Christian lives. In
baptism we come into the Christian life, blessed with a Christian vocation and
invited to sprout into new forms of life.
If any one of us drew a mind map of all the people and places where we
have ever touched people with a Christian sense of love we would literally run
out of paper.
So often I hear people tell me in spiritual direction that
they cannot find their ministry.
Once a man with two adopted retarded children told me he was looking for
his ministry. I was like
seriously? Don’t you see your role
as a father to these children as your ministry? Is not every father and mother a minister to their own
household and family?
Who are the ministers of the Church? Open your prayer book to page 855 for
the answer. The ministers of the
Church are laypersons, bishops, priests and deacons. The order in the Prayer Book answer is very
intentional. If you were to read
the same question in the Roman Catholic catechism bishops and priests would be
listed first. Laypersons are ministers in God’s Church.
If you continue to read the answers to the ministry of the
laity, bishop, priest and deacon, you will see we all share a common ministry.
Our primary ministry the Prayer Book instructs us is “to represent Christ and
God’s Church” in that order. We
represent when we embody and our Christ-like to others.
It is through our representation of Christ that we minister
in the world. We represent Christ
even when we are not sure what specific ministry we are called to. The way we
live in the world is the way we represent Christ and minister on a deeply human
level through our everyday encounters.
I will never forget one of my first dates with Stefani, my dearly
beloved. We went to one of my
favorite restaurants in Pasadena, California. The owner of the restaurant could not wait to meet
Stefani. Finally the big day
arrived. It was New Years’s eve
and there was a lot of glassware on the table. Our lovely big crystal goblets were just filled with fresh
cold water! The owner came over to
the table to joyously greet Stefani and his French cuff just did not quite
clear the water goblet. The cold
water dumped right into Stefani’s lap soaking her and her beautiful dress.
Stefani laughed!
She laughed!
Stefani’s spontaneous response still brings tears to my
eyes. Stefani did not swear at the
owner or call him some nasty name.
She laughed! In that instance, just two months after we had first met, I
immediately knew that one day I was going to ask Stefani to marry me. I was like wow this woman is truly full
of grace. In that moment I knew she was different from all the other women I
had ever dated.
I have observed that same grace of Stefani’s in an affluent
Boston parish, working class Manchester, England and now here in Reno. Stefani is the same loving, gracious
person with even people who would annoy most of us. Her way of being is her particular gift, her unique way that
she represents Christ in the world.
Jesus laughed!
We all have unique gifts that help us represent Christ in
the world.
What is your unique gift and how do you use that gift to
represent Christ in the world?
I told Damian, your senior warden this past week that I
can’t wait to learn about the history of St. John’s Church Glenbrook. I know that when I read your parish’s
history I will see the ways this little church has reached far and wide, well
beyond the Lake Tahoe shores. Our worship in this gem of a building is just the
tiny seed that nurtures our being Christ’s hands in the world to incarnate
Christ’s love to all. It might be
fun one day to draw your own map of the impact of the people of this parish on
the world!
If you are like most Christians you miss or diminish the
good you do. The Good News of today’s Gospel is that through the tiny seeds of
what we each bring to the world we are able to leave Christ’s loving mark on
the world. We leave our Christ
mark in many ways including a loving countenance and compassionate touch on all
people in this world, especially the poor and marginalized.
The world often forgets the poor and the marginalized but
Jesus’ ministry always begins with the poor, marginalized and other outcasts of
our society. Each of our Christ marks are left everywhere we go. In this way our ministries reach far
and wide with an abundance of fruit that few of us will ever have the privilege
to harvest all of it. The Christian Church is the community of all of us who
represent Christ in the world.
Tiny seeds produce an amazing abundance of fruit.
The kingdom of God within each of us is like the tiny
mustard that produces abundant life throughout the whole earth. Even if we were never to travel beyond
Glenbrook, the people we touch in a Christ-like manner will reach out like the
wild, far-reaching branches of the mustard tree shrub. In this way the kingdom of God is more
widespread than the Pew report described the expansion of global Christianity.
The earthly kingdom of God, Christian love cannot be quantified. Christ’s love
is deeply felt, remembered in ways that transform our world into the earthly
kingdom that Jesus envisioned.
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