BProp6

Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 92:1-4,11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17; Mark 4:26-34

June 14, 2009; 10am Baptism of Connor Alexander Peart

Have you heard all about the fantastic results

when you use Scott’s Miracle-Gro EZ Seed.

It is guaranteed to grow grass in the most difficult places.

It includes a mixture of seed, starter fertilizer,

and a super moisture material that swells and keeps moisture around the seed.

When you spread it on your lawn,

you get a beautiful green carpet of grass in the hardest-to- grow places.

With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

What parable will we use for it?

It is like dandelion seed, which, when spread upon the lawn,

Is the last thing you would choose for grass!

Yet when it is sown it grows into a field of green,

With bright yellow and white flowers

And round magical puff balls

that kids come from all over the neighborhood to blow into the wind.

The kids would vote it ‘yard of the month.’

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I met a young person recently.

She was sent by her parents to St. Paul’s School,

proudly affiliated with the Episcopal Church, of course;

a most prestigious boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire.

She followed in the footsteps of famous alums:

Members of the Vanderbilt and Astor and Kennedy families,

Charles Scribner of Scribner & Sons,

William Randolph Hearst and other noted publishers

Several Bishops in the Episcopal Church including Frank Griswold,

Members of Congress and the House of Representatives,

Noted authors, including Garry Trudeau,

Pulitzer Prize winner and Doonesbury cartoonist…

She is now ready to enter college

and has been accepted into institutions of higher learning

that will prepare her for a life of privilege and responsibility.

She will be able to accomplish much in her lifetime.

With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

What parable will we use for it?

It is like an illiterate girl from a third world country

who grew up in a village that had a school

with hand-me-down books not in her own language,

dirt floors and individual chalk boards,

and when new shipments came in, one piece of chalk per student.

She will learn to read and do math

and she will go to the nursing school down in the city;

and she will save hundreds and hundreds of lives when she grows up.

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I heard about a new church recently.

Politicians and business owners in the city were members.

They raised funds, advertized on TV and billboards,

built the largest worship space in the city.

They installed the latest technology

in terms of visual screens, sound equipment,

and even interactive screens in the congregational ‘arena’, they call it.

The preacher can ask a question of the listeners

and get their responses immediately.

The congregation can read the scriptures and supplemental materials

while the preacher is preaching,

and send him remarks and questions.

The church is growing to be the largest church in its denomination

and has an international viewing audience on its own syndicated channel.

People who have never been to church are attracted to what they offer.

People from all over the world will be able to hear their message.

With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

What parable will we use for it?

It is like a small group of people

That had a small trailer that they took to the city park every Sunday morning

Where they would serve biscuits and coffee and street people would gather.

And there would be singing of songs that praised God;

And reading of scripture that told of God;

And sharing of blankets and shoes and stories;

Until people from all over the city streets

came to that park on Sunday mornings

and had church there.

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To the people of Israel, the prophet Ezekiel gave a picture

of what their kingdom would be like.

The house of David, the king, would be like a tall cedar.

It would be planted on the lofty mountain, Mt. Zion.

It would become the greatest of all trees

With large branches, that all the birds of the air,

all the nations of the world,

would come into this great kingdom,

would come and make nests in its shade.

And Jesus asked the people of his day in Galilee -

With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

What parable shall we use for it?

It is like a mustard seed,

Which, when sown upon the ground,

Is the smallest of all the seeds of earth.

Yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes, not a tall regal cedar,

But a scruffy, weedy shrub, that doesn’t belong at all in a proper garden.

And yet, a great shrub!

And it puts forth large branches,

So that the birds of the air,

all the peoples of the earth can come into this kingdom,

find some rest, some shelter, some forgiveness, some hope,

and can make nests in its shade.

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A parable about God’s kingdom invites the listener to

experience an alternate reality.

It is almost like a trap door to another world.

Once there, you can see what that world like

and then decide to stay or leave,

to remain permanently or to dismiss that other world and reject the teller.

The story assumes that the listener is open to another possibility in life.

What kind of kingdom are we open to, really?

Does it come to us from the familiar? From learned standards and goals?

to fill and shape our lives?

Or does it come from the unexpected, from outside our comfort zones?

It can take any shape.

The alternate world is not in the details,

But has the quality of what Jesus shows us

of the power of God’s love and forgiveness

to fill and shape our lives?

With what will you compare the kingdom of God?

What parable shall we use for it?

Where will we look for it?

Where will we find it?