The Kingdom of God

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

November 25, 2012; Last Pentecost, Proper 29, Year B

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(John 18:33-37)  Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." 

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“Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate asks.  It’s a legal question.  He needs to know if Jesus is another Jewish insurrectionist challenging Rome.  “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus answers him.  I’m not going to challenge the Empire in the traditional way, through fighting, violence and warfare.  That’s not where my kingdom is.  My kingdom belongs to the truth.  Our reading doesn’t continue.  But Pilate responds abstractly, “What is truth?”  And he’s satisfied Jesus isn’t a threat.  So he has Jesus flogged, a form of Roman torture.  Later the accusers will convince Pilate that Jesus is a challenge to the Empire, and Pilate will pronounce a sentence of capital punishment upon him.

No big deal.  The Kingdom of the Empire just doing what it does to protect its power – using force and violence just to make sure nothing might compromise that power. 

Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Caesar?  We have a number of these opposites in scripture.  Kingdom of Heaven or of the World?  The Spirit or the Flesh?

Jesus’ Kingdom is indeed different.  It wasn’t political in the sense that Pilate was concerned with.  But it was subversive.  Jesus’ Kingdom was almost the opposite of the Kingdom of the Empire.  Yet his Kingdom has proved more enduring, more resilient, more true. 

More than anything else in the Gospels, Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God – the Rule of God.  His imagination was full of the Kingdom of God.  So, what is the Kingdom of God? 

The Lord’s Prayer gives us a clue.  “Thy will be done.  Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”  The Kingdom of God is God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  It is how life on earth would be if God reigned, instead of Caesar, instead of you and me, little Caesars that we pretend to be.

It is a Kingdom that does not exercise power through force, but through love and compassion.  It is a different way of being in the world. 

Maybe you can remember some of the images Jesus gave us about the Kingdom:

The Kingdom of God is like a sower who sows seed with reckless extravagance.  Some of the seed hits hardpan, some lands in thin soil, and some is choked by thorns.  But the seed that lands in fertile soil is fantastically abundant.  What seed his been thrown our way?

That same field has weeds and good seed growing together.  Leave them alone, says Jesus.  Don’t try to pull out the bad weeds, you might harm the good plants.  Let them grow together.  Eventually God can tell the difference. 

The Kingdom of God seems small, under the radar, almost invisible.  Look for it in the unexpected place, the humble place.  It is like a tiny mustard seed or a hidden treasure or a small shake of leaven in a huge pile of flour.  Despite its size, it will grow until it makes everything around it valuable.

The Kingdom of God is for all.  It welcomes tax collectors and harlots.  It rejoices at the return of the prodigal.  God’s kingdom searches for the lost sheep and the lost coin, and it yields to the persistent ones who keep knocking, seeking and asking for what they need.  It is a wedding feast that compels everyone to enter.  And it is the happy reward for the good servants who have done what was their duty.

The Kingdom of God is simple, but not easy.  It can be missed.  It is a narrow gate.  The rich fool who spends his life filling his barns with surplus can miss it.  The rich man who cannot share generously with the poor can miss it.  The fig tree that bears no figs can wither outside the Kingdom.  And you don’t want to run out of oil for your lamp while you wait for its coming.

The Kingdom is given to children and to those who will accept it with childlike glee.  It gives a full day’s wage to all the laborers, even those who show up at the last hour. 

The Kingdom’s champion is a Samaritan heretic who acted with compassion for a stranger.  The Kingdom’s only law is love – love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, and that if you seek first the Kingdom of God, everything else will fall into place. 

Finally, Jesus says that in him, the Kingdom has begun.  He says that it is near, that it is among you, that it is within you.  (Luke 17:20)  It is here and now. 

Let me share with you an old Jewish folktale:

There once was a poor man who grew weary of the corruption and hatred that he saw every day.  He was tired of the constant injustice that his people experienced, and the loneliness of his isolated living.  His family and friends listened as he spoke passionately of his desire for a city where justice was honored and where personal wholeness could be found.  Night after night he dreamed of a city where heaven touched earth.

One day he announced that he could wait no longer.  He packed a meager meal, kissed his wife and children, and set out in search of the magical city of his dreams.  He walked all day and just before the sunset, he found a place to sleep just off the road, in a forest.  He ate his sandwich, said his prayers and smoothed the earth where he would lie.  Just before he went to sleep, he placed his shoes in the center of the path, pointing in the direction he would continue the next day.

That night a sly fellow was walking the same path and discovered the traveler’s shoes.  Unable to resist a practical joke, he turned the shoes around, pointing them in the direction from which the man had come.

Early the next morning the traveler arose, said his prayers, ate what remained of the food he had brought, and started his journey by walking in the direction his shoes pointed.  He walked all day long, and just before sunset he saw the heavenly city off in the distance.  It wasn’t as large as he had expected, and it looked strangely familiar.  He entered a street that looked much like his own, knocked on a familiar door, greeted the family – who turned out to be his family – and lived happily ever after in the heavenly city of his dreams. [i]

The Kingdom of God is among us.  Like a hidden seed seeking to grow into flourishing.  It is as simple as doing God’s will here and now, which is always to do love and compassion.  Childlike in its simplicity.  But not easy.  It takes perseverance, perseverance, perseverance.  But ask, seek, and knock.  Keep trusting.  Keep trying.  Trying to love.  Love God; love neighbor; love yourself.  And you may find yourself knocking on an oh-so-familiar door and greeting the Kingdom of God here and now.

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[i] William R. White, Stories for Telling, Augsburg, 1986, p. 92