Our world today desperately needs Good News, today’s headline’s are filled with bad news, the brutal dictatorship of Mugabe, the religious hatred in Israel, terrorism, natural disasters, grinding poverty throughout the world made worse by the rising price of oil, even nearer at home, knife crime, alcoholism in young people, and the credit crunch causing petrol and food to rocket, causing anxiety and unease…..Where is it all heading?….Why is the World in such a precarious state? With all this bad news, is there really any hope for the future of humanity?
Remember, this is not new, Jesus came into the world 2,000 years ago preaching a wonderful future for humanity after an intense period of earthshaking calamities. His message called “the Gospel” means “Good News”….the very Good News that the world desperately needs now, yes there is hope.
So what exactly is the Good News, this Gospel, Jesus Christ preached…it’s not just a message about his life and death leading to our salvation, it’s also a message about the meaning of Salvation, and how he intends to save us, so we do have something positive to hold onto we do have hope. Jesus is our hope.
This message is at the heart and core of Christ’s teaching, the Kingdom of God will be established on Earth, it’s referred to many times throughout the Gospels, 86 times to be precise!
So why is the Kingdom of God such a difficult concept to grasp?
It’s not a Kingdom as we know, it doesn’t have borders, it doesn’t have walls or barbed wire, it doesn’t have border controls!
Jesus says in JOHN 18:36.”My Kingdom is not of this world”
So, it’s a Kingdom without limits and boundaries, OK that’s a difficult one to fathom out, any more information?
Well, I know a great place to start, let’s go to the Gospels…………..in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus brings us four quick parables all of similar nature, all on the topic of the Kingdom of God. These stories about mustard seeds, yeast, hidden treasure and pearls are Jesus’ way of illustrating for us what god’s Kingdom is like. Jesus is insistent, determined to communicate this important message to us. Through the parables Jesus gives us an insight into what God’s Kingdom is , how we can see it more clearly, and what importance God’s Kingdom has in our day to day lives. Let’s look at these parables a little closer, the two about the mustard seed and the yeast have similarities, important similarities, Jesus is emphasising the immensity and greatness of the Kingdom, the mustard seed, small as a pin head, growing into a tree with branches, an obvious exaggeration, but showing us how something very small can turn out with incredible and abundant results….remember from small things; great things can happen!!
Then we go onto the yeast parable, Jesus exaggerates again, the woman goes through a normal yeast and flour procedure, then ‘eureka’ there’s enough bread for 100 people!
The third and the fourth parable are a different take on the theme, the hidden treasure and the pearl, someone coming across something valuable and precious, selling all they have to acquire it…….these show us that the kingdom of God is a treasure, but it does have a cost, one does have to give up things to acquire it, but it’s worth it.
What we see here is; that where the Kingdom of God is concerned, we get more than we expect, it’s bigger and better and more present than we realise….the power of the Kingdom’s presence is immeasurable and immense, it can transform whatever it touches, even though it seems like a tiny mustard seed
….Appearences are Deceptive!
When I think of this phrase it always reminds me of DR WHO, the TARDIS to be precise, no I’m not one of those obsessive fans, apparently they are called Whovians!……it brings back memories of hiding behind the sofa dreading the sound of the Daleks, and wishing I was in the Tardis, I was fascinated, when I was a little girl ,of the blue police box that became something else when you opened the door, that huge console in the middle, where Dr Who would press buttons and it would make perculiar noises like moving a piano! And they would shoot off to strange far away places, I always wanted to be Dr Who’s assistant, I’m talking about Jon Pertwee’s time, if anybody remembers, though I wouldn’t mind being David Tennant’s, the present Dr Who, assistant, but I might a little too old now!
You see ‘Appearences are Deceptive”!! often we get more than we bargain for, in this case, Jesus tells us this is a good thing…….
How do we gain entry? What is the key to the Kingdom?
The key is a gift, we have been given a free Gift of the true Gospel …and it is the most valuable gift you will ever be given.
This GOOD NEWS!!! Is the ultimate hope for Christians;
You can have eternal life and have all your sins forgiven, and be perfect in God’s eyes–right now! And it is a free gift...but you have to believe to receive it!
How?
You must repent (have a changed mind) and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Early in the gospels [Mark 1:15] … Jesus says 'The time is fulfilled , and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel.
We all know what a key is, we all use keys, a key unlocks something that is locked. Before Jesus came to Earth the Kingdom of God was locked, there was no way of an entrance, he showed us how to unlock it, to search and find that inner key within all of us….we have a choice, we either let it rust, or we use it to unlock the door to God’s kingdom and discover the immensity and wonder of God’s love. The Kingdom of god comes with the acceptance of God’s love and God’s basic laws, to love God with all your heart and with all your mind, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, in effect everything can be reduced to this…….
As Leo Tolstoy wrote “the essence of the gospel was that the Kingdom of God is within us”
It’s like we have a little mustard seed planted within our hearts, or a little yeast bubbling in our souls. The seed or the yeast is God’s presence in our lives, challenging us…
Will we let it grow into a tree? Will we let God work through us like yeast?
We might feel small and insignificant in this world, but remember great things happen from small beginnings!, with that seed we can open ourselves to the needs of others, with God’s great love working within us, we can transform and transcend ourselves, we can see the world from another perspective, we can recognise the suffering and needs of others….we have a capacity to love because we know that we are ourselves loved. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John that we have just heard----“love eachother as I have loved you”
We, as Christians, we, as the church, have a mission to embody the Kingdom of God for others, we need to touch outside our safe and secure world the hearts and souls of our neighbours, however unpreposessing they are, however different from us in culture, or race. We are lucky in this country to have such a cosmopolitan mix of people, especially in the cities, we are probably the most tolerant society in the world, but we still have a way to go to be completely inclusive--------I have a wonderful example of inclusivity where I live in london, my block of flats have open walkways outside the doors, and this has given an opportunity for people to become a close knit community, people gather in the walkways for conversation and support which is a very special thing, especially in London!, it amazes me how eclectic the mix of cultures and race it is, we have a old German lady who is an avid atheist!, we have an Ishmaili couple from Kenya, we have a Polish couple from Warsaw, we have an ex-tramp, a retired cockney docker, called Ron, and a Muslim family from Pakistan, the Muslim family consists of three girls who take round food to the neighbours, especially at Ramadam, the eldest talks about her faith and the Quoran with me…we all know eachother, we all support eachother, and I am always grateful to God in showing me this mini microsm of his Kingdom, being inclusive is what it is about!
Love one another – this is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we, as Christians can’t do that, then what hope is there for the world? But if we CAN do that, what contribution might WE make to the peace of a world in the grip of violence, social injustice, terrorism, and war.
We pray that God will help us reach out with love, hope and with that wonderful Good News that the The Kingdom of God is truly at hand for anyone,
and I mean anyone, whatever creed, race, colour and gender, to discover, and once we’ve discovered it then we must surely do our best to share it. That’s what the familiar last verse of
that wonderful hymn ..When I survey the wondrous cross…says so clearly
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
AMEN
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