Here and Now, but Where? - February 20, 2022

Recorded Worship on YouTube

Matthew 13:31-32, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 4:17, Luke 17:20-21

Deborah Laforet

Here and Now, but Where?

Let us pray.  May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day.  Amen.

The last six weeks we have been focusing on the parables of Jesus, and today is our last one.  Four out of six of them have been about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.  We have heard the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who goes in search of a pearl.  We have heard that the kingdom of God is like a man who sows seeds.  We have heard the kingdom of God is like leaven and today we heard the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

In these parables about the kingdom, Jesus talks about the regular and the ordinary.  A merchant who buys and sells pearls goes in search of a pearl.  A sower sows seeds.  A woman uses leaven to make bread.  A mustard seed grows into a shrub.  The kingdom of heaven is found in the ordinary, in the every day, but can become extraordinary.  The merchant gives away all his possessions for just one pearl.  The sower sows on fertile ground and reaps bushels and bushels of grain.  The woman put leaven into a whole lot of flour, and the mustard seed grows into more than just a bush, but a tree.

The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven was a major focus in the ministry of Jesus.  In fact, they are the first words of his ministry in the gospel of Matthew, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and the first words he utters in the gospel of Mark, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”  In the gospel of Luke, you find this message in the midst of a prophetic message of what’s coming, but again, Jesus talks not about the coming of this kingdom, but of its present reality: “For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

The kingdom of God is at hand?  In our midst?  Where?  Where do we see it today, two years into a pandemic, in the midst of a climate crisis, during talks of potential war in the Ukraine, while we continue to uncover graves near former residential schools, and as people protest for their freedoms at border crossings?  Where do we see this kingdom of heaven?

I want to share with you a story, an encounter I had with the kingdom of God this week.  

A few weeks ago, Jessica Baird reached out to me to talk about her Sock Project.  We were finally able to connect this week.  You will hear more about this conversation, but for now, I want to share a little bit about her story and how she began this Sock Project.  This story was in our United Church “Broadview” magazine in December and you can find it online.

Jessica started having medical problems in 2017 and was later diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a kind of arthritis that affects the spine. She knew a family at her church who had experience with lupus, and she reached out to them to say she was experiencing something autoimmune-related. They told her it could take a long time to find a diagnosis, and suggested she get a pair of silly socks to wear to all her medical appointments. Jessica decided to try to get 365 pairs, one for every day of the year. 

She put out a YouTube video explaining her sock-a-day plan and she received so many socks, that she began to offer them to others she connected with on  autoimmune-focused online forums.  Then people started to ask if they could send money to help pay for socks and shipping.  Jessica says, “It grew and turned into a charity. It’s been pretty Holy Spirit-led — a natural thing that took on its own form. It’s not just a charity but a ministry.”  In four years, she had received about 10,000 pairs of socks and $10,000.  Her long-term goal is to fund research for autoimmune diseases globally, and also wants to keep doing education and awareness of auto-immune and chronic diseases.

The kingdom of God is like a person who wanted to wear silly socks to make her happy while she was unwell  She reached out to others for help, and began accumulating so many socks, that she was able to give them away to others who were unwell, bringing happiness to others through the gift of silly socks.  From the ordinary to the extraordinary.

In the book of Ezekiel from our Hebrew Scriptures, we read God’s words: 

I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, 

and become a noble cedar.

Under it every kind of bird will live;

in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. (Ezekiel 17:23)

We hear a lot about the cedars of Lebanon in our bible.  They are large and majestic and used often in building, including in the building of the temple of Jerusalem.  Jesus knew this, but he doesn’t talk about the kingdom of heaven being like a cedar seed that grows into a towering cedar tree, but of the tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed, that grows into a shrub - a large shrub, practically a tree, but a shrub nonetheless.

Jesus gives us the unexpected in these parables.  Jesus, as a practicing Jew, would have known this passage from Ezekiel, but he flips it on its head with the parable we heard today, this parable of the Mustard Seed, this parable where it’s not the cedar that provides shelter for winged creatures, but the mustard shrub.  The people of Israel were waiting for a kingdom like a mighty cedar tree, not a mustard shrub, just as they were waiting for a mighty ruler or warrior as their Messiah, not a poor, itinerant preacher from the very small town of Nazareth.  

From the ordinary, from the every day, from the usual, the typical, the common, the expected, to the extraordinary, the unusual, the exceptional, and the unexpected, and this is happening, the time is at hand, and it is in our midst.  We just have to open our eyes, uncover our ears, open our hearts and minds, and we will discover it, we will discover signs of this kingdom.

Another aspect of these parables is that it’s not just about these common objects - the pearl, the seeds, the leaven, or the socks.  It’s about the ordinary people who seek, who sows, who kneads, who plants, who gives.  When Jesus was telling these parables, he was talking to merchants, to sowers, to people who planted and kneaded.  His message was for them, not for the elite, the famous or infamous, but for the everyday person.  These are people the who will create the kingdom, who are creating the kingdom of heaven in their midst.

Likewise, Jesus is still talking to the everyday person, to you, to us; we are the builders and creators of this kingdom of God, not tomorrow, but today.

I could take this time to name other signs of the kingdom that I’ve seen, butI I want to invite you to take some time now, in the chat box or on your own, to name those common objects and these everyday people who are making the ordinary extraordinary, who are signs that the kingdom is in our midst, is here and now.  Carolyn and I will keep track of those signs from the chat box, and I invite you during the week, to continue to name these signs.  Email me this week and I will share those signs you have named at next week’s service.

Open your eyes, uncover your ears, open your heart and mind.  These signs are all around us.  Jesus lived in an occupied land, a land dominated by a violent empire, but he believed that God’s reign was being created, he saw the signs around him.  He wanted others to see it too, other ordinary people, fishermen, trades people, tax collectors, women and children, the unwell, the lost, those who were struggling to find hope and love and joy.  These can all be found in kingdom of heaven, not later, but here and now.

  May you join God as a co-creator in the building of the kingdom of heaven on earth.  May Christ continue to teach us and give us wisdom.  May the Spirit fill us and surround us with the needed courage, vision, passion, and love as we too announce that the kingdom of God is at hand and in our midst.  May it be so.  Amen.

Deborah Laforet