The Problem With Finding The Kingdom
Sermon
Church People Beware!
I don't know about you, but when I finished reading these parables of the kingdom, I wasn't so sure whether I really wanted to find the kingdom, which may be an odd thing for a preacher to say, I admit.
But think about it -- everybody always makes such a big deal about finding the kingdom. Even Jesus. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and… all these things shall be added unto you." Even Peter Marshall's mother said it when Peter left Scotland for good. "Dinna forget your verse my laddie, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
That's what Christians are supposed to do: go around seeking the kingdom of God. Right? But has anyone ever explored the problems that come with finding this kingdom? There are lots of them and they are hidden right here in this particular text.
First of all, finding the kingdom is something that happens when you're not even looking for it. That's the way it was for C. S. Lewis. One day he just stumbled onto the kingdom. In fact, instead of seeking the kingdom, he was doing his best to try to avoid it. Listen to his own description:
You must picture me alone in that room… night after night, feeling… the steady, unrelenting approach of him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. (Finally, in 1929) I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. (Edited by Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder, "Conversions," Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, pp. 201-202.)
Not all of us are all that happy to have been caught by God. But here we are in church anyway, still trying like Lewis to sort out how we got here in the first place: teenage conversion, a grandparent's fervent prayers or did we just stumble into religion the way Lewis did long ago, holding God off as long as we could and then finally giving in?
It's not that it's wrong to search for the kingdom. That's what the merchant in the second parable was doing and what he found was so spectacular that he sold everything he had to buy it. Searching for something of great value is not bad in itself.
In Virginia there are Civil War buffs who go out with the latest metal detector equipment and search the battlefields for memorabilia. One we went with used to get so excited. He'd get up on a hillside and say, "Here is where it took place. It was such and such a day that this particular battle occurred. The battle lasted only 30 minutes but the fighting was fierce. The Yankee troops came up this hill and the Confederates caught them on the left flank and I think if we look right around here we might find something." It was almost eerie the way he would talk about it like Patton at Palermo. But, sure enough, we'd find some mini-balls and you'd think we'd found a million dollars the way he acted. That's the way merchants in Jesus' day were about pearls of great price. They'd travel to the Persian Gulf or as far as India trying to find one little pearl.
In a way we're all searching for that something that will answer all our questions and solve all our problems, aren't we? And for each one of us it's different. Aren't we all seekers, wrote George Buttrick, in one way or another? We're all looking for something more. "Money is good, but not without friendship; friendship is good, but not outside a higher devotion; devotion to art and music is good, but not without a clear conscience; a clear conscience is good but impossible without forgiveness. So the thoughtful (person) is ever dissatisfied with moderate joys and shortened goals." (Interpreter's Bible, vol. 7, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 420). We are all searching for something -- not just for something more, but for something greater in our lives.
According to Jesus, the greatest of all is the kingdom. And it's not wrong to search for it. But the man in the first parable just stumbled onto the kingdom when he wasn't even looking for it. He found it plowing one day, one poor farmer working another man's field. While he was out there he hit the treasure box with his plow and probably at first didn't even know what he had hit. In those days there were no banks or really safe places to keep the family jewels and treasures, so when soldiers came sweeping through, taking over lands, people would quickly hide their fortune in the ground in a place that only they would know about in the hopes that someday they would return and find it.
It was a buried treasure like this that the man in the parable no doubt found. He wasn't out searching for it. The last thing in his mind as he went out to work that day was discovering enough to retire on while plowing a field.
Jesus' point here is that the unique thing about the kingdom is not its hiddenness, but its everydayness. If our eyes are open, we can stumble into the kingdom every day. That's why Jesus kept saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand." That is to say, it's all around us. It's not so much the fact that the bush was burning that caught Moses' eye that day. It was that any old bush would do on any old day of sheepherding.
The trouble with this bush and the treasure in this field is that it changes your life forever. It makes you do things you don't really want to do; like be really joyful which is not that easy for all of us. Some of us are permanent grumps. And if you're not one yourself perhaps, God forbid, you have to live with one or listen to one who calls everyday and nags about everything under the sun. You know what I'm talking about: folks who always see the dark side of everything and spoil everybody's fun. Did you see the cartoon recently with the two bureaucrats at the Federal Drug Administration? One is saying to the other, "Say, if laughter is the best medicine, shouldn't we be regulating it?" There's always someone trying to put a damper on things.
But, of course, there are others who seem too joyful, too happy all the time. Life can't be that good, that wonderful! And if that's the kind of joy that comes when we find the kingdom, then we don't want any part of it. It seems too frivolous and empty.
But as you would imagine, that's not the joy Jesus had in mind at all. He's talking here about real joy, deep joy, the kind that is always close to tears; like when a loved one dies and since she was suffering so much, we're happy that her suffering is over and she is now in the hands of God and we say to everyone who comes to the funeral, "It's a blessing," and we really mean it. But all the time we're fighting back the tears. This is real joy, deep joy when we feel life to the fullest. Here is the kind of joy that C. S. Lewis had in mind when he talks about his own conversion which he titled Surprised by Joy. "The word ‘joy' is used by him in a special way and is not the same as happiness, gladness or pleasure. In fact, for Lewis it includes a measure of agony and grief, but if once experienced it is eagerly sought for again and again (Kerr, Mulder, p. 199)."
The trouble is not all of us are sure that we are really ready for this kind of joy and that's part of the problem with finding the kingdom: It asks too much of us. It has too much of an edge to it. And the edge really comes out in the third parable where God separates those who understand about the kingdom and live it in their lives and those who don't. The image he uses is one that the disciples would have understood immediately. It would have taken them back to the smell of the sea and the burn of the rope in their hands and the weight of the net as it was dragged through the water. The image of the kingdom here is not of treasures in fields or pearls of great price, but a gospel net that catches all of us, fish of every kind, red and yellow, black and white, whether we like it or not in our town and in this country, and the good are gathered into the boat and the bad are tossed away. How's that for an image of the kingdom? Folks of all kinds hanging around with whom we have to learn to live whether we like it or not. And the image of hell doesn't wait until the afterlife perhaps because some of us live in the hells of our own making right now. According to this parable of the kingdom, Judgment Day is everyday. Now is the net being gathered in and now selfishness is its own condemnation and deceit its own curse.
Do you see now the problem with finding or being found by the kingdom? Whether you stumble across it like the poor man in the field or search for it until you find it like the rich merchant in the marketplace or are caught by it like the fish of the sea, if you're normal at all, you're not really sure you're ready for its joy or its judgment.
But that's not the main problem with finding the kingdom. The main problem with finding the kingdom is that in the end it costs too much. Notice in both early parables, both men gave up everything they had to purchase what was the kingdom to them. Talk about a major gamble, the kind some savings and loans took around the country in the 1980s. But in this case, the two men in the parables gambled much more. Getting in on kingdom action costs you everything you have, says Jesus. That's how precious it is.
That's why you better think twice before you buy into it. Why? Because buying into the kingdom means giving up everything, especially old habits and ways of doing things that are destructive to ourselves and others. It means giving up the kind of stinginess that finds us holding back from God. That's what got Cain in trouble way back in the beginning of Genesis. He held back; he only gave God the dregs instead of the first fruits.
Do you see now the problem with the kingdom? It costs too much. How much does the kingdom cost? It costs you your whole life. And for some people, that's just a little too expensive.
Of course, it wasn't for the man in the field or the merchant in the marketplace. It wasn't for Albert Schweitzer or Mother Theresa or Peter or Paul. They gave up everything. Sold everything to have this one treasure in their hands. Was it because they saw in the kingdom the insearchable riches of Jesus Christ and realized that nothing they owned or had was worth losing out on that? Not even their lives? And suddenly finding the kingdom was no problem at all. Not a sacrifice at all. But sheer joy! Listen to Paul in Philippians: "But whatever gain I had… I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him… (Philippians 3:7-9a)."
Here are the words of one who has found a great treasure, the greatest treasure of all. A treasure more precious than the Crown Jewels or the Taj Mahal. Here are the words of one who knows that in finding this kingdom, she has found a glimpse of God's will for her life. That's why we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." And in finding God's will for our lives we have found our true destiny which is worth more than anything. Finding out why you and I are here on this earth is worth all the gold in the world.
How ever you may find the kingdom in your life, whether you stumble across it coincidentally in an everyday task -- discover it finally after a life-long search or are caught up in it before you know what God has done to you -- how ever you find the kingdom, I hope you don't pass up the chance to buy into it. All it will cost is your life. But it will be the greatest investment and the greatest adventure you've ever made.
The problem with finding the kingdom? With Jesus Christ it's no problem at all.
But think about it -- everybody always makes such a big deal about finding the kingdom. Even Jesus. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and… all these things shall be added unto you." Even Peter Marshall's mother said it when Peter left Scotland for good. "Dinna forget your verse my laddie, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
That's what Christians are supposed to do: go around seeking the kingdom of God. Right? But has anyone ever explored the problems that come with finding this kingdom? There are lots of them and they are hidden right here in this particular text.
First of all, finding the kingdom is something that happens when you're not even looking for it. That's the way it was for C. S. Lewis. One day he just stumbled onto the kingdom. In fact, instead of seeking the kingdom, he was doing his best to try to avoid it. Listen to his own description:
You must picture me alone in that room… night after night, feeling… the steady, unrelenting approach of him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. (Finally, in 1929) I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. (Edited by Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder, "Conversions," Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, pp. 201-202.)
Not all of us are all that happy to have been caught by God. But here we are in church anyway, still trying like Lewis to sort out how we got here in the first place: teenage conversion, a grandparent's fervent prayers or did we just stumble into religion the way Lewis did long ago, holding God off as long as we could and then finally giving in?
It's not that it's wrong to search for the kingdom. That's what the merchant in the second parable was doing and what he found was so spectacular that he sold everything he had to buy it. Searching for something of great value is not bad in itself.
In Virginia there are Civil War buffs who go out with the latest metal detector equipment and search the battlefields for memorabilia. One we went with used to get so excited. He'd get up on a hillside and say, "Here is where it took place. It was such and such a day that this particular battle occurred. The battle lasted only 30 minutes but the fighting was fierce. The Yankee troops came up this hill and the Confederates caught them on the left flank and I think if we look right around here we might find something." It was almost eerie the way he would talk about it like Patton at Palermo. But, sure enough, we'd find some mini-balls and you'd think we'd found a million dollars the way he acted. That's the way merchants in Jesus' day were about pearls of great price. They'd travel to the Persian Gulf or as far as India trying to find one little pearl.
In a way we're all searching for that something that will answer all our questions and solve all our problems, aren't we? And for each one of us it's different. Aren't we all seekers, wrote George Buttrick, in one way or another? We're all looking for something more. "Money is good, but not without friendship; friendship is good, but not outside a higher devotion; devotion to art and music is good, but not without a clear conscience; a clear conscience is good but impossible without forgiveness. So the thoughtful (person) is ever dissatisfied with moderate joys and shortened goals." (Interpreter's Bible, vol. 7, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 420). We are all searching for something -- not just for something more, but for something greater in our lives.
According to Jesus, the greatest of all is the kingdom. And it's not wrong to search for it. But the man in the first parable just stumbled onto the kingdom when he wasn't even looking for it. He found it plowing one day, one poor farmer working another man's field. While he was out there he hit the treasure box with his plow and probably at first didn't even know what he had hit. In those days there were no banks or really safe places to keep the family jewels and treasures, so when soldiers came sweeping through, taking over lands, people would quickly hide their fortune in the ground in a place that only they would know about in the hopes that someday they would return and find it.
It was a buried treasure like this that the man in the parable no doubt found. He wasn't out searching for it. The last thing in his mind as he went out to work that day was discovering enough to retire on while plowing a field.
Jesus' point here is that the unique thing about the kingdom is not its hiddenness, but its everydayness. If our eyes are open, we can stumble into the kingdom every day. That's why Jesus kept saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand." That is to say, it's all around us. It's not so much the fact that the bush was burning that caught Moses' eye that day. It was that any old bush would do on any old day of sheepherding.
The trouble with this bush and the treasure in this field is that it changes your life forever. It makes you do things you don't really want to do; like be really joyful which is not that easy for all of us. Some of us are permanent grumps. And if you're not one yourself perhaps, God forbid, you have to live with one or listen to one who calls everyday and nags about everything under the sun. You know what I'm talking about: folks who always see the dark side of everything and spoil everybody's fun. Did you see the cartoon recently with the two bureaucrats at the Federal Drug Administration? One is saying to the other, "Say, if laughter is the best medicine, shouldn't we be regulating it?" There's always someone trying to put a damper on things.
But, of course, there are others who seem too joyful, too happy all the time. Life can't be that good, that wonderful! And if that's the kind of joy that comes when we find the kingdom, then we don't want any part of it. It seems too frivolous and empty.
But as you would imagine, that's not the joy Jesus had in mind at all. He's talking here about real joy, deep joy, the kind that is always close to tears; like when a loved one dies and since she was suffering so much, we're happy that her suffering is over and she is now in the hands of God and we say to everyone who comes to the funeral, "It's a blessing," and we really mean it. But all the time we're fighting back the tears. This is real joy, deep joy when we feel life to the fullest. Here is the kind of joy that C. S. Lewis had in mind when he talks about his own conversion which he titled Surprised by Joy. "The word ‘joy' is used by him in a special way and is not the same as happiness, gladness or pleasure. In fact, for Lewis it includes a measure of agony and grief, but if once experienced it is eagerly sought for again and again (Kerr, Mulder, p. 199)."
The trouble is not all of us are sure that we are really ready for this kind of joy and that's part of the problem with finding the kingdom: It asks too much of us. It has too much of an edge to it. And the edge really comes out in the third parable where God separates those who understand about the kingdom and live it in their lives and those who don't. The image he uses is one that the disciples would have understood immediately. It would have taken them back to the smell of the sea and the burn of the rope in their hands and the weight of the net as it was dragged through the water. The image of the kingdom here is not of treasures in fields or pearls of great price, but a gospel net that catches all of us, fish of every kind, red and yellow, black and white, whether we like it or not in our town and in this country, and the good are gathered into the boat and the bad are tossed away. How's that for an image of the kingdom? Folks of all kinds hanging around with whom we have to learn to live whether we like it or not. And the image of hell doesn't wait until the afterlife perhaps because some of us live in the hells of our own making right now. According to this parable of the kingdom, Judgment Day is everyday. Now is the net being gathered in and now selfishness is its own condemnation and deceit its own curse.
Do you see now the problem with finding or being found by the kingdom? Whether you stumble across it like the poor man in the field or search for it until you find it like the rich merchant in the marketplace or are caught by it like the fish of the sea, if you're normal at all, you're not really sure you're ready for its joy or its judgment.
But that's not the main problem with finding the kingdom. The main problem with finding the kingdom is that in the end it costs too much. Notice in both early parables, both men gave up everything they had to purchase what was the kingdom to them. Talk about a major gamble, the kind some savings and loans took around the country in the 1980s. But in this case, the two men in the parables gambled much more. Getting in on kingdom action costs you everything you have, says Jesus. That's how precious it is.
That's why you better think twice before you buy into it. Why? Because buying into the kingdom means giving up everything, especially old habits and ways of doing things that are destructive to ourselves and others. It means giving up the kind of stinginess that finds us holding back from God. That's what got Cain in trouble way back in the beginning of Genesis. He held back; he only gave God the dregs instead of the first fruits.
Do you see now the problem with the kingdom? It costs too much. How much does the kingdom cost? It costs you your whole life. And for some people, that's just a little too expensive.
Of course, it wasn't for the man in the field or the merchant in the marketplace. It wasn't for Albert Schweitzer or Mother Theresa or Peter or Paul. They gave up everything. Sold everything to have this one treasure in their hands. Was it because they saw in the kingdom the insearchable riches of Jesus Christ and realized that nothing they owned or had was worth losing out on that? Not even their lives? And suddenly finding the kingdom was no problem at all. Not a sacrifice at all. But sheer joy! Listen to Paul in Philippians: "But whatever gain I had… I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him… (Philippians 3:7-9a)."
Here are the words of one who has found a great treasure, the greatest treasure of all. A treasure more precious than the Crown Jewels or the Taj Mahal. Here are the words of one who knows that in finding this kingdom, she has found a glimpse of God's will for her life. That's why we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." And in finding God's will for our lives we have found our true destiny which is worth more than anything. Finding out why you and I are here on this earth is worth all the gold in the world.
How ever you may find the kingdom in your life, whether you stumble across it coincidentally in an everyday task -- discover it finally after a life-long search or are caught up in it before you know what God has done to you -- how ever you find the kingdom, I hope you don't pass up the chance to buy into it. All it will cost is your life. But it will be the greatest investment and the greatest adventure you've ever made.
The problem with finding the kingdom? With Jesus Christ it's no problem at all.
