The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.
He told them a parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. ( Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52)
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Someone who didn’t attend church once said to me, “ The people who go to church aren’t so good. In fact, “ He said, “ I know people who don’t attend church who are more loving and caring than most of those who do.”
He might be right, I don’t know. But as I told him, church is for bad people. If everybody were good it wouldn’t be needed.
Church is there to help bad people become good people.
And there is no other institution that has that as its goal.
The parable that Jesus told about the fisherman with his net, catching all sorts of fish, tells us that the church, if it is doing its job, is reaching out to and bringing in all sorts of people.
In one big net, without discrimination.
Not only that but we are also told elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew that we should not judge – any of those people – lest we be judged.
So opening the doors of the church to all and sundry is what we should be doing.
I was at St. Mark’s Niagara on the Lake some years ago, doing supply, and I went to the town a few days earlier, to see where it was, and so on. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the church was open to all and sundry – people who might be serious about its history, or need a quiet place to pause for a moment, maybe to meditate, or even, can we say it? To pray?
Of course it is in a tourist town, and has a major part in its history, so it is of especial interest to tourists.
It was very different to a church that Susan and I visited some years ago in the village of Cropthorne, in the British Midlands.
The church was locked and we were just looking around the outside, and after a few minutes I saw this figure come screaming up the driveway on a bike.
It was a gentleman wanting to know what we were doing. And he wasn’t a friendly welcomer either.
It was symptomatic, perhaps of a major problem that threatened to divide the church at that time, which was struggling to decide who to admit and who to refuse to admit.
When the church should have been uniting to reach out to AIDS victims, victims of war, the internet being used to make a spectacle of children being abused , and any number of other urgent causes, time was spent, jawing about who we should admit to the church, and incredibly, at that time in the UK trying to decide in this twenty first century whether women were good enough to become priests and bishops – can you believe that?
But do you know why I think the bad attitudes, and contentiousness arise?
I think it is because many Christians have lost sight of Jesus and what he means to us, and how he wants us to live, and to be, and to be with. We get caught up in the business of the church not the business of Jesus.
“Again,’ Jesus said, “ the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who was seeking goodly pearls. When he had found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
How many of us value the kingdom of heaven that we would sell everything to have it?
I admit, I can’t include myself in that holy company.
I did give up a lot when I went into seminary. Much of what I had, but not everything
But I don’t think it quite means that you have to impoverish yourself. I think it means that we have to realise the great value in being in the kingdom, and cherish it, and want it, and be joyful that we are in it.
You know after retiring for the first time, I served in a number of churches and I can tell you I found few where there was a real sense of joy at being in the Kingdom. At being Christian.
Joy at being a Christian.
And if the kingdom is such a great thing to have – and it is – then how come we are not joyous. Not smiling all the time?
Could it be that we are inwardly gleeful, but trying to avoid smiling – like, it was once said, a funeral director trying not to smile, at a $25,000 funeral?
Here’s a thought from a man who gave up everything, the Apostle Paul. “And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are – get this – are fitting into His plans.
In other words, if we are in the Kingdom, and are living according to God’s plans for His people – and for us – then everything will work for our good.
Fitting into His plans!
I have a lot of great verses underlined in my Bible. I don’t know how I missed that gem. When I read it this week, my goodness, it resonated with me. Because I am a type A person. I have to have everything planned out, and predictable. And if it isn’t then I find my well of patience running dry.
But Paul is telling me that if I am working according to God’s plan for me, then I can let go of that need to have everything in my life shipshape.
And be happy.
And so can you.
And Paul goes further and strengthens our faith which may be weakened when things don’t seem to be going just right – something else I needed to hear right now – he says, “When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because He doesn’t love us any more? And if we are hungry, or penniless or in danger, or threatened with death, has God deserted us?
“No,” he says,” for the scriptures tell us that we must be ready to face death at any moment of the day – and, he goes on -“ I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t. Life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away.
“ Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are – high above the sky or in the deepest ocean – nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.”
So what are we worried about? Why do we have long faces when we come to church. Why do we let small things occupy our minds rather than focusing on God, and trusting?
I don’t know.
Human nature I guess.
But I will tell you something.
Whenever I officiated at a wedding and led the couple through the words of the service, and the vows, I went home to my wife with my commitment to my marriage and to her reinforced.
I needed to be reminded what marriage is.
It isn’t about who makes supper, or who washes the dishes, or whether you should pay some extra money off the mortgage, or take a vacation, or arguing about what to watch on TV, or whose turn is it to put the kids to bed.
As important as those things seem to be.
No, it’s about two people who have committed themselves to be with each other for life. And I mean life. Not a slow death.
It means that two people have covenanted to support each other, to weep with each other, to laugh with each other, to raise a family with each other.
And be happy with each other.
Don’t ever forget that.
Similarly, being a Christian – being in the kingdom – isn’t about ritual; who walks down the aisle first in the clergy procession; who lights which candles in which order; who raises money, makes the coffee, teaches in Sunday School, does the flowers, sends money off to the Third World – those things, as important as they are all come automatically when we live in the Kingdom.
But being a Christian is about a covenant made with Jesus Christ. To follow Him. To put him first. To live within the precepts he has given us; to value him and his sacrifice, (if you saw movie, The Passion of Christ you would value that sacrifice anew) to take the forgiveness that he bought, and accept it and let go of guilt and live happily in Him.
Let go of guilt, and live happily in Him.
And just as listening to the marriage vows again strengthened my commitment to my marriage, hearing Jesus’ parables again, hearing Paul’s words again, strengthen my commitment to Christ.
And remind me that I really don’t have anything to worry about.
As long as I love God and fit into his plans for me.
And if you don’t have anything to worry about, then you can smile when you come to church. You can smile when you go to work.
And you know what happens then?
Someone may ask, “ How is it that Bob is always so happy? Even when we are under pressure here? ” or “How is it that when you go to ask Mary something, she always has time for you?”
And someone else may say, ‘It’s because Bob is a Christian.’ Or ‘Because Mary is a Christian.’
People get to like us. People want to be like us.
To be with us.
They might even ask about coming to church for Pete’s sake!
And since we are secure in God’s love, we don’t have to be protective about church – whether someone will fit in – or whether they will like it here – hey, get that big net out there – and bring them all in. Willy nilly!
Didn’t I say that the church is for bad people – and since God accepted us without judging us too severely – then we accept them without judging them too severely.
But it all starts with us revisiting our Christian promises to Jesus.
Or if we have never made any, doing it today.
Remembering what He means to us, and us to Him, and reveling in it, enjoying it, being joyful in it, living the life of a Christian and loving it.
Unfortunately, McDonald’s got there first. But imagine what a sign posted outside of every church with the words, “We are loving it,” might do.
Amen.