2012:4 - Weeds

Friday morning I will preach for the morning mass at the seminary. After breakfast Hans and I will take the Metro to central Cairo and I will preach at St. Andrew's Church, a congregation supported by the ELCA. What follows is the version of my homily that I intend to preach for my students tomorrow morning. I'm endebted to David Lose, Dear Working Preacher for a great image of the kingdom of God that I hope will be a word good news to my students tomorrow morning before they leave on Saturday to vote in the presidential election.

 

Mark 4:26-32

What is the kingdom of God like? Really what is the kingdom of God like? I want you to close your eyes and imagine for a moment. What do you see? What do you imagine?

 

Maybe you see a heavenly palace where all is beautiful and pure and those who are dead are at peace. Their sicknesses healed. Their earthly sins forgiven. Their life restored and whole. That is a good picture of the kingdom of God.

Maybe you see a world where peace and justice and security are normal. A world where governments are fair. Where all people no matter their religion, or the color of their skin, or whether they are men or women, have the same rights and opportunities in the world. Where people live freely without worrying about their safety. That is a good picture of the kingdom of God.

Maybe you see your own most perfect self. Your self filled with Christ-like love for others. Your self freed from temptation and sin. This is a good picture of the kingdom of God.

Maybe you see something different. And this is also good. It’s good to imagine what the kingdom of God is like.

Jesus used parables to try and teach his disciples about the kingdom of God. Today we hear two of them. I want us to focus on the second of Jesus parables.

“[The kingdom of God] is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs …” (Mark 4:31)

Think of what Jesus is saying – the kingdom of heaven is like a weed. Yes. A weed. What is a weed? It is a plant that is not welcome in a garden or a field. It is a plant that gets in the way of what we want to grow. It is plant that if it is not taken away has the power to take over and destroy the entire crop of a field. Or ruin the beauty of a garden.

What Jesus is teaching us is that the kingdom of God isn’t something we can control. It’s not completely safe. It’s especially not safe if we are satisfied with the ways things are. Rather, the kingdom of God comes to overturn systems, to take over, to forever change the kingdoms of this world.

The kingdom of God is not only up there, or out there, or in here – the kingdom of God is all of those things AND it is everywhere. At least that is the picture that Jesus wants us to have of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a weed that is out of control, filling all the empty places of this world, taking over the neat and clean and organized systems that we create and turning them into something new. Maybe not something that is entirely beautiful. But something that is of God living and breathing in this world . . . and not of us.

Do you remember where you were on Friday 11 February 2011? I’m sure you do. It was the day that Mubarak stepped down as the president of Egypt. Every day from 25 January until 11 February I had reading everything I could see in the newspaper. I had been watching everything I could see on television. With you I had been watching and waiting to see what would come from Egypt’s peaceful revolution. And when Mubarak left, I cried with joy for you and for all of Egypt. And that night at a meeting I told the people with me – “Today the kingdom of God is closer to reality for Egyptians.” I believed that then. I still believe that today.

I know that the last 16 months have been difficult for Egypt, especially for Christians. Every day I pray that Egypt will become a place that is safe, peaceful and just for ALL Egyptians. As I listen to you speaking with me this summer I hear that you have questions about the future. Some of you say the revolution is over. Some of you say that the revolution has only begun. I try to understand, but I know that at the end of the summer course I will go home and you will continue to live here and try to make the best of the uncertainty that each new day brings.

It’s because you live with all of this uncertainty, with so many questions about what tomorrow will bring – that I think Jesus’ words today are good news for us, especially I hope for you. The kingdom of God is not neat and orderly. The kingdom of God is like a weed, taking over governments that are corrupt, destroying systems that are unjust, defeating rulers that only care about power. To say that the kingdom of God is like a weed – is to say that hope is alive for us! To say that the kingdom of God is like a weed – is to say that as disciples of God’s kingdom every vote we cast, every word we speak, every opinion we express, every powerful person or powerful system that we challenge, every injustice we stand against – is an act of helping the weeds of God’s kingdom to spread and change the world.

May it be so!