February 27, 2011, Eighth Sunday after Epiphany

Sunday, February 27, 2011
Eighth Sunday after Epiphany
Matthew 6:24-34
The Rev. Jo Miller

Sing: Seek ye first.

What are we seeking when we seek God’s Kingdom? Where do we look? I made a
search on my Bible Works program looking for the phrases Kingdom of God and
Kingdom of Heaven. Consider this approximate but the phrase Kingdom of .... came up
43 times in Matthew’s Gospel and 49 times between Mark, Luke and John. It seems to
me that the author of Matthew’s Gospel is stressing the importance of understanding what Jesus meant about living in the Kingdom of God.

Over the past 2000 years the Christian Church has not always understood this
concept very well. It has been boiled down by some to mean that place we go to when we die if we have believed doctrine correctly. Now that is put rather simply. A decade ago the prosperity Gospel was preaching that when you seek God’s kingdom you will get all these things, you will prosper. I Googled the term and not much has been written on it sense 2006. I think it is another fad that has seen its day.

I am going to present some ideas and you have the option to agree or disagree or
simple ponder. You do not have the option to nap. I don’t allow that during my homilies. It seems to me that the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ primary manifesto, if you please, on what and where the Kingdom is. We could also call it his proclamation, his announcement of, his edict or his teachings about the kingdom. It is scattered throughout Matthew.

Our lectionary readings on the Sermon on the mount started Jan. 30 with the
Beatitudes. We might say the egg has been broken open right at the start. Jesus turns our human kingdom standards up side down. As I have read through this section a number of times, with some people I work with as a spiritual companion and just my own study there are times, I feel I have at least one foot in the kingdom. Sometimes I have only a toe in the kingdom and other times I am saying mia coppa, mia coppa, mia coppa. It is meant to be hard and it is meant to be encouraging.

The encouraging part -- the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees are the
bottom line. If you have ever watched the biggest loser you know there is the yellow line that if you fall below that you are out. So we can say the Pharisees are the yellow line. But, listen to this from Matt. 5:19, “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.” They are still in. That sounds encouraging. But, are we to strive to be the least? There truly is a wideness in God’s mercy. But, opting to sit on the yellow line is not God’s intent for us.

In the Sermon on the mount we hear tensions between how we run our human
kingdoms and God’s kingdom, it is all very counterintuitive. Jesus puts forth a challenge to raise our moral, ethical and spiritual standards; to deepen them and fulfill them. He moves us from practicing external conformity of religious practice (the Pharisees) to the internal change of heart, mind, and soul which moves us into a living faith. We start getting our toe into the kingdom.

What does Jesus call us to do: briefly: 1) be poor in spirit, 2) be meek, 3) hunger
and thirst for true righteousness, 4) be merciful, 5) be salt and light in the world, 6) do not hate or indulge in anger, instead seek to reconcile, 7) do not lust or be sexually unfaithful in your heart, 8) to not seek revenge but find creative and nonviolent ways to overcome evil, 9) love your enemies, 10) be generous, 11) not judge, and 12) not worry. Faith is to be lived 24-7.

Perhaps the hardest part for Americans overall are the statements throughout the
Gospel that address wealth and greed. If we think of our collective behavior in America and how our lives revolve around status, wealth, and consumption then we should not be surprised by the recession we are in. The real kicker here is that the rich continue to get rich while the least and the last get even less.

So where is the kingdom? Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7 says the kingdom is at hand.
Luke 17:21 says “The Kingdom of God is within you.” St. Catherine of Siena understood
it in the 13 hundreds when she is quoted as saying: “The path to heaven lies through
heaven, and all the way to heaven is heaven.”

Sometimes the kingdom of God starts very small within us- small as a mustard
seed. Sometimes the Kingdom of God is seen when God’s Spirit grabs hold of us and
brings us back when we have gone astray. Perhaps the kingdom is that joyful, peaceful
place in God’s presence and is experienced so fully that all who are there gladly do God’s will. I think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It can refer to time as well as a place, a when as well as a where, perhaps our life after life.

Brian McLaren writes: “If Jesus was right, if the Kingdom of God has come and is
coming the many ways described, if we do indeed have the choice today and every day to seek it, enter it, receive it, live it as citizens of it, invest in it even suffer and sacrifice for it then today our future hangs in the balance no less than it did for Jesus’ original hearers in AD 30.” It is always about choice. We can seek to live the moral, ethical life Jesus put forth in the name of God or we choose our human way.

Sometimes I know I have a foot firmly in the kingdom and other times it is only a
toe. Sometimes the cares of the world makes me blind or deaf to kingdom’s call. The
Kingdom is where we live and move and have our being. It is here, it is now, it is
wherever you go. We are called to live it 24- 7.