Keys To the Kingdom …

Matthew 16: 13-20

Charles J. Tomlin, March 7th, 2021, 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Kingdom of God Series, 10 of 14

 

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

 14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

 17 And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was1 the Messiah (Matt. 16:13-20 NRS).

         For these past 10 weeks we have been considering passages about the Kingdom of God in Matthew’s gospel.   We’ve seen how God’s kingdom comes near to us in the life and teachings of Jesus, especially as it’s revealed in Jesus’ own parables and stories.  

But while the kingdom comes close to us, God’s kingdom has never been fully realized as a full-blown political and earthly reality.   God’s kingdom is only realized in the personal and public lives and actions of those who choose to trust and live under God’s rule, struggling to do justice and love mercy in a world where evil can be overwhelming.   

This is exactly why Jesus points out that this kingdom remains small, hidden, or surprising like a seed, a treasure or like the find in a fisherman’s net.  This is how the kingdom will be known, in small, growing, surprising and valued ways, until that day when ‘the kingdoms of this world’ becomes the ‘kingdoms of our Lord’ (Rev 11.15).  So, until that day comes, we live in eager expectation this kingdom that is still coming, but for now remains elusive, tentative, and incomplete.

But this kind of hesitant hope is not all we have.  We also live with the possibilities of the kingdom being as close to us now as it was for those who first heard Jesus announcing it.    As Jesus said in his parables, ‘the kingdom is like or can be compared to something that is happening around us, right now. 

So, with this perspective in mind, I want us to consider what Matthew means about the ‘keys to the kingdom’ which were given not only to Peter but to us too.  We want to consider how we can unlock the reality of God’s kingdom in our lives today, even before it is fully realized in the world.

 

WHO DO PEOPLE SAY...I AM? (13)

We want to begin by examining the drama taking place in this text.  Jesus has taken his disciples far away from the Jewish world into gentile territory, in the countryside near Caesarea Philippi.   He has taken them there to ask questions too dangerous to ask back home.

Things were already getting dangerous in Israel because all kinds of questions were swirling about Jesus, about his identity, about his teachings, and about his public ministry.   Some of these same questions still surround the subject of Jesus’ today.   In fact, most questions point straight back to the very first question Jesus asked his disciples here: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" (Matt. 16:13 NRS).

What is most remarkable about Jesus is that from opening days of his earthly ministry, people were already wondering, ‘Who is this fellow?’  “Isn’t this Joseph, the carpenter’s son?”  Very quickly people understood there was something different, unique, and special about him.  He became so popular that the authorities were constantly sending ‘spies’ to ‘trip him up’.  The only way they finally got to him was to pay one of his own disciples to betrayed him during the night, so people would not see what was happening.   Jesus was arrested, sent through a mock trial, accused of blasphemy, and then finally crucified by the Roman occupiers.

No competent historian would dispute these most basic events in the gospels.   Jesus lived.  Jesus was a religious teacher.  He was much beloved at first, but his innovative ideas insulted the religious elite of Jerusalem and he eventually came to be hated. 

Of course, the New Testament has a lot more to say.   It not only records Jesus’ life and teachings through stories and parables, but each gospel makes similar claims that on the third day after he cruelly crucified, Jesus appeared to his disciples, and was later seen by at least 500 eyewitnesses.   Then, within only a couple of months, the disciples began to openly proclaim Jesus with great certainty, even putting their own lives at risk too.  At the core of their message was that Jesus is God’s true Messiah, victorious over sin and death.  He is the only true savior of the world.  

Even skeptics, must admit that’s a pretty big jump for someone who only a couple months before was considered a criminal.   And this astounding story about Jesus has impacted and directed the moral and religious conscience of western cultures for about 1700 years, up until our own time.  Even today, Jesus is still the most discussed and debated religious figure in human history who is also the saving hope of about 2.4 billion people around the world.            

Because of this incredible and still mystifying story, we too must consider who he was, not only historically, but personally.  In this text too, it moves from asking what others think about Jesus to asking his disciples “Who do you say that I am?”  This is where the question about Jesus still leads.  His story, when rightly understood, has the tendency to get into us; even to see right through us.  It’s not only a story for experts to think about, but the question of Jesus seeks us out personally, one by one, person to person, and asks what we think or believe about him. 

Now, what about this question: Who is Jesus to you?  This is still a ‘loaded’ question because it has been asked over and over for 2000 years.  And the typical answer normally goes in one of two directions, just like it did in the gospel story.   People either loved him or hated him, adored him, or despised him, some followed, but others ignored him.  There is hardly any room for being neutral about Jesus.  As one respected scholar put it, today Jesus is much more a question put to us, than an answer.  What he means is that the life of this rejected, crucified Messiah, still questions how we should be living our own lives.    The point of Jesus isn’t to figure him out, but it’s to let the truth about Jesus guide us in figuring out who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do with our lives.

Since Jesus is still the most important question for us, it naturally follows that we must first seek to understand Jesus’ own identity, so we can know how shape our own.  For those of us who are Christians, even when we say that we believe that Jesus is God come to us in human flesh, or that we have already trusted in him as our Savior, if we are honest, there are still many unanswered and unanswerable questions about him.  

Interestingly, most of our questions go right back to the gospel accounts themselves since Jesus never officially nor directly announced himself as the Messiah.   Jesus allowed others to think, consider or claim these kinds of things about him, but rarely did Jesus say these things about himself, at least not directly.   A clear example his reluctance is right here at the end of today’s text.  Jesus instructs his disciples not to tell ‘anyone’ about what he has just said (v. 20).  He took this approach many times after someone had been healed by their faith, not so much by him.

Jesus own reluctance to openly claim himself Israel’s promised Messiah still sounds strange to us.  Scholars have for his reluctance: ‘The Messianic Secret’.  But why did Jesus keep his own identity hidden?  Was he deliberately trying to stay alive long enough to finish his work?  Did he want his own disciples to take responsibility in identifying him?   Perhaps Jesus even thought his disciples, nor the world, were ready to know the full truth about him before the resurrection.  It could have been any of these, but whatever the reason, Jesus commanded his disciples not to tell anyone about who he is, or what he has done.  But the ‘word’ about him usually got out anyway.

As we all know, the gospels conclude with the disciples being challenged to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world, but Matthew tells us that some were still struggling with questions about him?  Even with Jesus standing right in front of them, Matthew’s gospel says some’ among his disciples ‘still doubted’.   That is certainly a strange way to put an evangelistic story together, don’t you think? 

Later on, after Peter began preaching that Jesus is the saving power of God (Acts 2-4) and the missionary work of the church was reaching into the Gentile world through Paul’s witness (Acts 9ff), as the New Testament period closes there are still serious questions surfacing about him.  The faith of Jesus and faith in Jesus was still being refined and being debated.  Some were even reconsidering whether to stay with Jesus or to leave the faith altogether. That’s what the book of Galatians and Hebrews were about.  They were written to encourage Christ-following-Jews to stay with Jesus because some were seriously considering abandoning him.  

These kinds of questions are still being asked by Christians today, especially with the decline of Christianity in the west, the decrease in church attendance and the dominating culture of mistrust of most forms of establishment.  Even many people who were raised in church and been baptized as believers, are now asking themselves, why should I stay with Jesus?  Does his life or message really make any difference for me?

Since there are always questions about Him that have yet to be fully answered, differing interpretations about him never ends.  And for us too, even after making Jesus our Savior, we are constantly challenged every day to decide afresh what Jesus means for the living of our own days.  

Surprisingly, this constant questioning can be a good thing.   We must never stop considering, thinking, or wondering about Jesus, just like we should daily look out our windows, listen or read the news and wonder about life.  For if we ever stop listening, thinking, or questioning, we know we are headed toward darkness and death, not light or life.   And if we ever stop thinking about the meaning of Jesus for the world or for our lives, we will be headed into a world without light and hope.  

So, questions are good.   We must continue to reflect upon and decide how Jesus influences our lives, not merely as a historical figure, but the living and indwelling Spirit of God’s abiding presence.   This why the angels name Jesus “Immanuel—God with us”.   When the Spirit of all life is with us and in us, we can keep a dialogue about life going on within our hearts, raising life’s most important questions every day.   We do this by allowing the ‘Spirit of Jesus’ and the spirit of who he was and what he did, to keep questioning us, to keep guiding us, and to continue to inspire us in the way we should love God and each other, and in who we should be and in how we should live our lives.

 

UPON THIS ROCK... (18)

Now, look back at our text for a brief moment.   When Simon Peter, the outspoken one, answered for the rest of the disciples, saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Peter is saying something very Jewish; “You are the Messiah”.  He is also saying something very Gentile: You are ‘the Son of the Living God.”  I could say more about that, but what is most important for us is that this very confession of faith in Jesus is the ‘rock’ upon which the church and the kingdom of God is established.   Confessing Jesus as the long-awaited and promised Messiah of Israel, God’s anointed one, and the true ‘Son of God’ ruling in the world, is the ‘key to the kingdom’. 

As God’s true Son and God’s anointed one, Jesus isn’t like other earthly rulers, either in Israel’ past, nor in Rome’s present rule.  Those rulers  didn’t rule righteously, but Jesus does.  In great contrast, Jesus rules over God’s kingdom that is already present and hidden in human hearts, so that a Jesus can unlock the door to God’s kingdom, on earth, as it is in heaven.

So, Peter isn’t the ‘rock’ or the ‘foundation’ of the church, but it’s Peter’s rock-solid confession of who Jesus is, as God’s Messiah, God’s Kingly ruler, and God’s anointed one is the key.   This is what establishes the church as the people of God’s eternal kingdom, apart from the people of Israel.  The future of God’s saving work for the whole world is based upon those who profess and confess faith in Jesus and thereby, create the body of Christ in the world, the church.  

Jesus promises that the church, the people, who confess the truth about him and live the truth about him, cannot and will not die.  This is what it means when Jesus says the ‘gates of Hades’ or ‘death’ will not overcome the church.  Jesus isn’t saying that a church can’t die, nor is he even saying ‘the Church’ or Christianity can’t die.  No, what Jesus is saying is that as long anyone confesses faith in him, in Jesus, the church lives.  The ‘rock’ that holds up the church is a living, confessing, believing, and trusting faith that is rooted and grounded in him.  Without faith, there is no foundation for the church, and would crumble.   But where there is a confessing faith in Jesus Christ, there is foundation that holds, and there is always a living, present, confessing church!

 

WHATEVER YOU LOOSE...BIND  (19)

Now, finally, we arrive at the place where we’ve been all along, as the poet says, but we might only now recognize it for the very first time.   The church of Jesus Christ doesn’t survive as a nice, moral, social club, where people meet to have polite fellowships with and talk about personal or community needs.  The church needs to do this, but this is not what keeps the church alive.  

The church also doesn’t survive as a interesting place to casually study a ‘good book’, even hearing from ‘the good book’,  or by asking deep questions about life, thinking good thoughts about life, nor does the church survive by challenging us to live good and better lives.  Of course, the church needs to do these things too, especially since we learn about Jesus in the greatest book of all.   But for the church to live, to be vibrant and alive in the world today, it must be more than a place to read, hear and think about Jesus.  It must also be a place where we confess and live as if Jesus is our savior, our redeemer, and our lord.

While fellowship, studying, hearing the word, singing or learning about life is all very important for our spiritual lives,  the church is without a foundation and is in danger of decline and death, unless it continues to be a church made up of people who confess faith in the living Spirit of Jesus Christ, who gives us our spiritual life and community.   The difference between being a living church, rather than a dying church, is determined by the actual faith we continue to confess in Jesus as the Christ.

This living confession of our faith in Jesus Christ, is what releases God’s saving presence among us because is it is still Jesus who holds the key to our spiritual life and to our hope of life to come.  Through his living, spiritual presence made present in his own ethical, moral, and kingdom teachings new worlds of human possibilities open us, because Jesus is the key and holds the keys to God’s kingdom, on earth, as it is in heaven.  

This explains to me why Jesus gave Peter these ‘keys to the kingdom’ right after this great confession.   It also explains why immediately after this confession and passing on the keys to Peter, that Jesus informed his disciples that he must ‘suffer’, ‘die’ and be raised on the third day.   The physical, human Jesus would not be in this world much longer, but the kingdom was still coming near.  Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as a particular Jewish Messiah who offered salvation to Israel, but was rejected by them,  God has now planted a seed, hid a great treasure, so that God’s saving grace and goodness can be fully cast like a net into the whole wide world.

This is what Jesus means by those strange words given to Peter, when he gave him the keys of the kingdom, then concluded:  ‘Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 16:19 NRS).   Most commentaries will interpret these ‘keys’ to mean that Jesus passes on authority and power to the church, so that the church has a final say in who gets to heaven.

While I do think Jesus is passing own his authority to the church, this authority is not about Saint Peter, or the church deciding who gets into heaven or who doesn’t.   This is about the church being the way to unlock the doors for the world to enter the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.   Holding the keys is an authority that resides in the church’s own faith and confession of Jesus Christ.  This authority is given to the church and to churches who remain connected to the spiritual presence of Jesus and follow Jesus’ teachings and commands. 

When we, the people of God, live and do God’s will on earth, we are given the ‘keys to the kingdom’.   How we confess Christ and live Christ in the world, determine the nearness of the kingdom.   The only way the church, or we, would ever have any kind of access these keys, is the same way Peter gained access to them; by confessing and then living for Jesus as the true saving Messiah, the true Son of God, who is the saving hope for the world.   Do you have the keys?  Amen.  

The Kingdom Is Like …

Matthew 13: 31-34; 44-51

Charles J. Tomlin, February 28, 2021,

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Kingdom of God Series, 9 of 14

 

He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;

 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

 33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with1 three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

 34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.

 

 44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;

 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

 47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;

 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.

 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous

 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."    

(Matt. 13:31-51 NRS).

 

Sometimes it’s hard to see how things really are.  

It’s easy, as human beings, who live such short lives, with such a limited perspective on things, to see what everything we need to see.

 

There's a charming story that Thomas Wheeler, one time CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (a.k.a. MassMutual), tells on himself: He and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when he noticed that their car was low on gas.

 

Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one gas pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil, then went for a little walk around the station to stretch his legs.

 

As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him say, "It was great talking to you."

 

As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted she did. They had gone to high school together and had dated steadily for about a year.

 

"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged Wheeler.

 

"If you had married him, you'd be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer."

 

"My dear," replied his wife, "if I had married him, he'd be the chief executive officer and you'd be the gas station attendant."

 

Jesus understood this propensity for us humans to get it wrong, especially when it comes to things spiritual.   That’s why Jesus taught in parables.  Also, Jesus never explained exactly what God’s kingdom was, since we might get it wrong.   He only told us what it was ‘like’.  

 

Well then, what is the kingdom like?  

 

THE SMALLEST OF ALL SEEDS

One of the possible answers to the mystery or secret of God’s kingdom might be seen in Jesus most famous description of the kingdom being ‘like a mustard seed’.   He is implying that the kingdom is like a small, tiny seed can grow into something even bigger or greater than other larger seeds.  That’s certainly part of it, but perhaps Jesus implied even more than this.

 

From what I know about gardening, and I bet you do too, is that a seed is something that hasn’t even been planted yet; it hasn’t even germinated nor spouted, right?  You know what it might be, or what it should become, but what it actually will become hasn’t happened just yet.  

 

And although you have all kinds of faith or hope in what is programed in this tiny little seed, there are, of course no real, hard, or firm guarantees that this tiny little seed will germinate, grow and bear fruit.  Hopes, yes.  Faith, yes.  Probability. Yes, that too.  But guarantees.  No!  It should grow and produce, but that’s hasn’t happened yet, and the outcome still has all kinds of other variables too.  

 

So, when Jesus says the kingdom is like a ‘sower going out to sow’ in one story, then tells us it’s like a small, tiny little mustard seed, he may be pointing out not only how small things can become big, but he might also be saying that whole reality of the kingdom hasn’t even begun to grow enough to see exactly what God has planned or envisioned.   It might even mean that God has left exact design of the coming kingdom open, so human can make their own contribution to this kingdom ‘project’.

 

So, if it is true that ‘it does not yet appear what it or what we will be’ because this kingdom is now just like a ‘tiny seed’ but is also like ‘yeast’ rising in uncooked bread,  what in the world can it mean that this same ‘not-yet-germinated’ and ‘uncooked’ kingdom (which may rise, or may not) can also be a ‘treasure in a field, a pearl of great value, or is like ‘net’ that catches all kinds of fish?   How do you put all these images together and make some kind of logical sense to it?  

 

And since no one fully knows how this kingdom will grow (or if, at least in our generation), nor what this kingdom will eventually look like, who in the world would dare invest to buy into something we have firm idea of what it will finally be, or if it will be?   Who would buy into that?  

 

Well, my only answer is that people do it every day when they buy into the stock market, don’t they?   Think about it?  Who really knows what is going to happen to your money?  You hope that what you invest will grow.  The odds are that it will, but those are odds which still sounds a lot more like Las Vegas than a God’s coming kingdom.  

 

Recently, I got a scary letter from my retirement fund advisor and the very first line said something nobody ever wants to read about everything you’ve ever saved up for retirement.   THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES YOUR INVESTMENT WILL KEEP ITS VALUE.   

 

A line like that sure makes God’s kingdom look a lot more promising than a retirement fund or stock market, doesn’t it? 

 

So, just how promising is this kingdom Jesus says is like the ‘smallest of seeds, a hidden treasure, or is like a net that will catch, who knows what?   Is this something worth investing our lives in, especially today, when it looks like the church and the Christian Faith too is shrinking, rather than growing, maybe even disappearing off the face of the earth?  

 

Several years ago,  during when the Southern Baptist political and theological controversy was in full swing,  the President of Mercer University, a noted Baptist School in Georgia,  wrote a book that a lot of people who were in the political takeover did not appreciate.  It was entitled, “When We Talk About God, Let’s Be Honest”.   What made some folks upset is that it implied that there might be some ‘dishonesty’ going on within Baptist circles at the time.   It implied that some Baptist preachers might be more focused on manipulating people with what people wanted to believe than telling the kind of truth that’s often hard for people to swallow, and is never popular, but is nevertheless, true. 

 

Kirby Godsey wasn’t really original with the idea of ‘honesty’ in religion, because about 30 years before his book, an Anglican Bishop in England had written his own book with the title, “Honest To God”.   In that book too, the Bishop was trying to move people forward in the way they interpreted the truth of the Bible, the truth about God, and the truth in the Christian Faith, which may be sometimes difficult to hear.

 

There’s something of that kind of truth-telling going on with Jesus’ parables.   Jesus is trying to tell his disciples, and anyone who might be interested in knowing the truth about some of the mysteries, secrets, and hidden realities about God’s coming kingdom, which people may not want to hear, nor be fully ready to hear.  So, Jesus ‘hides’ these truths or secrets in stories, that you they can remain hidden, if his hearers aren’t ready to make the effort, or mental investment it may take to open their minds and to consider it.

 

And the very first, unexpected, difficult, and challenging truth about God’s kingdom, is that it’s small.  No, it’s tiny.  Well, let’s just admit it, it’s like the ‘smallest of all seeds’.  It looks like it will never amount to anything.  

 

Jesus certainly isn’t like that Vacuum Cleaner Salesman, who used to throw all that dirt on you carpet, and then show you how his product would suck be instantly greater than anything else you’ve ever seen.   Jesus isn’t trying to impress you with how the instantly big or better, the kingdom is, but Jesus is trying to show us that the kingdom must grow and develop, in some very ordinary ways.  

 

The honesty of Jesus that is clear, whether we want to hear it or not, is that God’s is never going start out by being a ‘big’, impressive, human or divine enterprise.  The true kingdom will always start out in small, unnoticed, mostly unobservable things.  True faith, true kingdom work, which results in making a real, lasting, impact, is always about doing small things that may not have immediate results.

 

When I visited an American church in Germany, upon the installation of a new English Speaking pastor,  the pastor preached that day, throwing out a challenge to his little 20 or 30 member church, saying we are going to ‘win this whole city to Christ’.   I thought that was a little too big of a challenge for small little group of English speaking Baptists, who were living in a city of 10 million German speaking citizens.   That pastor was starting out ‘big’, which I thought was too big.  It was like he was planting trees and hoping they would make up an automatic forest, when he should have been challenging his people to plant little seeds of faithful witness everywhere, and then trusting to see what God might do with them.

 

So, what’s wrong with planting little seeds?   Well, it’s hard work, isn’t it?   And it also takes time, too.   There are no instant results.   Thinking about planting seeds, most of you recall the story of Johnny Appleseed, don’t you?   Appleseed was a young man who, in early pioneer America, left the comfort of the colonies, and western frontier areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, not so much planting seeds for apple trees, but even more wisely,  establishing apple orchards and tree nurseries.  He never married.  He lived frugally.  He dressed modestly.  He worked from sunup until dust every day.  

 

A story about his conversion says that preacher was preaching about people indulging in all kinds of luxuries like drinking tea and fine clothing, when he challenged his hearers, “Show me a primitive Christian who will go barefoot into heaven in common clothes!”  It is said that young Johnny walked the isle and said, “I am that primitive Christian!”

 

What I think is most impressive about the story of Johnny Appleseed is that everything he did, he did on a most personal, one-on-one level, whether it was meeting and befriending people, including Indians, which he made his friends, who called him, the great Spirit’, to traveling on foot, often barefoot, doing the simple, hard work of establishing tree nurseries, that would all start out small, but would eventually produce food, long after he was gone.  

 

I think that’s the exactly the simple, honest, kind of image, Jesus had in mind, when he said ‘the kingdom is like it is the smallest of all the seeds, ...which only later becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches" (Matt. 13:32 NRS).   The planting of the seed, like the work of the kingdom, goes practically unnoticed and is unremarkable in most every way.   It’s not until much later that the work of sowing, planting and after years of natural growth, that that seed becomes a shelter for the birds. 

 

Thus the kingdom is about doing these small, faithful, hopeful things.   The results will come, but they not always been immediately seen or noticed by us.   Right now, the results can only be believed and lived by faith.

       

A TREASURE HIDDEN IN A FIELD

Another thing Jesus honestly says about the kingdom is that it’s like hidden treasure; it’s like a valuable pearl.  

 

There was a news story a few years ago about an U.S. Air Force veteran who bought a Rolex watch in 1974 through the Air Force base exchange while stationed in Thailand. He bought the watch, a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph after hearing it was good for scuba diving.

 

When he received the Rolex, he decided it was too nice to wear in saltwater and decided to lock it away in a safe deposit box. There it remained for nearly five decades.  At the time he bought it, the watch cost $345.97, which was a lot of money to pay for a watch in 1974, especially for a military man whose salary was between $300 and $400 a month. But it turned out to be quite a good investment.

 

While appearing on an episode of "Antiques Roadshow" filmed in Fargo, N.D., this veteran learned his watch, which was unworn and came with its original box, certification and a guarantee could fetch between $500,000 and $700,000 at auction. Upon learning the value of the rare, pristine watch, this battle-tested veteran collapsed to the ground.

We all like to think about uncovering some hidden, buried treasure.  But hidden treasure can be difficult to find, and even if you find it, it can be difficult to cash for what it’s really worth.  It’s the same way with finding a ‘pearl’ of great value.   Did you notice that only one ‘pearl’ is found, and in order to buy it, the person has to sell everything he has?  How do you live your life when you sell everything you have and all you now own is a pearl to look at? 

The point Jesus was making isn’t just that the kingdom is like a treasure, which it obviously is, but it’s also a treasure that is still hidden to most people, and is somewhat inaccessible to us, at least right now.  That’s why the kingdom is always ‘coming’ but isn’t realized in the world, except by those who believe and give their whole selves to it.   In this way, the kingdom isn’t something we have, but the kingdom has us.  While God’s coming kingdom is invisible to most people, the reality and value of this kingdom is only seen in how we live our lives toward this kingdom which is now only firmly established in our hearts.

 

When John Lewis, the black congressman from Alabama died summer, he left quite a legacy of believing in and hoping for a very different world than the one he grew up in 1950 and 60’s segregated Alabama of the Deep South.  Lewis was part of the Freedom writers who challenged the injustice of that world, hoping that it would invite or force change.  In March of 1965, Lewis participated in a peaceful protest for justice walking across the Edward Pettus bridge in Selma, where he was severely beaten by police and arrested.   The truth Lewis stood for was hidden deeply in his heart at that time, but was still invisible to most of the world outside the black community.

 

In a final letter which Lewis wrote to those young people who are still marching for justice, explaining how Martin Luther King Jr. had inspired him to believe a new way of life in America that doesn’t have to remain hidden, saying:

 “Each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.  Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

 

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

 

Then finally, he concluded his letter to the young: 

‘Let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

 

Those are powerful words from a man who was as much of a Christian, as any congressman has ever been, staying true to the heart of Jesus’ message of a kingdom that can still ‘come’ on earth, as it is in heaven, if we will follow, preach, teach, and continue to live the way of Jesus in the world.

 

A NET CAST INTO THE SEA

Finally, Jesus says that the kingdom not only begins small, hidden away in the hearts of those who believe that the kingdom can come, but Jesus ends with an image that ties everything together, with the casting of a net that catches all kinds of fish.

 

That’s the problem and the fun of fishing, especially when you are using a net.  You never know what you might catch.   

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net, not the Internet, although there are some similarities, but it’s like a dragnet, that you let down in the water capable of dragging anything in its way to shore.

Someone once lamented, “I've got to stop doing business with anybody I meet at church. I get burned every time."

It’s true, you know,  people who try to do good in this world, whether it’s in the church, in politics, or in some other form of human work or relationships, can get hurt, especially when you have a good heart and you are trying to do good things.   Whether working for good in the church, or in the world, you’ll find all kinds of different people caught up in the ‘net’ of what still needs to be done in this world.  

That’s the point Jesus is trying to make too.   The Kingdom of God is mixed,  and sometime it gets ‘mixed up’ and tangled up in other things.  When you are trying to do good work, and especially when you are trying to do good work, strange things will get hooked in the net.   But it’s not up to us, the fish, to do the sorting out.   As Jesus told in the story about the weeds, he now reminds us that only the angels will straighten things up and sort things out on the final day.

A preacher told how he was preaching in Kansas several years ago in a shiny little Methodist church in a quaint little town. The custodian opened the doors just before time for service and quickly locked them as people left. “We like to keep things nice around here," explained the pastor. “WE like to find a few fine new members to offset the losses and keep things stable around here.”   The preacher commented, ‘Well, I guess the evangelism message of that church was like the Marine Corp motto: “We could use a few good men."

But the church isn’t supposed to be selective about members. It’s supposed to be ‘whosoever will may come.’ Let the wheat and the weeds grow together, and the let dragnet bring in whatever it may, there is plenty of time for sorting at the close of the day.

This is what the kingdom is: It starts small like a mustard seed.  It’s like a hidden treasure of hope buried deep in our hearts, but then, its finally about opening our hearts to let down a net of faith, hope, love to catch, whoever will come and dare to dream God’s dream of a whole new world.  Will you open your heart to God’s new possibilities?    Amen.   

The Kingdom…Compared

Matthew 13: 24-30

Charles J. Tomlin, February 21, 2021,

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Kingdom of God Series, 8 of 14

 

He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field;

 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.

 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.

 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?'

 28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'

 29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.

 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" (Matt. 13:24-30 NRS)

 

Have you been ‘canceled’ yet?   

Last year, a movement began to cancel all the wrongs of the past.  It even has had a name: it’s called, “cancel culture.”

In times past, movements like this were called “book burnings”.  To cancel a person with public ideas had to be done by ‘burning their books’.  But today, since we have more digital footprints than literary footprints, ‘canceling’ is the new way to publicly reject, ignore, and rid those who may have offended us.

The only way to avoid being canceled, is either to completely buy in to what is being promoted as being right at the the moment, or to keep quiet altogether.  But since “silence” is being considered ‘violence’, that really isn’t an option either.  So, your only options are to agree to what most everybody thinks or be canceled by the dominating culture.  That’s why it’s called ‘cancel culture.’

WEEDS AMONG THE WHEAT

 

This whole idea of ‘cancel culture’ represents a kind of social or political purity test.   As cultures change, and they’re always are changing, these kinds of ‘tests’  define who or what is in; or who or what is out. 

This political ‘testing’ can be put to any group: a whole society, part of a society, a local community, a neighborhood, or a church.  It’s always been true that most every group has boundaries that you must not offend without the risk of being put out or left out.   In many ways, this deliberate and intentional social defining isn’t something new. 

Thinking particularly of about religious groups or churches, most churches have been formed by saying that you must believe this teaching or you’re out, or we can’t believe that teaching or we’re out.  That’s what church covenants are.  In a way, they say who we are, by also say what we do believe or practice over against what our neighbors believe and practice.   

Today, most Christians pay more attention to trends or styles, than to covenants or doctrinal substance, so the ‘unwritten’ covenants of a certain worship or music style, a certain kind of Bible, or a particular political persuasion, carries much more clout for defining who we are or who we’re not.    

So, whether we want to admit it or not, the idea of defining ourselves by cancel out other cultural ways has always been with us, in one form or another, whether we used the term or not.  However, what is different about today, in this current spirit of this ‘cancel culture’, is that the test isn’t just about who you are now, but’s it’s also a test about anything and everything in the past that doesn’t fit what a group people are feeling, thinking or seeing things today.  So, not only do you cancel out what others are doing, you need to cancel out everything that group of people have ever done that is now considered to be “politically incorrect”.   

If anyone says or thinks something less than where the culture is going, or has already arrived, then you might get thrown off of social media, lose your job, or you could be publicly humiliated or disgraced.  It’s no longer enough to be told you are missing something, making a mistake, to be negotiated with, or to be left alone, but now you have to be immediately X’ed out completely, or even hated, for being less than what the current culture has come to believe or say should be.  It’s this ‘all-or-nothing’ spirit of todays’s canceling out, that seems different, sounding more like social ‘vengeance’, rather than social progress.

Did you know that last year, Jesus himself was on the verge of being canceled?   In July an Alaskan airline passenger caused a plane to make an emergency landing in Seattle because he insisted that everyone agree that Jesus was black.  

According to the Sun Times, the young white man shouted: “I will kill everybody! I will kill everybody on this plane unless you accept that Jesus was a Black man.” “Accept it! Or “Die in the name of Jesus!” the man shouted.  Two passengers, one a traveling policeman, worked together to subdue him. 

Now, I need to say that young man was probably mentally ill, so it’s hard to take his demand seriously, but with everything that has been happening in the culture, it’s no wonder he became obsessed.   But it does make you wonder, doesn’t it, will the ‘white’ images of Jesus be cancelled and removed too, since most images of are white and with brown hair?   What we know, however, is that Jesus was an ethnic Hebrew, so he wasn’t black, nor was he white thank goodness.  He was something in between.   

I’ve said all this about the new rise of ‘cancel culture’ because our Kingdom text today is about something very similar, and something very human too.  It’s about the kind of conflict we can expect, when you have people working toward different ideas, different values, or living toward two ways of life.  Different groups are basically competing for the same space, but living, as we say, in two vastly different worlds, or world views.   

This is what Jesus was pointing to in this parable.   He was referring to those who are those who live for God’s coming kingdom and those don’t care about it at all.  These different groups live in opposing or competing kingdoms and ways of life.   And, just like ‘weeds’ threaten wheat, the weeds can slow or oppose, and even seek to destroy the way of God.

 

SOWED GOOD SEED

 

So  how do we respond to these opposing ways of life that work against what God wants to do in the world?    When, how and where you draw line, or separate yourself from these differing or opposing ways isn’t always that clear.

If you draw them too tightly and you’re a Pharisee.  But if you draw the line too loosely, and you are a ‘liberal’ or even worst.   

And it can get even more complicated.   

Think about how or why our spiritual forefathers ‘split’ away from the Catholic Church.   Or, think about how our political forefathers started a revolution to separate themselves from England.   We can think of many other kinds of ‘separations’ too.  In our own community we could think about how the Amish separate themselves from the rest of us, or we can think about why we are Baptists, and not Methodists, nor are Quakers.  We may say it doesn’t matter, but it did matter, at least to someone and you are here and not there, and they are there, and not here, right?

And thinking about what grounds we should go by to separate ourselves from people we don’t agree with, for whatever reason, what standard should we use to do this?   While the Bible does tell is to be ‘come from among them and be separate’ and also to stand out as a  ‘peculiar’ people, it doesn’t tell us exactly how do we do this?  Do we stop going to a Grocery Chain that sells Alcohol, if we disagree with that?  Well, that didn’t work, did it?   Do we not go with our grand kids to Disney World when the support Gay Rights?  Well, that didn’t work either.   Do we refuse to have TV’s, Internet, or Cell Phones?  

It’s very hard to shut out everything that may not fit into our understand of God’s coming kingdom, isn’t it?    And even if we do think it is right for us, not to support this, or that, or to separate ourselves from this or that, how do this in a way that is Christian that maintains our missionary calling to Salt and Light in the world?

So, even though there are times that we must go another way, or even ‘go’ our own way, in this parable, in which Jesus says that the ‘wheat’ and ‘weeds’ are to be allowed to grow together, seems to suggest that we it isn’t always best to rid from our midst everyone who does not meet our own views or standards.  Rather that separate ourselves completely, Jesus suggests that the believers and the unbelievers should grow together in this world.   And instead of trying to fix everything right now, by ourselves, we should let God sort it out in the end.

When I did a study of the History of my Home Church, which isn’t quite as old as either of our churches, there were several interesting minutes about how the church used to practice ‘churching people’; which meant that if you did not follow the church covenant, then the church would force you to face the church publicly, and if you didn’t repent, then you were ‘churched’, which meant, excommunicated.  

This practice went on for several years, but finally came to an end, because it was doing more harm than good.   When the covenant-breaker was brought the church and was publicly humiliated, after that person was released from church membership, the whole family normally went with them.  Since most churches were ‘family churches’, you could easily wreck a whole church my confronting one single member.   This practice proved not to be worth the pain it caused, and the practice eventually ended, especially as churches become more and more dependent on the support of its members.    

It’s not an easy situation to confront all the ‘weeds’ in the world, and in the church, is it?    Now, this does not mean that justice does not need to be served, nor does it mean that we never break fellowship with people who threaten to harm us.   

In Matthew 18, Jesus says that the sinner who will not repent, even after being confronted, is to be treated like a sinner and tax collector.  That means we are to treat them as being outside of God’s will and way.   It doesn’t necessarily  mean we are to ‘shun’ sinners, like the Amish do, but it could mean that we treat them just like we would any ‘outsider’; as someone who needs our love and prayers, not necessarily ousting or banning then from any relationship or contact.

However, in even stronger language, Paul told one church not to associate with someone who was practicing incest—that is living with his Mother-In-Law; something that was even looked down upon by the world (1 Cor. 5:1ff).   The point was not that the person should not be loved, but that the moral witness of the church must not be allowed to be hurt because this was even unacceptable to the world.    Paul recommended breaking fellowship or pursuing justice against that person, only because they were threatening to bring hurt or harm to the witness and work of the church.

 

LET THEM BOTH GROW TOGETHER

Since this issue of ‘separation’ can become complicated, although it may indeed be necessary in certain situations, the question really is how do we take this parable, as helpful guidance, rather than becoming something is disruptive that creates unnecessary negativity for the church? 

 

It is most helpful to understand that Jesus is primarily talking to his disciples and how they are to relate to each other.  It’s not trying to be descriptive of the how the church deals with the world, as much as, it’s about how things to be carried out in the Church---among people who may have differing views.  This is about situations when it’s much less obvious who the wheat is, or who is a weed. 

 

I remember years ago, when I was a religion major in college, that an older couple in my home church wanted me to travel to Charlotte to visit PTL—the Jim Baker Organization.   My Father didn’t think much of Jim Baker, and he proved to be right on target.   I didn’t think much of Jim Baker style either, but this lady thought PTL had great potential and she wanted my opinion about it.   Since I was a religion major, I thought it would be make a good Field Trip and experience.  I might even write a paper on it.  

 

So, I went to PTL, and it was indeed very interesting.  It was the very first time I’d ever been in a Television studio before.   And I have to admit, the music and the Talk Show wasn’t all that bad.  I had decided to give PTL the ‘benefit of a doubt’, which meant that I would support the dear couple, and keep my mouth shut; unless I heard something that sounded very dangerous or outrageous.   

 

The major issue I did bring up to them on the way home was how much money was going into building that Christian ‘theme park’ which was only to serve Christians, rather than serve the needs of hurting people in the world.   There was much more I could have said, but for the most part, I decided to let the ‘weeds’ and the ‘wheat’ grow together, until my suspicions either proved right, or proved wrong.   As we all know all to well, the truth about Jim Baker and PTL, did finally come out.

We may be indeed be surprised both in heaven, and sometimes on earth too, about who was right and who was wrong about opinions or ideas about faith.  Matters of faith can be a very ‘fluid’ and personal, so that they are hard to ‘pin down’.   They say much more about what’s going on deep in a person’s heart, rather than about where the kingdom will eventually end up.   As I’ve said before, faith and religion is flexible and fluid for a reason; so that it can fit in many different types of ‘cups’; which we are all very different.  

And since it’s not always obvious who is right about the way of God’s Kingdom, we do not try to separate or accentuate over every difference.  I mean some very good people have been considered weeds, but turned out to to be wheat too.  I can think of several can’t you?  Martin Luther King was considered a trouble maker, as was John Lewis, who died last year.   He was known for getting into ‘good trouble’.    

Throughout human history, there were a lot of people who were perceived as ‘trouble makers’, who were thought to be ‘weeds’, but later proved to be ‘wheat’.   The few that immediately come to mind are Galileo, when he said the earth went around the sun, when it looked to be obvious that the sun circled the earth.   The Church of that world excommunicated him, but the Catholic church was bad wrong.    

Beyond religion, in the ancient world Socrates and his philosophical ideas were attacked and he was forced to drink poison, but later Socrates ideas were accepted as brilliant.   Of course, we all know what happened to Jesus, who was also hated, but was later accepted by that same world, who once rejected him.  The list could go own.  It’s much easier to demoralize or demonize someone than it is to stay or bear with them, until either the truth comes out, or an even greater truth comes that surprises everyone.

Before Jesus was ‘canceled out’ by his own  culture, he warned his own disciples against becoming a negative ‘cancel culture’ among themselves.   In fact, when they were planning to use their arguing over who right, wrong, best or less, so they could ‘lord over each other’ rather than to humbly serve each other,  Jesus scolded them saying, ‘It shall not be so among you’ (Mk 10:42ff).   In other words, things are supposed to work very differently among you than they work out there in the world.

 

So, finally, what can this parable mean for us, in the church?   While churches and Christians need standards, boundaries, and  limits of what is acceptable for our fellowship together, and what isn’t.    Have a particular set of values and guiding principles are necessary for any group---if that group wants to have a certain identity or mission.   But this parable should remind us, that even when we make these necessary standards or boundaries, we still need ‘patience’ in how we carry them out, because the ultimate truth and the final truth, isn’t always obvious.

I once told you how much I respected the Deacon Leadership of a church that was having to deal with an issue that had the potential to bring a lot of hurt to a congregation.   This church was in many ways, theologically very conservative, and the behavior of a certain young person was not in line with the church’s beliefs and practices.   But instead of outright opposing the young man, or publicly coming out against him, they understood how much he was loved in the church, and also that his behavior had not actually brought harm to anyone.  While they informed the young man that they did accept what he was saying or doing, they did allow him to continue to be a part of the congregation, as long as, he continued to respect the agreed upon beliefs of the church and if he understood that they loved him, even when they didn’t approve of his behavior.   

When church’s face situations where believers differ, even in their behaviors or their interpretations of Scripture, the only way people can stay together, worked together or worship together in such situations, is when they have the patience to wait and trust that God will one day reveal the truth to them both.   

But to do this, requires deep trust in God, and it also requires genuine love for the person we may not agree with.   Trust in God is always needed to be a Christian, and so is love for others, but sometimes this becomes more obvious and even more critical.     The fast-changing world today, when churches and communities are facing so much social, political change, the trust we have in God and in each other is being tested more than ever before.  

When we come together to worship with people who may see things very differently that we do, we have to trust that God, or His angels, not you or me, will ultimately be the sifters to separate the wheat from the weeds.  This is the only way we can continue to live together, serve together, and work for the greater good in life, that is a good, that is indeed greater than our own.   We must tolerate many of our differences in beliefs and opinions, until that day when God makes all things crystal clear, or as my Hebrew professor used to say, until everything ‘come out  clean on wash day’.    

Jesus’ parable, as I see it, argues for compassion and tolerance as the best kind of Christianity among us.  It is most Christians thing we can do when we are being kind, patient and being tolerant of our differences with each other.  When we allow God to be the final judge, and when we trust God’s wisdom more than our own, this becomes a way of protecting both our neighbor and ourselves,from unnecessary emotional hurt and spiritual damage.

Might we see a renewal of Christian Faith, and among churches too, even in the confusing times of challenge and change, if we could be a witness to the world, of how we learn to appreciate an accept one another, even our differences.   I mean, our many differing denominations and doctrinal disputes hasn’t really done anything to help our witness to the world.  One of the early Church leaders, Tertullian, once argued to the pagans that living  life together in the church was morally superior to life in the world.   He challenged pagans to just ‘look in the church and see how they love one another.’

Could it be that that this kind of tolerance and patience is the greatest proof of the benefit of following Christ, and letting God be God who is the only true and final judge.?    Amen.