What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus seems to have a lot of different answers to that question is today\u2019s Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Or, it\u2019s like yeast. Or, it\u2019s like a treasure hidden in a field. Or, it\u2019s like a pearl of great value. Or, it\u2019s like a net thrown into the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We might well ask, \u201cLord, which is it?\u201d All of these descriptions are just metaphors\u2014the kingdom of heaven, of course, is not a mustard seed. It\u2019s like a mustard seed. It seems that even Jesus was having trouble describing the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps that is because human language is inadequate to describe the kingdom of heaven, in the same way our various concepts of God can never really describe God. We think of God as a loving father, as a shepherd, as the Creator, as the ground of our being, as a persistent lover. All of those things are true, but they still fail to describe God. That is because God is infinite, and we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what is the kingdom of heaven really like? Apparently it is a state of being rather than a kind of \u201cplace.\u201d Actually, St. Paul is giving us a good picture in today\u2019s Epistle. It\u2019s the kingdom of heaven when we don\u2019t know how to pray but the Spirit does our praying for us. It\u2019s the kingdom of heaven when all things somehow work together for good for those who love God. Eugene Peterson\u2019s interpretation of this in his paraphrase, \u201cThe Message,\u201d is an interesting one: \u201cMeanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God\u2019s Spirit is right alongside us, helping us along. If we don\u2019t know how or what to pray, it doesn\u2019t matter. He does our praying for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That\u2019s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s not the only way that what Paul says describes the kingdom of God. It\u2019s the kingdom of God when we know that there is absolutely nothing\u2014in this world or out of it\u2014that can separate us from the love of Christ. Now, that\u2019s a treasure worth selling all that we have in order to possess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s look at that description of the kingdom of God. \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like a 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once there was a little girl who was quite troubled by that little story. She thought it sounded like that person was cheating. Wouldn\u2019t it be the honest thing to tell the owner of the field about the treasure? If the person hid the treasure, and then bought the field so he could get the treasure, wasn\u2019t that person stealing from the owner? It just didn\u2019t seem right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course the little girl was missing the point of the story. The point is that the kingdom of God is of such great value that anything else we may own pales in comparison. It would be easy to give up everything else in order to have it. But unlike the treasure hidden in the field, everyone can have it! God offers this treasure to each and every one of us. The love of Christ from which no one and nothing can separate us, is a treasure everyone is invited to possess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just one word of warning: when you find that treasure, do not, whatever else you may do, go and bury it again. The kingdom of heaven is not meant to be hidden. The kingdom of heaven is meant to be shared, to be shouted from the housetops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us probably remember a song we may have sung in our childhood: \u201cThis little light of mine, I\u2019m going to let it shine.\u201d And the verse, \u201cHide it under a bushel? No! I\u2019m going to let it shine!\u201d You have the greatest treasure on earth. Let it shine! Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by the Rev. Barbara Beam<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus seems to have a lot of different answers to that question is today\u2019s Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Or, it\u2019s like yeast. Or, it\u2019s like a treasure hidden in a field. Or, it\u2019s like a pearl of great value. Or, it\u2019s like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,1953],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-511295","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-12a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":96,"label":"Proper 12A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3474595,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511295\/revisions\/3474595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}