Trinity One

In our reading today from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is continuing his stories about what the Kingdom of God is like, and he talks in parables so he can get his message across to the people who were congregating around him in a way that they would understand. Short stories that communicate universal truths for us all.

And today’s parables are about the amazing wonder that is God. In our Bible Jesus refers to it as the Kingdom of God, but the original Greek text called it the ‘realm’ or ‘commonwealth of God’, which means something rather different to a kingdom.  It doesn’t refer to territory, which is what we think of in a kingdom, but to dominion, a semi-autonomous state under the authority of another.  Rather like our worldwide Anglican Communion.  Each province semi-autonomous but under the authority of God in Christ.

The kind of kingdom Jesus describes is just like that, in which the members have choice, the free will to make decisions about their lives for themselves.  And Jesus acknowledges that in our world there are two conflicting kingdoms, God’s and the Devil’s, both very real in our lives.  The kingdom of evil is very real, its all around us all the time, we are lured by it and sometimes swayed by it.  In other words we are tempted to sin.

The hope for us all is that God will draw us to himself, and we will all enter the kingdom of heaven, and that’s certainly Jesus’ prayer for us, but the reality is so often far different, and people make other choices for their lives.  We can think about all sorts of people who choose the path of evil, like those who bomb innocent victims, who murder or rape or abuse children.  Or those world leaders who abuse the power they have been given to destroy their own people and country, like Robert Mugabe.

These may be extreme cases and the overwhelming vast majority of people don’t do that sort or even contemplate it, but we all have choices to make in our lives, either the path of righteousness or the other path that leads us into sin.  We make a choice that puts our own selfish wishes over the real needs of the community that surrounds us. We make a choice that affects someone else and causes physical, emotional or spiritual pain. We make a choice that belittles other people because of their race, gender or disability, just because they are different to us.  And when we think of our country at this time and the election success of the BNP in the recent elections, and reflect on the reasons why people seem to have turned to this extreme political party, we really must be aware of the effects it’s policies of discrimination will have on the minority communities.

In the kingdom of God we would put aside our own egotistical need to have power over others, and instead cultivate compassion, understanding and co-operation.

In the kingdom of God, we would cease all violence, repenting of the evil that enslaves us, and instead promote true dialogue with others, show empathy for their needs and accept them as true brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Kingdom of God Jesus talks about is a hopeful vision of paradise, which is offered to us every day, so why is it that so often we do not make the right choice and accept it’s promise in our lives?

Perhaps the biggest reason is fear.  When we are afraid of something we don’t understand we choose what seems safe over what may challenge us.  We don’t like being taken out of our comfort zone, or mix with people who are not the same as us.

Mark describes the kingdom of God ‘as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how’.  You see the truth is we don’t know how the miracle that is God’s love works, how it grows, or what makes it sprout, and because we don’t know or understand, we react in fear, choosing what is safe over what is right. Psychologists tell us as humans we are not programmed to cope with uncertainty and choose the easy option without analysing the rights and wrongs of our choice.

We can so easily rehearse the answers to the questions when we do wrong. ‘I know its wrong to tell lies, but everyone does it’, ‘I know I shouldn’t have punched him, but I was so angry’, ‘I know I’m married but I didn’t think anyone would find out’.  We have seen some of the worst examples in the responses by our MP’s recently, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong, I acted within the rules’.

We understand very well what temptation and sin are all about, we refuse to stop and consider what Jesus wants us to do to grow the kingdom of God, because only we can do that.  Allow the mustard seed, which is the dormant kingdom of God, to grow into the greatest of all shrubs.

That choice to live in the kingdom of God, to become kingdom people, in love and peace and harmony with all our neighbours and the wider community comes to us every moment of every day.  It is the dormant seed inside us waiting for us to allow it to grow ready for the harvest of God.

So let us walk by faith and make our choices in life by faith, with the utmost confidence that the love of God in Christ urges us on to grow the kingdom of God here on earth.  This growing kingdom is all about us, you and me, it’s up to us to make the right choice. Amen.