Kingdom building, church building - the same thing ?

Today we have a special of celebration in the parish – celebration, not for any particular anniversary, but simply to make time and space to thank God for all that he’s done and is doing in this church. It’s a chance to recognise the work that has been done to help build the kingdom of God here and further afield.

I like the story about Mother Theresa who went one day to her superiors and said, "I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage." "Mother Teresa," her superiors replied gently but understandably, "you cannot build an orphanage with three pennies...with three pennies you can't do anything." "I know," she said, smiling, "but with God and three pennies I can do anything."

There’s another story about a man who bought a house with an overgrown garden. The weeds had long since taken over the garden and it was a mess. But slowly the man began to clear the weeds and work on the garden and plant seeds. Finally, he had made it into a showcase garden. One day the minister came to visit, and when he saw the beautiful flowers and plants, he observed, "Well, friend, you and God have done a marvelous job on this garden." To which the homeowner replied, "You should have seen it when God had it by himself though !"

Of course the reality is that people will try lots of things, and sometimes have lots of success but without God’s power and vision, our efforts will never produce as much as they could. And today’s gospel reading (Mark 4:26-34) is all about the amazing wonder that is God, and about the “kingdom of God.”

Of course, almost since its beginning the Church has gone off in various different directions. Human nature makes that almost inevitable and there are many different denominations as we all know – even the Anglican Church has many different parts within it of which the Church in Wales is one, and those parts are often very different. Yet each is also part of the Anglican family, and all of us are under the sovereignty of God. That applies to every Christian Church, and it reminds us of a much bigger picture – it reminds us that we are a Church, a family with many members of different ages, backgrounds, colours, nationalities, ideas and all kinds of other things.   

It is an incredibly diverse kingdom, but it is a kingdom where each person has many things in common, and one of those things is that every member has a choice, the free will to make decisions about their lives, their involvement, their direction, and their future.

And those decisions, decisions which we make every day, have a number of effects. First they will determine our part in God’s Church, but they can also determine how people view the kingdom of God… One of the things that always amazes me is how much interest people from outside the Church take in what is happening inside the Church.

It reminds us that the Church remains an important part of society, and that can be incredibly positive, but even more importantly another thing that people will look at is how people inside the Church behave. Judgements are made, many of them incredibly unfair, but it reminds us and challenges us that our lives are lived under the constant observation, not just of God, but of so many people as well.

Little things – things the size of a mustard seed, to use the language of the reading today, can have a huge effect. A.J. Cronin, the writer who, amongst other things created Dr Finlay,   tells the story of a District Nurse in a village where he was working as a doctor in a Welsh Mining Company.

For more than 20 years she served the people of the community with incredible dedication, despite the fact that she was paid barely enough to live on. When Cronin mentioned that she should ask for more money, she said she had enough to get along. He persisted, ‘You ought to have an extra pound a week at least. God knows, you’re worth it.’

There was a pause and she replied, ‘if God knows I’m worth it, that’s all that matters to me.’

The kingdom of God sounds a huge project for us to be involved in – exciting perhaps, but rather daunting, but our part within the kingdom is valuable – every one of us with every small deed, good or bad, affects God’s mighty kingdom.

And that is why Christians are called to consider the consequences of our actions, to turn away from evil, to choose to live in the kingdom of God… We are called to make choices – choices as to whether we will live compassionately, whether we will live prayerfully, whether we will live seeking God’s vision for our part in his kingdom… Too often we don’t do things, because we think we will make little difference but reminded of Mother Theresa and her three pennies and God, we know we can !

Of course, there’s another side, which we probably all have slipped into at times and that is that we sometimes do things wrong, thinking nobody will notice, maybe even convincing ourselves that nobody will really care too much… But somebody cares, somebody notices…

The gospel today says: “For 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.”

What seems like a trivial matter, then, can become hugely important. If things are bad they can be magnified, but if things are good, then the smallest of seeds becomes the greatest of all shrubs. The tiniest of babes can become the greatest of all saints….  And sometimes even the nastiest of all Christians can become the greatest of all examples of what it is to choose to live in the kingdom of God.

Choices we make our important every day and those choices come not once in a lifetime, not ever so rarely, not only now and again. The choice to live in the kingdom of God comes to each of us every hour of every day.

And that is part of the challenge for the church today – to be ambassadors for God... One of the things that is fairly frustrating for any person involved in ministry in the church is when people moan about things but rarely celebrate things that are good – and actually there’s rather more to celebrate than to moan about I would hope in most churches...

We need to be positive people – living out a message that says we’re happy to be Christians, and also that we recognise that the Christian faith is for all and that it is our duty to share the Christian message.

Sometimes people look at me and others who talk about Jesus a lot and think we’re some kind of mad fanatics but actually there is nothing fanatical in sharing a message of really good news for everyone – it’s just wanting people to enjoy the fullness of life and peace that can be found in Jesus. It is surely a natural response to God’s love for us...

And more than that, whether we like it or not – it is a command of Jesus... Before his ascension he left the church with the command to go and preach the gospel to all nations. It isn’t negotiable and his words were not aimed at a select few, but at all his disciples gathered together...

A church that is not seeking to grow numerically and spiritually cannot claim the title of church...

I think the reading from Ezekiel (17:22-24) today is beautiful. It reminds us of God’s promises. It is the picture of the tender sprig planted on a high mountain which grows and grows and produces a place of peace and rest and calm – a place where God reigns with love.

It is a perfect vision, and as a church we are called to have vision – not to preserve what we have but to see what God wants us to be and do, not to worry about tomorrow but to know that God will be there with us, not to think just about buildings or territories, but to know God, who breaks down all barriers and boundaries...

So let us walk by faith with confidence for the love of Christ urges us on. Everything old has passed away, and in Christ there is a new creation... (2 Cor.5:17)  

Created in God’s image we can serve him with confidence, and serve him powerfully because that new creation is us. AMEN