What is the Kingdom of God like? That is the question that Jesus asks of us this morning. It is important to Jesus, since the Kingdom of God is the central message he preaches. But what is a Kingdom? Simply it is the land and people under the rule of a King or Queen. But it is more than simply about who is in charge, it is about who defines what life is like within the Kingdom.

Some people like Bethan, use the phrase Kin-dom of God, likely because over the centuries people have tended to turn Jesus into a bigger version of their own idea of what it means to be a king, rather than having Jesus turn their own kings into something more like Jesus.

Kin-dom, Kingdom of God, Reign of Christ, Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus is Lord, Messiah, New Heaven & New Earth, are all phrases to describe what happens when God's Glory shows up. When the Divine Order breaks into the chaos of human existence, what do things look like?

What does Jesus say the Kingdom of God is like? "It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches." This is how God is at work in the world!? Strange. A tiny tiny seed is planted then it grows into a tree big enough for birds to nest. It is a gardening image, you get the little seeds in May, spread them out, maybe water them, and do some weeding, but something amazing happens that, even those with a Masters in Biology still find amazing. The little dried seed becomes life, and life fosters new life in new seed, and participates in a larger ecological reality through relationship with others. Birds, bugs, worms, and of course people like us who eat the fruit and stuff of the plants.

The process of life is a reflection of the wider Divine Life. Order is brought out of Chaos. In our Creation story, that is what God does, God broods over the waters of creation, bringing order out of Chaos. Where there was no existence, now there is the Universe moving outward with galaxies, and stars and plants, and the earth, and oceans and land, and trees, and whales, and birds, and people, and bears and camels, and snakes and squirrels, and a whole host of wondrous dazzling and sometimes ... dangerous diversity.

Yes, there is decay in the world, what scientists call Entropy, however there is also a force of Blessing bringing order out of chaos. And, yes, within human life there are forces which tear down relationships, which cut down the joy of life, which suck the marrow out of young bones, which, even within ourselves, work to make us not servants of the Kingdom of God, but servants of the Kingdom of Death. In traditional faith language, we call this other reality "Sin". That which divides us from each other, brings forth violence and oppression in all its forms. We, in the Church who seek the Truth, need most of all to be honest about the challenges of human existence and the truth about evil.

Yet, we in the Church also gather together to tell the truth about what we have glimpsed of a larger reality, or perhaps some gather because we just hope that there is more to life, than the inevitability of suffering, war, and death. That life is more than "We're born, we suffer, then we die." Someone once told me, "Hell, everyone has a terminal illness, its called aging."

We call these people Cynics. I actually like how these people tell the harsh truth about human existence ... but we know they don't speak the whole truth. They do not include the reality of God in Christ.

This is why Christians can be troubling people; they often just won't accept that this is "just the way things are!" There is something subversive about a people ruled by hope. People who have glimpsed, as Paul says, that there is a larger reality at work in the world. That God indeed can bring about what others consider impossible.

Don't get the message wrong, Christians are not naïve shiny happy people teaching, "Believe in God and you will never suffer." Although some teach those sort of silly teachings! No, Christians understand that there is suffering, and death, and evil, we just don't believe that it will "have the last word." We don't believe that it is the defining reality of human existence. We believe that there is more to life ... even eternal life. Through Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, the embodiment of Divine Blessing, we have discovered that what looks like death; the cross, actually is new life. We believe that God indeed can amaze us, even when it appears that all is lost.

That is what the yeast is about. The yeast is placed amid all the flour. Hidden away amid the business of life, hidden perhaps by oppression whether in the home or outside, hopes crushed, plans gone astray, "the best intentions of mice and men", lives apparently wasted or over. Hidden amid oppressive and unjust systems at work or in government. And then God acts in secret, the yeast bubbling and warming and quietly expanding throughout the flour, changing it, converting it, until what is left is a table full of puffy, soft, and taste dough, ready to be bread shared with friends and others. A old reality is replaced by a new reality.

Someone once called Christianity a Saturday people; we live amid the cross and the resurrection. We acknowledge the reality of the cross; of horrible suffering and death, and yet through the power of God at work in Jesus Christ, this symbol of death has become for us THE sign of life. Something amazing happens when people encounter the power of God in Jesus Christ, and become witnesses to this hope in their own lives and in the lives of others. We can't entirely define it. We certainly can't control it. Yet, we can experience it. And most of all, we can act in response to it. We can allow it to define us, such that we become a joyful people of hope, willing to tell the forces of death and destruction; "Ummmmm … we don't agree that this is the way human life has to be, we think things can be better, we think God has other plans for us!"

Yet be aware, today's parables have a sharp edge to them; Note that Jesus did not say the Kingdom of Heaven was like a cedar or like a great oak. No, it is like a mustard shrub … less than noble of plants. And neither did he say it was like silver or gold, but rather like yeast, common, ordinary, the stuff of everyday life.

And this is good news for us ordinary people, we gather as followers of the Crucified One, willing to have God open our eyes to discover that amid the unseen workings of the world and unseen people, there is a power bringing about amazing deeds of grace; Changing lives, the dead being raised, prisoners being set free, the blind opening their eyes to exbrace the very presence of our crucified King, ruling from his tree, and being yeasty bread for a world longing for peace.

Call to Worship
Come and see what God, in Christ can do.
Gather together O people of Hope.
Enter into the presence of the Crucified One.

Confession
We gather again in your presence, seeking to be blessed. We know that you are a God of Blessing because of the witness of Israel, and through the witness of the Church to the life of Jesus Christ. You have a plan for your world, and in your time, you will restore this fallen Creation. Not on the worlds terms through violence, destruction and war, but through your Crucified power. Indeed, through the cross you have already redeemed the world, and been victorious over the forces of death and destruction.

And yet, we are not as patient as you are. We are tempted to despair when we seek holocausts, ethnic cleansing, and terrorism. We are tempted to choose the world's ways and wipe out those whom we fear. You know full well the vulnerability of humanity, in body, mind and spirit. We are easily broken, and quick to break the lives of those we fear. Free us from this web of oppression and set of free that we might share in your holy mission of blessing the world. O Risen Christ, come quickly and complete the restoration of the world you love. AMEN.

Assurance
The Good News about our hope in Christ, is that it is not an empty hope. Our cross hangs empty not because God has failed, but rather that God was victorious in Jesus Christ. Our false hope faded, and he became true hope for us, rising on the third day. And so too, we find ourselves caught up as witnesses and participants in this hope. Naming the places where God's power is at work in our broken world, and seeking to be agents of God's mission of blessing in the world. Given new lives as servants of God's hope for the world.

Offering Prayer
We offer our lives and the fruits of our work for your holy mission. Multiply these gifts so that we along with your world may grow in holiness and peace. In the spirit of Jesus Christ we pray, AMEN.

Commissioning and Benefiction
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that
you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Go in peace to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hymns
87 I am the light of the World
236 Now thank we all our God
333 Love divine, all loves excelling
585 Jesus bids us shine