Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity – evening
Sunday 30th July 2017
1 Kings 3. 5-12
Matthew 13. 31-33, 44-52
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Those of you who were here last week, today and next Sunday will probably hear the so-called “seven parables of the Kingdom” which Jesus told. And I read somewhere this week that a parable is a short story with a very long meaning! (I kind of like that!)
St Matthew was very careful not to take the name of God in vain – we believe he came from a fairly orthodox Jewish background and to do so would be anathema to Jews. So when he talks about the ‘kingdom of heaven’, he did not mean ‘the place where we go when we die’; No, he is using a kind of shorthand for the ‘kingdom of God;’ which is wherever people obey God and his loving laws. So these are parables of growth.
The first is about Christians who tell their neighbours about Jesus and are likened to a farmer sowing seeds in a rather haphazard and profligate fashion! Though most show little long-term growth, it is worth it for the few who yield a rich harvest.
The second is about the wheat and weeds growing together; God does not remove the weeds until the harvest – we are given all the time possible to turn our lives around and begin delivering the goodness and love he yearns for.
Third, the mustard seed is tiny, but it is destined to grow into a great tree, where the birds – representing the nations of the world, may roost. God’s church is not limited to one nation or one part of the world, but has a truly universal mission – although of course individual expressions – like our own Anglican church have increasingly distinct cultural contexts in which we either thrive – or die.
The next two are about hidden treasure and the pearl without price; the finder is willing to sell everything they possess in exchange for the treasure which holds so much future promise.
Lastly, the kingdom is like a dragnet, a trawl, which scoops up all sorts of fish, leaving them to be sorted later. All these stories promise us that the Christian Church is destined to grow and grow.
So is this promise being fulfilled? Well, Jesus started with 12 disciples… he went on to gather more around him – although at the time of his death, his followers had shrunk back to the original 12 plus just a few extras and the faithful women followers…. many of the others had deserted his cause, when it became obvious that he was not going for the ‘quick fix’ solution of rebellion against Rome.
On the day of Pentecost we are told that 3000 new believers were baptised, and soon the message spread all over the Roman Empire (despite or maybe because of the attempts of the authorities to suppress it!)
The next rapid expansion was in the 18th and 19th centuries when the Gospel was taken to Africa and Asia (although there are some very ancient Christian churches in parts of Asia that predate this colonial expansion).
In 1910, Christians amounted to one third of the world population; it is the same now, but the population of the world has mushroomed, so the statistics hide the fact that Christianity is still spreading at a fantastic rate.
In Britain and Western Europe and now too in the US, the number of believers appears to be declining. But the figures are affected by other factors – social factors, wars, industrialization, and demographic shifts, leading to changing patterns of work and leisure.
According to the last UK census, well over half claimed to be Christians, even though many are not regular church-attenders. It seems God’s kingdom continues to grow – even if we have failed to make ‘church’ an attractive way of growing in faith.
But there are exceptions – some lively churches offering contemporary styles of worship have seen growth in numbers; at the other end of the spectrum, most cathedrals can point to growth in the numbers attending their services. There are now
more than half a million worshipping in black-majority churches in Britain, which are often ignored in official statistics. So it seems that the promises of Jesus about the growth of seeds are being fulfilled.
And in other places – perhaps like us here – where we cannot point to growth in numbers, we perhaps can say that individual Christians are deepening their roots in faith. Exploring what it means to claim to be a Christian in 21st century Britain. Studying and thinking, arguing and developing; growth need not only be about numbers, – I would argue strongly that it also needs those who deepen their faith.
But maybe too it is about finding new ways to talk about our faith? Not exclusively using language that – while it may be very beautiful and poetic, means very little to those brought up on a diet of soap dramas, science and reality TV?
Christians are called to re-evangelize the world afresh in every generation – one of our diocesan aims is precisely that – “Reaching New Generations”.
If every person here today realizes that this is what God is calling us all to do (not just those of us who are ‘professionals’) – and finds the right language with which to do it, then the predictions of Jesus about mustard seeds growing into mighty seeds will be fulfilled in our own nation in our time. May it be so. Amen.