Mark 4:26–34

²⁶And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

²⁷He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

²⁸The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

³⁰And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?

³¹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,

³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

³⁴He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

We have before us two parables, both of which teach about God's kingdom. The entire ministry of Jesus was a proclamation that the kingdom of God had come; indeed he himself brought it!

But before we go on, let's stop and think about the Kingdom of God, "What difference does it make anyway?" Does anyone really care that the kingdom of God is coming? In fact, when I think of Jesus' words, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven," I start to realize that for the most part, I prefer the kingdom of this world. I really want the treasures of earth more than the ones in heaven. In fact, the treasures of heaven, forgiveness, peace, love, joy, eternal life, sometimes strike me as just too "spiritual", like floating on a cloud playing a harp all day long, waving at people as they float by on their clouds and then disappear off in the distance.

It's time to be completely honest. Sometimes the treasures of heaven seem a little boring compared to the fun and excitement of this world.

To tell the truth, I really don't want to die and go to heaven because there is still a lot of fun I want to have in this world. Frankly, I would rather stay here with my friends and family than be off in some floaty, dreamlike world with people who are so perfect that I wouldn't really be comfortable around them anyway. I would rather sit in my backyard and enjoy a barbeque with my wife and kids and some friends than sit at a banquet table in heaven with a bunch of strangers eating fancy, gourmet food in stiff, uncomfortable dress clothes, and having to mind my manners while trying to figure out which fork I'm supposed to use.

For that matter, it would be more fun coming to church to enjoy the company of friends and family, eat refreshments downstairs after the service and have a good time singing and laughing in order to get energized for another week of life in this world, than it is kneeling and feeling sorry for my sins and praying and meditating on some far off place like heaven while trying to act pious and saintly and obey all the rules of "church" behavior. So I find my eyes on my watch wishing the minutes would go by faster.

Now I know, this may sound like heresy to you, especially coming from a pastor, but seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness can sometimes seem a little boring. And I am not going to do the usual thing of trying to persuade you that heaven is somehow more exciting. You would just go home telling me how wonderful heaven is and how anxious you are to go, while feeling inside like you're not really being honest nor even able to live up to the standard I am setting for you. And for that matter, I myself can't live up to that standard.

So let's just be honest with ourselves: we really don't love God more than anything else. We really don't fear, love and trust him above all things. We really do serve two masters, God on Sunday morning and mammon the rest of the week. That's because we really are part of the kingdom of this world and love this world and the life this world gives.

And that's just why Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to us. Because we really don't love God with all our heart, mind and strength. So Jesus came to make up the difference between what we should do and what we really do. He came to do it for us. What we don't and can't do He does for us. He fulfills all things; all God's commands; all righteousness. He, not we, is the righteousness of God and the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. We are not and cannot be.

So what are we to do? Simply, confess our sin and let Jesus do it for us. Just let Jesus be our righteousness. Just let Jesus be the one who makes up for our failures.

Repent of your sin. Repent of your failure to love God above all things. Turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, resting in his love and mercy. Jesus died on the cross to take away our guilt. Jesus died to take away the punishment we deserve. Jesus kept God's demands... so they have all been met. The debt for not keeping God's law has been paid. There is nothing due on the IOU. It is paid in full. There is nothing more we have to do; it is finished. "I confess that by nature I am a sinner and have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, but I sincerely repent of them and on the basis of Christ's death on the cross which paid for my sins and his righteous life with made up for them, I ask that you forgive my sin and create a new and clean heart in me that truly loves you above all things and loves my neighbor as myself."

This is what the kingdom of God is all about; not that we have done it, but that Jesus did it. God's kingdom is trusting that he did it. The kingdom of God was established when Jesus said on the cross: "It is finished." He had paid the debt; he had suffered our punishment; he had fulfilled God's law.

So what is the kingdom of God? We usually have the wrong idea about it. We think of it in the same way we think of earthly kingdoms. First we think of a place like a country of a territory. But that's not it. Or we think of it as a group of people, the citizens of a country, the subjects of a king. But that's not it either. The word "kingdom" as used in the Bible is a form of a verb "to rule" or "to reign." The kingdom of God is his reign over the creation and over people. It is not a place or a people; it is his rule, his dominion.

How do kings rule? Earthly kings rule by laws administered by magistrates. But God rules by grace. He rules our lives by his love which sent Jesus to pay for our sins, and make up the difference between what we do and what we should do. God's kingdom comes by faith because God rules by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And God's kingdom is created by his Word, his word of forgiveness when he says, "I forgive you all your sins because Jesus paid for them on the cross."

We pray, "Thy kingdom come." Our first parable, the one in which the sower scattered the seed on the ground, tells us how God brings his kingdom to us. "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear." The seed the sower spreads on the ground is the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is sown by those whom God sends to the fields, his called and sent ministers of the Gospel. But then the sower's work is finished and night and day he watches and the seed come to life, grow and mature until a crop is produced. He does not know how it happens. He does not force or cause people to believe. It is not his eloquent or fancy words that do anything, it is his message, the word of God, the Gospel that brings the believer to life. It is the Gospel that creates faith in us. It is not the doing of any person, or work or effort of humans, but the power of God at work in His Word. "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation." It is the word that comes in preaching and in the sacraments that creates faith and gives us life.

It is by the seed of the word that that faith grows in us, transforms our lives and hearts, and produces the fruit of repentance. The kingdom grows inside us by the word of God, the word we hear preached and taught and the Word we receive in Baptism and Holy Communion. The kingdom grows in us as we are nourished in worship; word and sacrament.

So it is God who plants his kingdom, as one who plants a tree. He says, "I myself will plant a sprig on a high and lofty mountain....that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird, in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest." Birds of every sort are people from every nation, and tongue and race who come to the tree which is God's kingdom. Here they nest, make their homes in peace and safety.

Jesus says it begins small like a mustard seed but grows to become a great bush where the birds of the field come and make their nests. The birds of the field, remember, Jesus says are fed by his Father. Here they come to the mighty tree and are fed and make their nests. This mighty tree is the kingdom of God.

Where is the kingdom of God? It is where God rules over his creation through the Gospel, his word. It is here in the church, where the word is preached and the sacrament administered. It is in the church that God's kingdom is created by word and sacrament and where we, the birds of the field of all kinds, are fed and nourished. Here, by the word, faith is created in us and we are given life. Here in word and sacrament the kingdom of God grows in us as God's rule takes over our lives. Little by little, invisible to the human eye, God's reign in our lives becomes more and more complete as we grow and mature in our love for God and for his kingdom. No, we don't love God with all our hearts, but our love grows as we hear his word and eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. His kingdom grows inside us when we come to the tree to make our nests under its shade and be fed with the living Word of God.

Here in worship the Kingdom of God is created as Jesus pushes back the reign of Satan and brings in the reign of forgiveness and eternal life. Where the word is proclaimed and the sacraments received, the kingdom of Satan is being undone. We are released from the power of sin and death and receive forgiveness and life. Where the church carries out its mission to spread the gospel, man is released from the power of sin and death and brought back into the kingdom of God's forgiveness and life. Where the church lives in vocation, feeding the hungry, helping the poor, healing the sick, housing the homeless, releasing the addict from bondage, and calling men and women to repentance and faith, there is the power of the word releasing the world from the kingdom of darkness and creating the kingdom of light and life in Jesus Christ, true God and true man who truly makes up the difference for us between what we do and what we should do by his own righteous life and death on the cross.

Amen.