Rev. Tatiana Cantarella

Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom and the essence of the Christian life.

Last week we talked about who is a Christian and what is a Christian life. We looked at words of Jesus in order to answer this question and said that "a Christian - is the one who follows Jesus, dedicating his One.Life to the Dream of God's kingdom in this world. But in order to capture a vision of Jesus about the kingdom of God and to live a kingdom life we need a good imagination. I'll explain.

What is your favorite short story or novel? What is it that you re-read many times because you wanted to plunge into its world time and again? Why were you coming back again and again to this book or this story?

Recently I found my favorite childhood book at my mom’s house - "The Warranty Fellows", which describes the tiny invisible world of tiny people ‘warranty fellows, who live in the electric appliances to the end of the warranty period and monitor so that nothing gets broken. It was a story about a world unknown to humans, a life inside the lifeless home appliances, which attracted me and I so desired to get inside and take part in it. Those little guys live there, each of whom fulfilled their purpose and found happiness in it. I cannot tell you how often I reread it but every time my imagination discovered something new.

Why is that? These fictional stories and novels usher us into the world in which we can imagine our way into and out of situations. Each of these stories enhances our understanding of what our life may be. From "The Warranty fellows" I learned that everyone has a purpose finds happiness when pursues it. Well known Mark Twain and his Tom Sawyer teaches us the joy of capers and fun. Hemingway and his "The Old Man and the Sea" teach us that we can battle and win, and have nothing to show for it but the battle is worth it. Dickens plunges us into a world in which the miserly and miserable people can be transformed. Fiction has strong influence on us precisely because it ignites our imagination. Moreover, it originates in the imagination of its author.

Jesus, too, resorted to fiction but a special kind of fiction - we call it parables. Many people believe that parables of Jesus are just some nice illustrations of his teaching but they are deeply mistaken, and deprive themselves of the opportunity to their own imagination on fire. Have you ever wondered why Jesus told parables, those super-short stories? From the very beginning of his ministry, as we saw last Sunday, Jesus preached the kingdom of God. But we want to know what the Kingdom looks like? And in order to reveal the Kingdom Jesus told parables, which ushered his listener into the world of the kingdom of God. Some of these parables are only a few lines but they leave a clear, unforgettable image that will not let go. Parables of Jesus draw us into the world of God's kingdom and then return us back to this world, hungering for this kingdom to come here, to come now!

Last Sunday we said that a Christian life is much more than accepting Jesus into your life and seeking personal piety. To follow Jesus means allowing Him to draw us and our whole life into a completely different world, His Kingdom world. And what this world is like Jesus tells us about in His parables. Many of them even begin with the introductory phrase: "What is the kingdom of God like?" And then the parable describes the work of God in Jesus, particularly the purpose that people would either believe in it and become his disciples, desiring this kingdom, or would rebel against him. Therefore, the parable also describes God's relationship kingdom people and non-kingdom people. So let's see how some of the parables make it clear to us what Jesus meant by following Him and what the essence of a Christian life is.

God works in your everyday affairs and ordinary things

Mark 4:26-29

6 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Imagine a world, says Jesus, in which a man sows seed into the ground, and then whether he sleeps or works, the seed germinates, grows and bears fruit. He harvests it and can bake bread for his family and to live one more year. A very common story, in fact too common and undeserving attention... until Jesus takes it. Jesus wants his listeners to see that the kingdom of God works in the ordinary things of everyday life. God is at work, works at all times, operates in the simplest things that we do. God is at work when you offer a visitor a cup of coffee at the café where you work, when you teach children to read, when you take care of your sick patients, when you sit and carefully do the books, and when you live the only way you can because that’s the life given to you - God is at work. Ordinary life, ordinary things – God is at work in them. Do you realize that God works in your life, your life as it is? God is present in your everyday doings. If we lived with a constant awareness of this fact every day of our lives, how would that change our attitude towards the things that we much get up and do day after day?

THE LITTLE IS MUCH

18 Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” 20 Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”  (Luke 13:18–21)

Imagine a world, says Jesus, where a person sows a tiny mustard that then grows into a tree so large that birds can make their nests and take refuge in it. A growth of a mustard seed was so common that nobody paid any attention to it but Jesus. Jesus wants us to imagine a world in which our "small" deeds, "insignificant” swell into importance. To offer someone some water, to hold a door for another person walking behind you, a couple of encouraging words, a visit to a lonely person, a blessing in a message... all those tiny mustard seeds can have enormous consequences. When the Kingdom vision is ignited in us we begin to understand that even our tiniest actions take on significance for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God seems insignificant in appearance and its citizens do not seem to differ from other people that serve other lords. And the Gospel encounters different reactions, but the Kingdom of God continues to grow invisibly and mysteriously because as we saw from a previous parable, God is at work in our common every day lives.

THE KINGDOM PEOPLE LIVE IN PEACE WITH NON-KINGDOM PEOPLE

24 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 "The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 "‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. "The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 "‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

(Matthew 13:24–30)

Imagine a world, says Jesus, where the wheat and weeds grow together but the servants are not allowed to pull out the weeds because doing that they might damage the wheat. Because the meaning of this parable was not so clear, Jesus later explained it to his disciples saying that the kingdom people and non-kingdom people are to live together in peace until the end when God Himself will be the judge of us all. We humans seems to suffer from this hopeless desire to judge others, to rule over others by force or to remove ourselves from those who are not like us.

There was a cartoon where a teenager is listening to a son, which says: "I 'm going to hell, I'm going to hell." Mom interrupts him: "Listen to something Christian." "Well, okay” he says, "here's the song that my Christian uncle loved" ... "you are going to hell, you are going to hell!" We humans are chronically addicted to our desire to judge others. But Jesus wanted his followers to let go of those community-destroying tendencies, to leave any desire to exercise power and authority over others that arise when we judge others. Instead, Jesus wants us to imagine a world where only God is the judge; the world where we live in peace with non-kingdom people.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS SO VALUABLE THAT IT IS WORTH OF GIVING IT OUR ONE.LIFE

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

(Matthew 13:44-46)

Imagine a world, Jesus says, where people realize how valuable this kingdom and the vision of Jesus are - like a hidden treasure, which is suddenly found or a pearl of great value that was discovered - and therefore those who found them sold all they had in order to participate in this kingdom.

Then Jesus tells another parable in two parts (Matt. 14:28-33): the king, who goes to war but does not check whether he has enough soldiers and a builder who began building a tower but has not prepared enough materials. And they both lose. Two men emerged victorious, having found something very valuable - the kingdom, and two losers who were busy with other plans rather than, too busy to be dedicated to what they were doing. Jesus talked about very simple things but saw God's works revealed in them. And He wants us to see: we are called to give our lives fully to the kingdom of God, only then we will find what is most valuable in life.

Like Peter and Sveta, who could have found a well paid job and settle for a nice life but left Moscow and went to Belgorod to start from zero because they believed that they were called to serve God and slowly but surely let His love penetrate through the closed hearts of Belgorod people.

Like Andrey and Tatiana Ushkarev that could not simply look at the fate of many girls who ended up on streets and in sexual slavery and who did not give up until they were able to open a rescue center for them in order with God's help to rescue them one by one from this life and to give them a chance start a new one.

Like an American couple that I met in Albania - Ryan and Casey Ronne, who were from a rather wealthy family but saw the true face of materialism and left everything they had and moved with their children to Albania as missionaries trusting that God will provide all that is necessary and showing the world that we can live with less so that others may live.

Unlike many others, who see, hear and know about the problems of this world but do nothing, these people have decided to dedicate their One.Life to the kingdom life – to the vision that Jesus casts in many of His parables.

Parables of Jesus reveal God's nature and the essence of discipleship. But they are not aimed at the mind but at the heart. When we face the reality of the kingdom of God, this possibility of a different life than we knew before, we stand before a choice: to accept in and to give it our whole life, or to stay away. No middle ground is possible. Proverbs catch us by surprise, their goal is not our reason or logical knowledge but our hearts that must respond to Jesus who says to us: "Here is life as it was meant to be, here is what human life should be, are you ready to follow me into it the center of it, to follow leaving behind all that is temporary without regrets? "