Sprawling Is the Kindom

Today’s sermon is brought to you by the word:  Sprawling (spell out) 

In the Public Gardens there are a number of  sprawling rhododendron; one in particular – when standing at the bandshell, looking at the coffee house, glance right and there is a massive sprawling group of rhododendron.  What captures my attention with this group of shrubs – is its WELCOME.  It beckons children, to run underneath and through the little trails hidden inside; a dozen or more could easily be engulfed in the branches. The access holes are tiny, for those who are younger than three. Once inside the bush it is its own world.  City noise is hushed, the air is cool, and you have a birds-eye-view of the world from a hidden fort. The children have fun hiding from their parents and chasing each other; playing make-believe and running with fairies.  Besides the children, this section of the garden is home to all kinds insects – bees, and a variety of birds, including flickers – which I have not seen in too many other places in Halifax.

When I hear the parable of the mustard seed and the massive sprawling shrub that grows – I think of the rhododendron in the Public Gardens; their beauty, their shade, the laughter of children, the enjoyment by onlookers, the home provided for creatures of all kinds. It is a beautiful image for the wholeness of God’s kindom.

 

For those not so nature oriented, consider the image of a person sprawling on a couch, wearing comfy lounging clothes, everything they need – tv converter, cell phone, gaming equipment, snacks, beverages, reading material- all within reach; and bodily taking up every inch of the couch. The sprawl-er is totally in their own world and has no concept of being in another’s space or being watched; they just are enjoying, being, grounded in their space and time. This is the parable of mustard shrub; grounded - it is pushing its boundaries, expanding out, reaching.  Being in all its glory. This is an image of the wholeness of God’s kindom.

 

Today we once again focus on the prayer book of Jesus; this time prayer #92 – a Psalm that plants an image of the kindom of God, alive and expanding. The Psalm is really quite spectacular in its imagery and meaning. Praying this Psalm, is praying as in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.’

 

Psalm 92 is one of few psalms assigned to a particular occasion and more specifically a day.  It’s title is: ‘A Song for the Sabbath Day.’ And there are three important pieces to note:

The first are the references to creation. When the psalm says ‘your work’ or ‘the works of your hands’  the author is speaking to God as creator;  creating, being God’s work. Not only that, but if one reads the whole Psalm you will see that the name of God appears 7x in the Psalm. The creation story is laid out in the form that God took 6 days to create and on the 7^th day rested.  Creation -God’s work- takes 7 days.

The second piece to note expands from God’s work of 7 days – to focus on the 7^th  when God rested, the Sabbath.  A day when people offer prayers, music, worship in the house of the Lord – in the time of the Psalm in the Temple.

The third piece expands the image one more time by describing the courts of the Lord where creation flourishes – that is in the divine presence. The Mishnah describes this psalm as “a song for the world that is to come, for the day which is wholly sabbath rest for eternity.” The Psalm is eschatological.  Sabbath is not only the 7^th day but also a symbol of the ‘rest to come’, like our communion liturgy says, “a foretaste of the feast to come.”  At the feast, at the sabbath rest of eternity, there is a fullness of promise. Vs.14 states- in old age the faithful will still produce fruit and always be green and full of sap ---- the relationship and movement of creation, sabbath, creation comes full circle; in the fullness of time  – in the ultimate coming of the kindom.

 

Proclaiming prayer#92 is an act of faith – we declare God’s steadfast love while we wait for the fullness of the promise, God’s flourishing kindom.  It is images from Jesus’ prayer book – the Psalms- that Jesus draws on when speaking in parables -like the parable of the mustard seed as an interpretation of Psalm 92. And it is the praying of the image from this Psalm that keeps me hopeful and faithful when it would be so easy to throw up my hands and say, “I give up. I quit.” Today’s readings continue to foster hope in me because I can truly picture the fullness of the metaphor of the sprawling tree; some would call it naivete or wishful thinking but I do fathom the possibilities of the wholeness of creation and kindom.

After the hate, disrespect, lack of understanding, no effort at relationship that manifests itself through human life, and these past few weeks has been brought into the open --- Islamophobia, deaths at residential schools, it is so easy to for the image of kindom to be swallowed in shadow and be wiped away. However, the image of the kindom described using trees has been repeated so often in scripture – so often by me in reading scripture, hearing the image used by those around me, in liturgy, and in hymns; that there is a seed that has been planted deep down inside me, and in you.

I read this phrase this week:  “Once a seed is planted it is a mystery being revealed.”

And I suppose this has been my experience as I wrestle with the horrors of hate, racism, attitudes of superiority, being complacent in systems that hurt and destroy. Deep down inside seeds have been planted and unannounced to me they have grown– the kindom has put in deep roots and in times like these now wants to push its growth outward like sprawling of bush.  The kindom seeds want to expand -to sprawl- from me. Praying this psalm reminds us that we are growing – sprawling – from being in the divine presence.  And this is so important, as the passing on of the hope of wholeness, is an ever a greater task. It is difficult to see and experience hope in jungle of life. To proclaim the psalm, this psalm, is to act in faith of that which is not yet realized, and in recent weeks not seen.

 

So that you remember this point, if none other, I have left an important aspect of this Psalm to end the sermon. This psalm is communal in nature and values relationship. So much so, that talking about kindom is only talked about within an image and practice of community.

 In my ministry I have heard many people, in a confessional sort of way, tell me that they are not a church person, but none-the-less are a good person. I won’t argue that there are good people who are not connected to a religious or faith community.  However; being a good person is not the call of Jesus, or the call that comes from Jesus’ prayer book. Faith and call are not an individual activity. For instance, I am sure there were good people at residential schools, but that did not stop horrendous acts or the inherent evil in the system; even though good people, and actions that they did or didn’t do, may have momentarily made a difference, but, did nothing to address the overall horrors within the system. To change a system it really takes speaking and acting as a  community.

Prayer #92 confronts us with the fact that Sabbath is a community event, kindom is a community event – it can not be done alone, no matter how good a person might be.  The psalm makes this clear: when speaking of formal worship and praising God, there is a list of instruments playing, -lute, harp and lyre- one person can not possibly play all these at the same time – there is need of a group working together, listening to each other, to make sabbath music that declares the steadfast love of God.  Love is relational!  The kindom of God is relational.

 

Let us crawl in under the sprawling rhododendron. Breathe in this image of the kindom of God. Pray, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

Be blessed to expand the kindom, a Sabbath that sprawls into the rest of this week, sprawls into your way of living and being, sprawls through you where you continually face the troubles of the world, the irritants, human failures with a continued declaration of God’s steadfast love; making this declaration as an act of faith for the kindom yet to be... and praying that it may happen soon, in the present, as we work together in community.