The Kingdom in Two Parts

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

Isaiah describes for us a beautiful image of the kingdom. Everyone who thirsts is invited to the waters. All are invited to come and eat, even those who can not pay.  There is free flowing wine and milk; an abundance of bread. Readers are encouraged to eat what is good, delight in rich food. Here one is satisfied.

It is God’s everlasting covenant, full of God’s steadfast love; there is mercy and abundant pardon.

I have read this passage with various groups this week.  People expressed a feeling of comfort, assurance, and peace through the words of Isaiah. How could the kingdom of God not be all this and more?

Likewise, with the text from Luke. Luke describes a beautiful image of the kingdom. He starts by asking listeners to ponder why bad things happen, countering popular belief that bad things happen to those who for some reason have brought it on themselves.  Luke’s Jesus tells a parable where the gardener convinces the landowner to give a fig tree one more year to bear fruit.  The gardener has hope that with time, manure, care, the fig tree will bear fruit.  God -the gardener- extends patience and mercy, steadfast love to the fig tree. Listeners interpret themselves to be the fig tree in the story; feeling a sense of comfort, assurance, and peace.  How could the kingdom of God not be all this and more?

Ho. Listen. See.  The kingdom IS more. But you are not going to like the image of the kingdom about to be presented.  You will not experience the warm fuzzy feelings of comfort, assurance, and peace.

In Isaiah 55, the prophet Isaiah is speaking to the people of Israel as they return to the land of Israel from a time of exile.  Isaiah speaks of the restoration of the covenant with God and the daily implementation of that covenant, the Law, within human interactions. There is a sense of comfort, assurance, and peace.  The people come home and turning to God are satisfied.  This is only part one of the kingdom.

God’s people return to the land; they are the landowner. This is important to note. 

Everyone who is thirsty comes…to the land, more specifically the landowner.

The hungry who have no money come…to the land, more specifically the landowner.

It is in the purview of the landowner to share the wealth of the land with those who come seeking. The people who come are from a vast array of places – some sought out by the people of the land, others (unknown, foreign, enemies) who have come of their own accord.

There is only water, wine, and milk for the refugees, IF the people in the land will be generous and hospitable with their resources. The hungry will find food IF the people will be generous and hospitable with the food they have.  The hungry will only find satisfying food – the bread of life- God- IF the people invite the newcomers to listen as faith stories are shared, as people are invited to participate in worship, prayer, study.

The landowner has been coached to eat what is good and delight in rich food; it is not so much about eating as it is about sharing the abundance of the land. It is about generosity and hospitality. This is part two of the kingdom.

In the fig tree parable consider the gardener to be the prophet.  The prophet speaks to the landowner, as Isaiah spoke to Israel, God’s people.  The prophet pleads with the landowner to return to the essence of the covenant, to be patient, offering mercy, hospitality, generosity.

The landowner -for a year- allows for the hope of the gardener to be fulfilled. The idea is that this small amount of mercy from the landowner is the beginning of softening the landowner’s heart. It is hoped that over the year the landowner ‘s heart will change to a place where mercy is its default setting.

The fig tree is God. God drawing the landowner into the responsibility of the covenant, the essence of the covenant which is to be patient, offer mercy, hospitality, and generosity.  Unbeknownst to the landowner, God circuitously confronts them, to participate in part two of the kingdom of God. Part two is the responsibility of   God’s people, where the landowner is welcoming, inviting, sharing the abundance of God with all.  The kingdom comes – only comes in fulness- when the people extend generosity, hospitality, and abundant pardon.

The landowner is treated with a balm of patience. Just as the people have been shown over the centuries. Prophets came and went, calling the people to return to God and the covenant. Jesus has come calling the people to return to God and the covenant; to live as kingdom people. God has shown great patience.

Part one of the kingdom plan is in the hands of the Creator. It has been executed through the centuries. Not only has the earth produced resources to sustain physical life, God has made God’s self known to satisfy the spirit, the seeker, with bread that is true bread. In a variety of ways God has been present and people have experienced God’s abundance and mercy.  The trouble is that like Isaiah’s image of the kingdom where we are the ones coming to satisfy our thirst, or see ourselves as the fig tree receiving mercy, we get stuck in receiving ---we are hoarders of  God’s abundance- and forget that the fulness of God only comes when we release what we receive back into the world.

God has extended copious amounts of patience, waiting for us to wake up, to divest, to clear the storage barns, to open our land; to get that the kingdom can not, will not, be fully present until we practice generosity and hospitality to all.

A number of years ago Yiru Sun was to be married. Two months before the wedding day, Sun, called it off because she refused to sign a prenuptial agreement. She had put down a nonrefundable deposit on a luxury hall. She could have decided to let the deposit go, to wallow in the unfairness, to be embittered by the situation.  She could have decided to throw a party for her friends.  Instead she participated in part two of the kingdom. Working with nonprofits, she threw a luncheon for 60 underprivileged kids and their families, none of whom she’d ever met. As host, Sun wore her wedding dress, welcomed her guests, mingled and watched the kids eat ice pops and have their faces painted. She reflects, “I cannot be the princess of my wedding day, but I can give the kids a fairy tale.”

There was a jailbreak in Parker County, Texas.  A correctional officer is alive because of it. Inmates participated in part two of the kingdom. They were awaiting court appearances in a holding cell when the officer watching over them collapsed. The inmates called out for help. When none appeared, they used their collective weight to break down the cell door. Rather than making a run for it, they went to the officer’s aid, still yelling for help. One tried the officer’s radio. Eventually, guards heard the commotion and came. After placing the inmates back in their cell, CPR was performed on the stricken officer, saving his life. “It never crossed my mind not to help, whether he’s got a gun or a badge,” inmate Nick Kelton said, “If he falls down, I’m gonna help.”                                                          -----stories found on the internet----

How could the kingdom of God not be all this and more?

These true stories are comforting, reassuring, and peaceful; they are filled with hope for humanity.  I chose these two stories from the millions found on the internet when googling “stories of generosity and hospitality,” because in each case the actors had the option to not demonstrate generosity and hospitality – and based on their circumstances we would understand why they would choose not to do so.  But they did and furthered the kingdom of God by living the covenant whose essence is mercy, compassion, patience, generosity, hospitality without question. 

Christopher Hays, professor of Ancient Near Eastern studies describes the circumstances of the people to whom Isaiah was speaking in chapter 55.  He says, Despite the allowance of Cyrus and the Persian Empire for them to return, it was not a prosperous time. The city had not been rebuilt since its destruction by the Babylonians fifty years earlier, social and economic structures were weak, and there were struggles for the most desirable land between the returnees and those who had been in the land in the meantime. Later, in the fifth century, Nehemiah would report that common farming families were having to borrow money and grain to pay their taxes, and even selling their children into debt slavery.  And it is in the midst of these circumstances that the prophet calls the people – the landowners (whether they own the land or not)- to be abundantly generous and hospitable to all.

This is where we are this morning. No matter our circumstance, or the situation of the world, whether rich or poor, landowners or not, the prophet calls – God asks of us- that we participate in bringing the kingdom of God. Return to the Lord, live the covenant.  Because you feel comfort, assurance, and peace in the words of Isaiah, turn the texts upside down, and become the landowner to redistribute the same comfort, assurance, and peace.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts [says the Lord].