Prelude - “I Hear Thy Welcome Voice” [by L. Hartsough] - Sarah Park
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church!
We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms, building community in a fragmented world. We want to welcome everyone who is in the house today, everyone online, and everyone downstairs watching our live telecast. We are grateful for all the many ways you can join us for worship on this Lord’s Day.
Opening Scripture - Luke 17:20-21
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."
*Response - Weave
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship - Liz Meeker
Leader: We gather to worship with many needs,
People: We gather to worship in a variety of morning moods:
Leader: Some of us are ready to shout "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord."
People: Some of us echo the Psalmist's anguish:
"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice."
Leader: Some of us are looking for guidance and direction from the Word of God
People: Some of us long passionately to be close to you, O God.
Leader: God, stand ready and able to respond to our needs.
People: In that assurance, come, let us worship God.
*Opening Hymn - “How Great Thou Art” #33, v. 1 & 2
O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
consider all the worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed.
[Refrain]
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
how great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
how great thou art, how great thou art.
When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze; [Refrain]
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Liz Meeker
Offertory “Great is thy faithfulness ” [by W. M. Runyan ] - Sarah Park
The Doxology #46
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Offering Prayer - Liz Meeker
Children’s Moment - Rev. Nancy Humes
Pastoral Prayer - Rev. Nancy Humes
Communion
Meditation - Roger Cram
Communion Hymn - “One Bread One Body” #393, v. 1-2
Refrain
One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
one cup of blessings which we bless.
And we, though many throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
Gentile or Jew, servant or free,
woman or man, no more (Refrain)
Many the gifts, many the works,
one in the Lord of all. (Refrain)
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Roger Cram
Words of Institution - Rev. Nancy Humes
Music: “Are Ye Able, Said the Master ” [by H. S. Mason] - Sarah Park
Scripture
Matthew 20:1-16
1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” 7 “Because no one has hired us,” they answered. He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.” 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.” 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 “These who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.” 13 But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 22:37-40
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Sermon - "The Kingdom of God Is..." - Rev. Nancy Humes
THE KINGDOM IS ______________________ (FILL IN THE BLANK)
We’ve heard three scriptures this morning – the first two relating to the kingdom of God and one that doesn’t appear to have much of anything in common with the kingdom. Something I like to do when I preach is to put differing scriptures in conversation with each other. But before we dig in, please pray with me.
Loving God, let the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my strength and redeemer. Amen.
Before we begin to dig in, I want to remind us that last week Pam talked about the Great Commission and how our actions often speak louder than our words. And remember Beth’s meditation where she talked about the people who mentored us in our faith journeys. They both made impressions on me that play into where we are going as we search out the kingdom this morning.
First, Roger Mize was one of my mentors – he started me on a journey which was aided by my studies at KSU and at Vanderbilt Divinity School that changed the Jesus I first knew — you know that meek and mild Jesus walking to Golgotha to die on a cross for my sins, to a Jesus that stood for the “least of these” and a Jesus that spoke the truth about Rome no matter the cost to himself. And died because he spoke out against Rome and how Rome treated the people.
And Chad, well, he set me on this road of thinking and speaking about The Kingdom. – I had hoped to do a simple little sermon and I kept trying to argue and wiggle my way out of this, but his words about how “Thy kingdom come” was a direct affront and challenge to Rome has, as they say, “put a burr under my saddle” and I just couldn’t let it go. – So all I can say is — Thanks Chad!
Now let’s get ready to go into the vineyard – roll up our sleeves and get busy!
Well, here we are – when I say kingdom what kind of images come to mind first? For some – they’ll see castles and turrets, lords and ladies, others will see a ‘heavenly palace’ in the clouds with St. Peter at the gates, and yet others will see a garden where the lion is lying down with the lamb. These are just a few that I bet are moving through the congregation this morning. Let’s admit it — they’re lot’s of different images and thoughts and ideas about the kingdom.
(PAUSE)
And now I’m gonna ask you to fill in the blank
The Kingdom of God is ________________________.
Like with the images of what it looks like, I’m betting there are probably as many answers as there are people in the pew and people on line. I’ve asked several people and guess what – I’ve gotten as many answers as people I’ve asked.
So let’s do what we’re supposed to do and go to the scriptures and see what they say: The parables tell us . . . the Kingdom
… is like a man who sowed good seed in his field (Matthew 13:24)
… is like a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31)
… is like yeast (Matthew 13:33)
… is like treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 14:44)
… is like a merchant in search of fine pearls (Matthew 13:45)
… is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish (Matthew 13:47)
“… is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard (Matthew 20:1)
I mean sowing seeds, yeast, mustard seeds, hidden treasure — really?
Are these really that helpful. And here you may want to remind me — They’re parables.
Well we’ve heard Jesus explaining why he talks in parables and he says and I quote here — ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” (13:13) which doesn’t seem all that helpful either.
And, in our opening scripture we heard the Pharisees asking Jesus about the kingdom and when it’s gonna come – he simply tells them — it’s already here – within all of us – can’t be much plainer than that. But we look around and is this really God’s kingdom?
I think it’s safe to say, all of this is very confusing. We have a lot of images and thoughts about what the kingdom is and I think we should figure out what we are talking about — get on the same page. To do that, we need to ask ourselves some important questions to help us — questions like:
Is the kingdom here?
Is it yet to come?
Or, perhaps its both.
I’m gonna pause here for a moment and let us digest that.
The kingdom is here?
To come?
Or both?
If we think about what we’ve read and heard over the years about Jesus and his ministry I think we’ll all agree that Jesus spent a lot of time talking about and living out – showing how the kingdom works in word and deed. And, I think that we’ll all agree that if he spent a lot of time talking about it, it must be pretty important. I might be so bold as to say that this — the kingdom was Jesus’ mission – he talked about it but more — he lived out God’s kingdom in everything he said and everything he did.
Now I’m gonna read some very familiar Jesus’ sayings – I’ll call them Jesus Snippets – they were clues about how TO DO the kingdom for the disciples (and us) – do they sound familiar?
Judge not lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1)
Give and it shall be given to you (Luke 6:38)
The first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 19:30)
Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39)
Let him who is without sin throw the first stone (John 8:7)
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28)
If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them 2 miles (Matthew 5:41)
If anyone asks for your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. (Matthew 5:40)
Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. (Mark 10:42-45)
And I bet we all remember “The widows’ mite” – Jesus tells them that she put more in than the others because she gave out of her poverty – giving everything she had (Mark 12:43-44 & Luke 21:1-4)
These are what I call Jesus snippets – I ask you to remember them.
Now let’s look at the grumbling workers in the vineyard — have you ever been a grumbler? I admit it — I’ve been a grumbler this week – all I wanted to do was bring a simple, loving, Good News message to you this morning. But here we are — talking about the illusive Kingdom of God and we have workers grumbling about fairness — ever thought that life’s not fair? Been upset and jealous when someone else got picked for the team before you did, got the trophy, got the award? got the job you wanted, got the dream house or car? I think we can all say we’ve said ‘Life’s not fair’ at some time or the other.
SPOILER ALERT – God never said life would be fair. And that brings us to the question is God’s idea of fairness the same as ours?
I mean we’ve gone out of our way to make sure all of our kids that participate in sports, science, music, theater get participation trophies so they don’t feel left out when we acknowledge winners because if there are winners there must also be losers. The question I have to ask though, is this attitude promoting fairness at any cost corrupted and watered down the idea of fairness so much that we can’t even honor or celebrate accomplishments?. We have even gone so far as to dilute heroism so that we can’t be truly honor and celebrate our actual heroes and heroines! We have gone to great lengths to make every service person, policeman, fireman a ‘hero’ but doesn’t that take away from that person that heroically rushes into danger when we lift up the person who’s simply doing his or her job? Not every soldier, fireman or policeman is a hero every time they go on duty. Now I may upset some of you with this but as we are coming up on our remembrance of 911 we’ll be hearing again how all of those who died in the towers were heroes – but were they? They were simply there to do their jobs – rather than heroes and heroines they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, it was a horrific tragedy but heroes all? What about the actual heroes? The ones who actually died saving others – it’s not the same is it. And it kinda puts things into a different perspective doesn’t it?
And when I think back to my childhood I really don’t think my childhood was hurtful or warped me because some of my friends were better at sports, or music, science or art than I was and received the trophies or were chosen first. We were simply taught that people have different talents and skills and acknowledging that was the thing to do.
Looking deeper at fairness shouldn’t it be more about people having or getting what they need — not necessarily what they want but what they need. I ask you, what do we do when one of our children needs shoes and the other pants — do we give them both shoes? No we give them what they need. That’s simply being fair.
In our scripture the employer paid the last hired first (sorta a play on the last shall be first?) so the first workers expected more pay – not an unexpected attitude – after all they worked more hours. They grumbled and thought the employer wasn’t being fair but, they got exactly what they were hired for didn’t they. I think we can all agree God’s understanding of fair is different than ours and it’s kind of hard for us to accept at times.
But getting back to the kingdom stuff I think it will help if we put all of this in context — let’s look around our country and compare it to the time in which Jesus lived. Oh, we’re more affluent, we have more technology and stuff and we aren’t really persecuted by our government but let’s look at what it was like living under Roman rule when Jesus was doing his ministry. “Jesus lived in a land . . . where the people felt like they were living in chaos. [Sound familiar?]
It was a land of [many] traditions and religious fervor . . . [Sound familiar?]
The population was split into hostile groups. [Again, sound familiar?]
Preachers . . . [politicians] . . . mouthpieces were everywhere, “drawing enormous, passionate crowds.”# [Familiar?]
This is what the situation was like when Jesus began his ministry and is it really all that different today? I mean it’s 2000+ years later and yes, there were the poor but we have the poor too. Yes, there were the persecuted but we have them too. Yes, there were religious zealots – we have them too. There were roving preachers and we have our televangelists – not so different after all.
We know Jesus travelled around preaching. We know he drew crowds with what he was saying. He ministered to the poorest of the poor – and his message “announcing that there was a kingdom greater than Rome, that God would provide and that the poorest members of society would find relief and hope. Well, this was a completely new message – one which excited his audiences. It resonates with us yet today too!
But for Jesus, there was an additional threat to his message.
If preaching that there was a kingdom greater than Rome — well, if that wasn’t enough to get the attention of Rome and Roman authorities – “his disciples claims that ‘Jesus was the son of God, offended many people. What’s more, his ideas were revolutionary and threatened to undermine thousands of years of social tradition – the status quo. He died for what he believed in and preached.
But do the names Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Ghandi . . . ring any bells? They tell us that things really haven’t changed that much have they?
In many ways Jesus’ reality isn’t that much different from ours. It’s not a pretty picture is it? We still have the poor, the disenfranchised, the persecuted. We still have hunger and famine and war. It’s obvious, we still have a lot of work to do to bring the kingdom. So how do we do that?
Well, I still haven’t provided an answer to the first question I posed — what is the kingdom? Well, I think if we go to our second scripture of the reading often known as The Golden Rule and let it speak we just might discover, at least, part of the answer and it gives us some direction to follow. And remember those Jesus snippets I read? Keep them in mind — they were The Golden Rule in action.
So first I want to point out that cultures and religions all around the world have some form of The Golden Rule. If they all have it – it must be important don’t ya think?
Look at them —
they might be stated in a variety of ways, some positive, some negative, but the message is clear — the message is the same.
Now let’s look at these employees and the employer – and apply The Golden Rule to the situation. First — did they get what they were employed for?
Yes.
Second — did the employer meet his obligation to them?
Yes he did.
What, if instead of grumbling that it wasn’t fair they were happy for the other workers – think of how that would have changed the story. Nobody would have been grumbling. Nobody would have been unhappy with what he or she got. It would be treating the other like he wanted to be treated.
Guess we could say The Golden Rule has its place in the vineyard. The Golden Rule has its place everywhere for that IS God’s kingdom It’s here and now and yet to come – because we haven’t found a way to always treat others as we want to be treated. Remember the Jesus snippets here folks! Just think of what our world would be like if all religious communities in the world took their version of The Golden Rule to heart – imagine for a minutes what kind of world we would be living in!
And yes — I hear some grumblers saying that a “pie in the sky” dream — it’s utopia. There are some people who will never do it because they are greedy for power, money, whatever. That may be true but we won’t bring the kingdom if we don’t try.
So what’s the bottom line?
Well, we’ve spent quite a bit of time in the vineyard this morning. We’ve been grumblers at some time or other.
Yes, we try to treat others as we want to be treated — sometimes we’re successful and others we aren’t.
We need to roll up our sleeves and . . . . . get busy!
I’m gonna issue a challenge to each and every one of us – take The Golden Rule to heart – use which ever words that are meaningful to you —
let’s go and as Pam said last week – let our actions speak louder than words – show kindness and love whenever and wherever we can – this brings the kingdom into the here and now. And the kingdom yet to come. We’ll just be paving the way.
*Closing Hymn - “This Is My Song” #722 vs. 1 & 3
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mne.
This is my prayer, O Ruler of all nations;
let thy reign come; on earth thy will be done.
In peace may all earth’s people draw together,
and hearts united learn to live as one.
O hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations;
myself I give thee; let thy will be done.
Benediction - Rev. Nancy Humes
Postlude - “Be Not Dismayed Whate'er Betide ” [by W. S. Martin] - Sarah Park