Last Sunday, the scripture from Matthew 13 & the Gospel of Thomas contained 6 parables about the kingdom of heaven:

1. Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that someone sowed and it became a tree so that the birds of the air came and nested in its branches.
   
2. Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed until it was leavened and made 100 loaves of bread.
   
3. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who didn’t know he had treasure hidden in his field. He passed it to his son, who passed it to his son, who sold it to someone who plowed it and found the treasure and used it to support himself and others by lending it out with interest.
   
4. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who discovered a pearl hidden amongst his merchandise. He sold the rest and kept the pearl.
   
5. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and caught fish of every kind. And the fishermen sorted the good from the bad – or the large from the small – and put the ones they didn’t need back into the sea.
   
6. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

Qualities:

• The emphasis is on ordinary people doing their ordinary daily tasks: women, farmers, merchants, fishermen, teachers.
  
• It involves something that starts small, becomes larger.
  
• It involves a treasure of enduring value –it’s a treasure that worms will not devour nor rust destroy.
  
• It’s beneficial not only for the individual, but it is ‘sown’ so that it may grow and multiply to serve many/all creation for the greater good.
  
• The treasure and the process of transformation are a gift from God – and a gift of human hands.
  
• It is mixed/intermingled with the Spirit and other parts of creation.
  
• It is or .
  
• It involves wisdom and discernment – recognizing/choosing/knowing the true treasure for that time and place as well as what should be re-planted for another time.
  
• It involves a willingness to toss away that which is extraneous – not everything is for you in every moment.
  
• There is a temporal (time) element – both old and new are important – both what has been received/handed down from the ages and what you can add to it.

There is a formula to these parables:

The kingdom of heaven is like a ______________ 
  that someone took/found and _____________, (did something with or to)
  and later - it became __________________.

• The object of these parables are to get inside you. Jesus, and each subsequent teller of these stories, is sowing the seed, mixing the yeast, finding the pearl of God’s kingdom in you and your own everyday experience. That is why I spent so much time last Sunday demonstrating each story with tangible objects.

You can then experiment with Creating Your own Parables about the Kingdom of Heaven in your own backyard. I encourage you to try this yourself. Don’t be shy – it’s between you and God and God loves it when people seek him.

I discovered this while I was digging a grave last Sunday afternoon.

• in the sub-soil – pottery shards and old coins – traces of a century ago
  
• smooth walls, flat bottom
  
• laid a carpet of one of her favorite fleeces; wrapped her in her other two
  
• Sophie and I lowered her gently into the grave.
  
• Soph tossed 1st shovel-full. Her Dad filled the rest.
  
• then one day-lily became 6 large clumps that revived an old, tired garden bed.

This act felt reverential and sacramental.

How many people will own this ‘field’ before someone ‘plows’ it and finds the skeletal remains of a house cat lovingly wrapped in fleece? What meaning will they find in it? Who will they tell? Is the Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman who dug a grave for a family pet and found remnants of another century, peace, love, and new life?
Blessed are they who mourn for they will inherit the kingdom.

Also on that Sunday, Harry came again to worship.

The 1st time he came here, he’d felt ‘called’ to visit this church that day a huge tree didn’t fall on his car.

He felt called to return last Sunday, and his presence reminded me to light a candle for the tree that did fall on my car and house.

At 11:00pm Sunday evening, he left a message on my cell phone that a huge tree fell on his house cutting a 5’ x 5’ hole.

Now that’s synchronicity of some kind.

Is the Kingdom of Heaven is like the trees that fall in a year of storms that join us in the shared human condition in a miracle of synchronicity?

The story of the loaves and fishes is an example of Jesus living out the narrative of a parable about of the presence of Kingdom of Heaven and how it works.

We start out with a large crowd in need of healing who seek out Jesus in an empty, deserted place. And Jesus heals them. Then we have a large crowd of hungry people who in the end eat to their fill with plenty leftover.

Is the Kingdom of Heaven is like a wise healer who took 2 fish and 5 loaves; looked to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and more than 5,000 people were filled?

Blessed are they who are sick and hungry, for they will find healing and nourishment in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But what are the missing links between the need and its fulfillment?

(As Jesus did with last week’s parables, I’m going to use ordinary language to make it more accessible:)

Those in need sought assistance from God through a wise healer and sage. The wise one then sought assistance from God – the primary source of all blessings. He passed the blessings onto the food and then outwards to the Disciples, who then passed it outward to the crowds. (sounds a bit like Communion, doesn’t it)

This involves what I call ‘the nature of blessings’:

Open your eyes, ears, and hearts God’s treasure and abundance which is always present. When a blessing comes your way, receive it fully – drink it in to the tips of your tippy-toes – let it fill you and make your spirit grow.

Then pass it along.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a snowball that someone took and rolled it along the ground and it became huge enough to make a snowman; and this is how you get the exponential growth from one, small, starting point.

Remember how Paul said, “it is more blessed to give than to receive”? This statement can be misleading if it makes you think it is only good to give. It assumes you already know that it is a blessing to receive. First you must fully receive the blessing. Let it make you glow with the Spirit. Then, when you pass it along, it becomes an even greater blessing – like the tiny snowball that becomes greater with each turn in the snow.

The nature of blessings involves the wisdom and discernment to choose to see and receive blessings despite the evil and degradation in the world. This is to choose the path of righteousness. As God said in Deut 30, “I set before you today blessings and curses, life and death. Choose blessings and life that you and your descendants shall live.”

I will close with Jesus’ words from Matthew 6:

“Do not worry about what you will eat, drink, or wear.
Papa (Abba) knows you need all these things.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness and all these things shall be given unto you.”

“Eucharist in churches prior to 1,000 CE:

• celebrated as the Feast of Life, not as the reenactment of death.
  
• People greeted each other in peace & reconciliation by clasping hands, embracing or kissing.
  
• Great offertory procession where members brought gifts to support the church and foods for the Eucharistic meal. Bread was universally served, but also fruits, flowers, olive oil, olives, fresh milk, cheese curds with honey, grilled fish, salt, water, or wine as well.
  
• Red meat was universally banned, reflecting a Christian desire to avoid associations with Roman animal sacrifice. When Eucharistic liturgies referred to sacrifice, they called it “bloodless,” which meant that prayer was their holy sacrifice.
  
• Blessing of the Offerings .
  
• People called to “Lift up your hearts” in a Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, the Eucharist (literally, the giving thanks): a celebration of Divine origin, goodness and beauty of creation, story of humanity in paradise before the Fall, a recitation of God’s many acts of redemption & naming of many prophets & saints including those of the community who had died. Climax of the prayer was thanks for Christ’s incarnation, teachings and miraculous assistance to those in need.
  
• Prayer of Consecration – call for the Spirit to come down into the food on the table and into the entire community, asking that the fire of the Spirit sanctify everyone and everything with the blessing of the divine presence.

“Universalism tells us that we can come to know the world as paradise when our hearts and souls are reborn through the arduous and tender task of living rightly with one another and the earth. [Seek ye 1st the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. sp] Generosity, nonviolence, and care for one another are the pathways into transformed awareness [portals into the kingdom. sp]. Knowing that paradise is here and now is a gift that comes to those who practice the ethics of paradise. This way of living is not Utopian… [or] the imagining of a better world but from a profound embrace of this world. It does not begin with knowledge or hope – it begins with love.

“Paradise is human life restored to its dignity and capacity, and it is a place of struggle with evil and injustice, requiring the development of wisdom, love, nonviolence, and responsible uses of power. Power can be experienced as spiritual illumination of the heart, mind, and senses felt in moments of religious ecstasy, and it can be known in ordinary life lived with reverence and responsibility.

“Paradise is not a place free from suffering or conflict, but it is a place in which the Spirit I present and love is possible.”