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THE INCONSPICUOUS KINGDOM ~*~ JMB

eet Meditation BSPC
Luke 718-22 Cols, OH

3/4/ VF

The year was 1968. Martin Luther King had been assasin-

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‘ an WAted. [We didn't know what would happen next, but whatever it
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a wen ye Was we were sure it wouldn't be good. \I had an appointment
the next day with a young couple to discuss the baptism of

their child.\ In the middle of it the conversation took an

es
suen :
all too familiar wee: ("he got what he was asking for: \he

was a trouble maker: \ when are they going to learn to stay

in their piace?") I left their home depressed, S@@N@T for mr

{67 the future of my nation. \ In fact I was so caught up in an
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pathic tragedy of the whole thing that I sat in my car for a while
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before driving away .\ When I started the em» and pulled
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into the street I had to drive at a snail's pace behind
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two bicycles - each with two little boys - in front of me,

weaving, tilting, arms and legs protruding crazily, laugh-

ing.\\ Finally they pulled over so I could pass and I saw
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one white peddler and one black passenger on the first
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bike: \ one black peddler and one white passenger on the

second bike, about_ten years old \ And I have had in my

mind ever since, a picture which comes automatically into
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focus every time I hear words Jesus once said: [ "the king-

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dom of God is like a grain of mustard seed - it is like

leaven."

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Into my collection also goes an incident at my own

dinner table.| A bicycle had been stolen from our garage:
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in fact it was the second bicycle we have lost in that

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fashion, this one, however a joint purchase between father

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and ao) He had cut a lot of lawns to earn his hait.\ I

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was in r form: lf righ indi il
are form se righteous, indignant, angry, hostile,

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and he said, spontaneously,|"It's hard to understand how

someone could want something bad enough to do that.” | The

Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed - it is like

leaven."

—_

This week I received two letters to add to my catalogue
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of mustard seeds and leaven.
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The first is from Dr. Walter Hull, Medical Missionary

of the Southern Presbyterian Church in Zaire, brother-in-law

of a member of this congregation.\ Walter and Nancy and their

daughters Leanne and Maria worshipped with us last year for
a white. | Broad Street Presbyterian Church made a modest
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financial commitment to Walter's work vuneebig, \abe

Christmas letter arrived last week - listen to some excerpts -

‘Last.August,—our family~returned” to” a Zaire-which

continues to totter on the brink of total economic

disastem...Yesterday morning as I left for my Monday

clinic eight miles away in the city of Kananga, I

was requested to take home the body of the twelve

——_—

year old son of the chaplain of the nearby military

camp | the child had died in the hospital during

——

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the night of rheumatic heart ailment. |As my land-

Grover bounced over holes and through sandpits, I

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was caught up short listening to the child's father

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singing hymns in a language I did not understand -

I was struck by the ravages of disease that takes

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so many lives here (30% of children under five years
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of age), and yet the expression of a profound, and

anchoring faith of so many Zairian Christians.

"Food remains the item of principle concern for most

Zairians. | We are appalled at Time Magazine's pic-

tures of Iowa farmers dumping corn in streets - at

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a price of $3.00 or $4.00 a sack. Going prices

here are $50-$75 a sack."

And then the final paragraph: | "This Christmas we

can proclaim with all Christians that 'In Him was

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life: (ana the Life is the Light of men. The light

—————————

shineth in darkness: and-the~darkness has not

quenched it." | The Kingdom of God is like a grain of

mustard seed — it is like leaven.

——

The same day, a newsletter arrived from Corrymeela

Community, Ballycastle, Northern » Ireland$ \an ecumenical re-

treat and study center devoted to reconciliation and peace

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in vister.| Broad Street Church has made a modest commit-
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ment to Corrymeela as well.| The letter, from the Director,

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. Davey, was full of information about the seminars
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held recently, the eiemed condition of the project. \ The

final paragraph however told the story _of a Roman Catholic

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mother whose son wes killed in the "troubles". \{"Aine

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ess Sei Rconsint, ‘What is the kingdom of God Like? | What shall

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apologized for her red eyes, she had not expected any caller.
'I was just having a wee weep in the kitchen.' she said.
‘Mostly now I'm alright, but sometimes it comes over me
round this time - when he'd be coming in to his supper with

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his aad.[ They worked together at the plumbing, see, and you

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know how a young lad loves his food - he'd say "Great, Mum,

it's onions tonight and.yeumtwewbeemmeryin.''\ People say
I'll forget all them details, but sure how could rA tt

was in Corrymeela, Protestant and Catholic we were, all
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together and the Protestants knew it was their lot that

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killed my son, and they prayed special for me and it worked.

I'll never be happy again, see, but I'm not angry no more.'"
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I compare it with? [re is like a mustard-seed which

aman took and sowed in his garden; and it grew to be
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a tree and the birds came to roost':among its branches.'

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Again he said, 'The kingdom of God, what shall I

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compare it with? It is like yeast which a woman

took and mixed with half a hundredweight of flour

till it was all leavened.'"

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Jesus of Nazareth was making a simple but astounding
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claim.\ He was saying that the Kingdom of God was, in fact,
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present right in the life of the world: \\ that God's reign
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had begun to take effect \ that it was an established fact -

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although somewhat hidden: -'*"

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That's a deceptively simple nessage.\ For hundredsand
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hundreds of years Israel thought she knew what it meant.
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The Kingdom of God would come on the heels of a dramatic

military revolution \ A new_David would sit on a Jerusalem

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throne. \ Texael, frankly, wasn't terribly impressed with

Jesus of Nazareth and his odd announcement \, He was thrown

out of the Synagogue in his home town, his own family thought
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he was crazy, important people ignored him mostly, And so

it was inevitable that his disciples, one day, when he said -
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"The Kingdom of God is among you")asked("oh yeh? | where?

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Would you mind pointing it out to us, Jesus?\ After all,

———

we've got a lot on the line - we walked away from our jobs

and families to follow you.\ We'd like to see just a little
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bit of this kingdom you keep talking about."’)

So he told two little stories about a grain of mus-
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tard seed growing into a tree, and about _a bit of leaven

inserted into flour. \The most evident characteristic of a

mustard seed is its smallness: \ of leaven - its silence
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and invisibility. \ A mustard seed is so small you can barely

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see it\ When leaven is doing its work in bread baking you
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can't hear it or see it \ "That, he said, "is what the

kingdom I'm talking about.js like."

We are victims of bigness, power, noise, speed, drama;
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the world has always been enamored with size and sound.

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The same is true of us, only more so. | (ayy
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ear drums: | aesthetically the ‘person of the year is
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superman,{'faster than a speeding bullet i,” - and when
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we look at the Christian enterprise we don't know what to

make of what we see.| The trends aren't looking very good.

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Sales are off, frankly;\statistics are dewe X No one is
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seriously talking about the world for Christ in our gener-

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ation any longer. \ We simply hope we're still around at the

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turn of the century.

The world never did understand him — or this about him.

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He was never talking about the World Wide Empire of Jesus
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of Nazareth.\ He didn't want to be King, or Pope or even

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Moderator .\ He wasn't interested.

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At his birth, no one noticed much \ The Scottish Poet

George MacDonald wrote:

"They were all looking for a king

To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing

That made a woman cry."

At his death, the crowd quickly left the few morbidly

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curious to taunt and jeer.\ But it was a very quiet dying.

near

The «g events which we decorate most lavishly - with
——-

sparkling trees and gold crosses and gorgeous flowers -
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were embarrassingly small and silent and almost invisible.

And this Sacrament, this common meal which is our dearest
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rite - in which we affirm the Kingdom of God even in our midst -
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COR eNOUREmeteeteees — is no more dramatic than a loaf and a
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cup.

The Kingdom of God - God's reign - is in our midst, he
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said. Watch for it. \cetebrate dt. \soin it, when you are
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privileged to see it.\ Embrace it, shed_a tear - or laugh -
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or shout - or break bread and drink wine.

For the kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom
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eof our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever

and ever.

Eternal God, our father, we too, have asked about the location
of your kingdom. Help us to see and know it as it comes
silently into our lives. Give us grace to join it as it
emerges, slowly -— surely - in our world. This morning,

grant us, aS we commune, to know your nearness. In Jesus

Christ our Lord. Amen.