6/16 Sermon - Your Kingdom Come

Matthew 4:26-34

I still remember the day. I was exercising in the Martin Luther College weight room. I saw the TV. I saw the Russian bombs flying and exploding. I saw the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the news on February 22nd. Since then, the war has been raging.

But nothing is new. That’s life, in a sense. War. Bloodshed. Russia wants to expand their kingdom. Expansion happens through war and violence.

Or think of a house. We now own a little piece of land and a house here in Burlington. Sure, we didn’t take it through war. But we paid for it. Now it’s ours.

That’s how kingdom’s grow, isn’t it? Nations wage war on each other. Take land. People buy houses, stocks, they grow investments. We must do something to grow a kingdom.

I have a confession, as a pastor of a church: that’s how I treat God’s kingdom. Sometimes I have a sinful view of God’s kingdom. It is! I ask myself the question: “How do I grow this church?” Well, with what I do! I need to knock on more doors, I need to plan more events, I need to be more outgoing, I need to do something! I can’t tell you how much stress, sinful stress, I’ve felt the past two years.

Or maybe we think we’ve failed somehow. Our Savior has been around for almost 50 years and there’s not a lot of us here. Have we failed? Have we messed? Have we lost the battle for this kingdom?   

That’s not how God’s kingdom works. God’s kingdom is unlike any other kingdom of this earth. And our reading from Mark shows us with a beautiful illustration what God’s kingdom is like.

A seed. Not a nation. Not a war. Not a house. Not an investment strategy. A seed. A farmer scatters the seeds. Then night and day, without his work, without his knowledge, all my itself, the seed grows. The farmer has no control over it.

A seed. A mustard seed. Mustard seeds are one of the smallest seeds. They are a speck on the tip of your finger. So small and insignificant. But a mustard tree? Gigantic! Some can be as tall as a two-story house. But the size comes from their circumference: 20 feet across! So many branches for so many birds.

These two parables tell us two beautiful truths about God’s kingdom:

1: We can’t control God’s kingdom. We just can’t. God’s kingdom, his church, works outside of our control and our effort. What pressure that takes off our shoulders! What joy is given to us! Even if it doesn’t seem like that to us, God’s kingdom grows. It produces a beautiful harvest, a multitude of God’s children. Every day, God’s kingdom grows across this fallen world.

2: God’s kingdom has unlimited power. Now, God’s kingdom seems so powerless. The world mocks Christians. The Word seems like an ordinary book. What can a message really do? God’s kingdom seems like the smallest speck of a seed on our finger tips. But then it grows, the message of forgiveness, life, hope grows. God’s kingdoms grows into a giant tree, a home for all of God’s people.

You sit in those branches. You are a forgiven, redeemed child of God, a citizen of God’s kingdom. Your sin has been taken away by the blood of Christ, and you rest in the branches of God’s kingdom.

We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come.” What does that mean? Luther says, “God’s kingdom certainly comes by itself without our prayer.” God’s kingdom of grace comes every day as people come to faith in God and grow in their faith. It happens without our asking! Then Luther says, “But we pray that it may come to us also.” It’s simple. “Lord, grow your kingdom in my heart. And if it’s your will, grow your kingdom in this church.”

So you drive to Iowa City for some shopping or errands. What do you see? Fields and fields of corn and wheat. And that’s it! The farmers don’t stand out there and shout at their crop. They move to other chores on the farm. The seeds just grow. That’s how God’s kingdom works.

We can be separated from the land sometimes. Even in a ‘drought’, I can go to Aldi and buy bread and milk. But farmers know much better: We depend on the rain so much, and so much that’s out of our control!

We are simple farmers in God’s kingdom. What do we do? Nothing. Scatter the seed. And here is the assurance, the confidence, that God gives to you today: His kingdom grows. We can’t see it. We can’t control. It seems so powerless, but God’s kingdom grows. And in heaven, when God harvests this world, there will be a multitude, millions upon millions. And you will be there, because God has planted his kingdom in your heart.  

So let’s do the work of a farmer. Let’s scatter seed. Let’s harvest. Sometimes people do a lot of scattering seed. Sometimes they do a lot of harvesting. Doesn’t matter. That’s God’s work. We pray always, “your kingdom come.”