Filling the Void
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
The 11th Sunday after Pentecost – July 27, 2008
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: Romans 8:26-39/Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52]

The late American Church historian Sidney Mead once described the United States as a nation “with the soul of a church.” People have been trying to prove, or disprove, the fact that as a nation we’re the “most religious” on earth. But what does that mean? Brian Luke Seaward wrote a book titled Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies in which he spends a goodly amount of time looking at spirituality as a means to avoiding stress. He writes:

In an article titled ‘Choosing My Religion,’ Cimino and Lattin stated the following: “In 1958, for example, only one in twenty-five Americans had left the religious denomination of their upbringing. Today, more than one in three have left or switched. Most still believe in God, but now they are looking for a personal spiritual practice. According to a recent survey from the MacArthur Foundation, seven out of ten Americans say they are religious and consider spirituality important part of their lives. But about half attend religious services less than once a month or never.” [p. 154]

Seaward uses the terms “spiritual hunger” and “spiritual bankruptcy” to describe the situation of most Americans. He paints a compelling picture of a void that people go looking to fill.

David G. Myers, a social psychologist, is even more compelling as he makes the argument for a void affecting American life and manners in The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty. He marshals some impressive data to demonstrate that while we are living better than ever we’re still miserable, because, in a nutshell, we keep trying to substitute individualism for the common good and things (affluence, success, toys, name it) for spiritual well-being. His findings are echoed by Leigh Schmidt’s Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality. Schmidt surveys the history of American spirituality from Emerson to Oprah and finds us a nation of seekers. We want happiness, we want contentment, we want something that will fill this void, this restlessness that is deep inside us.

Well, the answer is closer than we think – and has been all along. I have quoted two great thinkers from this pulpit who addressed this directly and whose answers still hold. The first is Augustine who, in his Confessions, detailed his own search for God and came to the conclusion, addressed to God, “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O God.” The other is the 17th century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal who, in his Pensees, wrote: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” I believe, no, I know, that filling the void in the human heart is accomplished by coming into the kingdom of God.

So, where is it? Is it a realm one can locate on a map, like the United Kingdom? Or is it a purely mythical realm, like Camelot or Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom? God's kingdom must be somewhere, after all we pray for the coming of the kingdom each time we use the Lord's Prayer.

No doubt the early followers of Jesus must have asked the same questions about the kingdom's location; there are several times in the Gospels where Jesus talks about the kingdom of God. These parables we've been looking at for the last several weeks show Jesus addressing what the kingdom of God is like -- no doubt in answer to followers' questions. From what he tells us I think we can understand that the kingdom of God is closer than we think and that it fills the void, the spiritual hunger in the human heart.

Jesus first tells us, by means of two small parables, that the kingdom of God isn't a matter of size. God reaps a great harvest with a small investment. To bring the idea home Jesus uses two very appropriate examples: the mustard seed and leaven -- yeast.

The kingdom of God is like the mustard seed because it starts out small, but grows into something proportionately far larger. What is more, the insignificant seed becomes a place of refuge, of comfort, and of rest. The hard little seed takes root and eventually birds can nest in its branches. The kingdom of God is like that; it takes people who may be little and hard transforming them into a welcoming, loving, caring community where people can find peace and rest.

The kingdom of God is like leaven, or yeast, added to dough. Without yeast dough is just paste. In Greek the word for leaven is zymos and is thought to be a derivative of zoon the word for 'life.' To be azymos, unleavened, is to lack life. We all know the difference between a cracker (and matzoh is just a Jewish cracker) and bread. Add yeast to the dough and it becomes something more than it was -- it grows. Bread, which is both nourishing and comforting, is an apt analogy for God's kingdom. The "three measures of flour" would be about fifty of our pounds that would produce enough bread to feed a hundred or more people. So the kingdom of God is like that, through the Holy Spirit (the unseen giver of life) it takes "pasty" people and gives them life. It empowers people to grow, to nourish each other spiritually, intellectually, and physically. The kingdom gives a small group of people the ability to do great things.

So, the kingdom of God does great things from small beginnings. Now you can see why I'm not worried that God is going to do something wonderful with this mustard seed, this bit of leaven in the lump of Wauwatosa – and greater Milwaukee -- which is First Congregational Church. As we work to discover who our “members” really are, the living part of First Church, we’ll also find the key to the growth that God has for us. Quite honestly, I believe, and I have said this before, but it bears repeating, that it is far better to grow in depth of spirituality and service than it is to grow in breadth. I believe this because when we grow in the right way – in our knowledge of God and our service of God and others – we’ll grow the other way, too.

Jesus tells two more small parables to illustrate what the kingdom of God is like. First, he talks about a treasure found in a field -- a treasure so great that the one finding it goes and sells everything to buy that field. Then he tells of a "pearl of great value" that a merchant sold everything he had in order to buy it. The parables are similar; the message is the same: the kingdom of God is something worth seeking, something that's worth giving up everything we once had in order to have it. Jesus is telling us that we don't attain the kingdom of God as a hobby or a part-time affair -- it consumes us and we have to have it.

We're then told that the kingdom of God is like a net; it will haul everything into it. It's good to know that God's kingdom is also inclusive. However, we also have to realize that God will decide which are "the keepers" -- the good catch. It's not up to us to decide who's in and out of the net which is God's kingdom. It is up to us to make sure that our lives reflect God's goodness and are lived as God would have us live them.

Paul's letter to the Romans "sets up" the presence of God's kingdom in the midst of God's people. See, it is closer than we think! First, the kingdom is present through the Spirit who prays within us. The Spirit exposes that which is of value within us and enables us to act as the yeast does in the flour. When we are unable to express our deepest needs or desires, the Spirit prays for us in utterings or groans "too deep for words."

Second, the kingdom is present in our calling to be God's people. This is all tied up with the notion of God's eternal choice of Israel as his people. When God makes covenant, it is not a conditional, but an eternal covenant. For Christians this is reflected in our adoption into covenant relationship. Through Christ God makes us part of the chosen and even co-heirs of the kingdom of God. Peter takes up this theme in his epistle telling us, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9) Our adoption leads to our being "conformed to Christ" as we become partakers of divine nature and begin to live it out. Where once we had only the image (eikon) of Adam -- which conformed us to alienation from God and each other -- now we bear on ourselves the image of Christ. Our daily task, then, is to seek to become more and more like Christ, who showed us the way of self-giving, in our attitude, outlook and behavior. This idea is so beautifully expressed by Seraphim of Sarov, an eighteenth century Russian mystic-saint, who wrote: “See, this kingdom of God is now found within us. The grace of the Holy Spirit shines forth and warms us, and, overflowing with many varied scents in the air around us, regales our senses with heavenly delight, as it fills our hearts with joy inexpressible.”

God's kingdom, then, is not a place far away, rather it is made real, made present in the person of Jesus Christ. The fourth century writer Origen of Alexandria put it like this, "In the Gospel, Jesus is autobasileia, the kingdom himself." The kingdom of God is made present now through those who are 'one of Christ's' -- Christians. It's a kingdom that is not yet fully realized, because we are not yet fully incorporated into God's life through Christ in the Holy Spirit, which is a life-long, ongoing process (another word for it is 'conversion'). So we live in a tension between that which already is and that which is yet to come.

The task of the disciple, in the Greek here almost a play on Matthew's name, is to become trained (matheteutheis) to take that which is both old and new in Christian faith and share them. This is the ongoing role of the churches, to be good stewards, taking that which has been handed on and making it usable for the present day. While we've not always been as successful as we should have been in playing this role, it's a challenge from which we must not shrink. Christianity has something to offer to our world, it's not outdated, because it speaks of relationship with the eternal, living God. We have something to offer to fill the void, slake the spiritual hunger, cure the spiritual bankruptcy which plagues our nation.

What we learn about the kingdom of God, ancient and eternal, is also ever new. The kingdom is a perpetual 'today' because it guides, upholds, keeps, and comforts regardless of the situation. The kingdom tells us that we are valued by God. John Henry Newman said this so beautifully in one of his Parochial and Plain Sermons:

Thou art not only His creature (though for the very sparrows He has a care, and pitied the "much cattle" of Nineveh), thou art man redeemed and sanctified, His adopted son, favoured with a portion of that glory and blessedness which flows from Him everlastingly unto the Only-begotten. Thou art chosen to be His, even above thy fellows who dwell in the East and South. Thou wast one of those for whom Christ offered up His last prayer and sealed it with His precious blood. What a thought is this, a thought almost too great for our faith! Scarce can we refrain from acting Sarah's perplexity. What is man, what are we, what am I, that the Son of God should be so mindful of me? What am I, that He should have raised me from almost a devil's nature to that of an Angel's? That he should have changed my soul's original constitution, new-made me, who from my youth have been a transgressor, and should Himself dwell personally in this very heart of mine, making me His temple? What am I, that God the Holy Ghost should enter into me, and draw up my thoughts heavenward "with plaints unutterable."

That's why, with Paul, "we know that all things work for good for those love God." It is what God has done for his Son in whom we love the Father. "All things," even trials and tribulations. Sooner or later God's love, God's kingdom will triumph. Nothing can separate us from that love, even if we remove ourselves, God's love is still there for us. You see, God plays no "bait and switch" games, his covenant is eternal and real.

So, how do we fill the void, the God-shaped vacuum within us? With a reality and a reign that is closer than we think; in our hearts, in the lives and relationships of those who sit around us, and in those we have yet to meet. God's kingdom is near, if we open our eyes of faith to see it, our minds to seek it, and our hearts to hold it. The kingdom of God is here and where God’s kingdom is present, there is no void. Amen.