What Does Heaven Look Like?

Matt 13:31-33, 44-52

- Have you understood all this?

Sure I understood: The mustard seed is about growth

- This pictures teaches us that Heaven is growing in our midst and that we can grow as well

- Like the Ugly Duckling or Phoenix from the Ashes

- Little things can achieve a lot

- like a word of contact helps raise hope

Sure I understood: The yeast is about power

- This picture teaches us that Heaven is powerful

- We as a congregation might be small but as a representation of Heaven we are full of power

- We can change the world

- That tiny movement of Disciples in ancient Israel has become a world power

- We are part of something huge

Sure I understood: The treasure and the treasure hunter are about change

- The picture of the treasure teaches us that we can enjoy ourselves in the Lord once we found the hidden treasure

- The picture of the merchant teaches us that we have to show commitment once we tasted God’s power

- The kingdom has us and we have the kingdom

- We partake in God’s power over this world and God partakes in our lives by changing our hearts

Sure I understood: The net is about hospitality

- All we need to do is to invite people to join our church and they will happily come and worship with us and pay their share

- We are the kingdom of God and no one can stop us

O oops, maybe I did not quite get it: Maybe it’s not that easy. Maybe we have to review our understanding of these images of Heaven:

What I did not understand initially was that mustard is more like a shrub than a tree

- It’s like last week’s weeds

- A pain in the neck

- not inspiring and hope-giving

- it’s opposed to this world’s perfect yards.

- Heaven disagrees with our values

What I did not understand is that leavened bread is unclean

- Jesus raised as a Jewish teacher

- Jewish world

- yeast is to be banned from the house for major holidays

- What a revolution to compare Heaven with yeast

- It’s like those occasions when Jesus was in the company of sinners, tax-collectors, drunkards and whores

- Jesus handling the unclean affects all aspects of life

- Heaven disagrees with our values

What I did not understand is that the parable of the hidden treasure is basically a fraud

- Someone found a treasure some place, yet did not tell the owner of the place but instead bought the place to get the treasure as a free bonus.

- Where I come from this is considered a crime

- Heaven disagrees with our values

What I did not understand is that the merchant acts irresponsibly toward his family

- All he was focussed on was material possession - in our case a pearl of great price.

- Just focusing on the pearl of great price he did not pay attention to the people around him

- in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and does what he has to do to get that damn pearl

- his kids might be starving now, but at least daddy got his pearl

- his wife might have left him for his egoism but he does not care

- I am happy with my pearl, who cares

- Heaven disagrees with our values

What I did not completely understand is that the net is not simply to be thrown out.

- The parable tells us: "it caught fish of every kind"

- when we reach out we tend to multiply ourselves, but we are supposed to invite all the people

- Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people as imperfect as they are

- Heaven disagrees with our values

This is what heaven looks like:

- Heavenly hope is growing like a mustard seed even against our gardening esthetics

- Heaven is as powerful as yeast and as sinful and dirty as well

- Heaven is as valuable as a hidden treasure - and we should long to get it no matter what

- Heaven is the place where God treats us like his pearl of great price because he paid a great price indeed - the life of his Son

- Heaven is where fish of every kind is gathered

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.