Kingdom of God plc

Business plan.

What corporate logo?

What 5 year strategy?

What tell shareholders?

What does Jesus offer?

1.     Ludicrously profligate/ wasteful - sower

Throw away resources willy-nilly

We won’t be careful with our assets

2.     Ludicrously patient - tares

5 year plan?

25 year plan?

250 year plan?

3.     Ludicrously small – mustard seed/ yeast

No advertising.

No corporate image.

No listing in the business directory or yellow pages...

But is it so foolish?

1.     Ludicrously profligate

But with limitless resources...

Look after the pennies... cf Bill Gates

Shane Claiborne

Generous heart of God

God’s economy

2.     Ludicrous patience

Don’t mistake it for apathy

Cf my bedroom walls

Patient attentiveness

Why wouldn’t God be patient?

Patience of eternity

Why don’t you... à ‘I have it in hand.’

3.     Ludicrous smallness

But incredible power

Cf children’s game – mummy , are you afraid of something this big? Yes – virus...

4.     Rotten business plan?

Yield of the sower

Final judgment/ vindication

Tree/ risen bread

Rotten business plan? - perhaps not

Personal challenge

A lot about response to the KoG

1.     Because it’s easy to overlook

Cf home crowd

Cf prophecy at the beginning

Little faithà few miracles

Deaf. Blind à little revelation

2.     Parable of the sower

Seed on the path

Seed among thistles

Seed in shallow ground

Only some seed à good harvest

3.     Treasure/ pearl

Ludicrous KoG calls for a ludicrous response from us

Phil 3:7-8 ‘Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.’

But I prefer the parable of the pearl:

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value he sent away and sold everything he had and bought it.’

Questions

What signs of the Kingdom of God are going on right under our noses that we should be attentive to?

If Jesus were incarnated today instead of two thousand years ago, how would he be spreading the word? How might the answer to that question shape our outreach?

How precious is the Kingdom of God to me? Does it evoke ludicrous desire?