Walking Ice Cream Headaches

October 24, 2011

Good morning! Hope you enjoy the sermon! Listen to it at the bottom, or on iTunes.

Psalm 104:12 “Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home, chirping loudly in the trees.”

Matthew 13:31-32 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.”

Mark 4:31-32 “Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”

Luke 13:18-19 “What is God’s kingdom like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in a garden. It grew and developed into a tree and the birds in the sky nested in its branches.”

a few things get to me, first the birds. what are they and wh is it significant that they WILL come.

what do we do with the birds.

Before that we have to understand What is the Kingdom of God? Jesus spends more time talking about the kingdom of god than anything else. over 700 times. next is money at about 400 times.

- The kingdom of God is not what you do. It is not church, or liturgy, or music or anything else.

- Tell story of priest who ties cat to tree…The Kingdom of God is not the tying of the cat to the tree.

- Instead the kingdom of God is in the life giving prayer.

- The kingdom of God is a condition of your soul, it is peace holding, spirit-inspired joy, and holy living. goes beyond circumstances and is about eternity.

Jesus says that this kingdom of God starts as a mustard seed and grows into a big bush.

- Show picture of mustard seed tree

Apparently in Palestine area this tree will start as a seed and in just a year will grow to the size of a small tree.

So what Jesus is saying first is that when your soul is at peace, filled with a spirit inspired joy, and you have holy living your faith will grow. It will grow fast and before you know it you will have faith like you never knew before.

Then Jesus says that even the birds of the air will come and make a nest.

this is where the controversy comes in. I checked all my commentaries and I can’t find what the birds are supposed to mean. Here is what I found:

- Mark 4:4-15 Jesus says that birds are compared to Satan and are evil

- Psalm 104 is what Jesus is quoting and it says that birds are good

- Ezekiel 17:23 says that birds are good

- Daniel 4:10-12 says that birds are good.

- So sometimes the birds that nest are good and sometimes they are bad?

I think that is the point.

- When you have faith and your faith springs up you will get good and bad birds surrounding you.

- Sometimes, when you are living your life by faith people will come into your life and build you up. Others to tear you down.

- Sometimes when you have faith it will feel like an entire flock of birds is trying to crush your soul. and you can’t get rid of them without getting rid of the good birds too.

Jesus is telling us that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed it will grow into something so big, marked by joy, peace, and holiness. that regardless of what kind of bird there is you will still have joy, peace, and holiness.

And in that new bigness of your faith some people will come into your life to help and some to hurt you.

- The ones who help you are amazing and I like to call them the ice-cream sandwiches of life.

- The ones who hurt you, I call them walking ice-cream headaches. Because they make your head hurt and the only way to get rid of it is to stop eating ice-cream. the only way to get rid of hurting people is to have less of the kingdom and less peace, joy, and holiness and ultimately that means less of god.

Jesus then is saying, if your faith is small it will grow. And when it grows your faith will bring other people to you. Some of them are ice cream and some of them are ice-cream headaches.

But before you can have ice cream headaches and ice cream you need to have the faith that grows and before that you need the faith of a mustard seed.

- Show picture of a mustard seed.

This is what you need to start with.

So what is that…..What is Jesus saying the mustard seed is like? How do I get it? Do I even want it?

It is that part of you that still believes that there is right and wrong. That actions matter, and that some actions are better than others. It is the part of you that hopes that someday, at some point there will be a time when good finally wins and evil no longer exists.

It is that small piece of hope that we act on. That all of our actions come out of that hope.

You can’t get it, you already have it. You may have drowned it in broken dreams and crushed plans but it is still there somewhere.

And if you want it, look for it. Search for it. Dig deep through the wounds of your past and find the spot where hope still lives.

And when you dig down far enough looking for hope that a new day will come you will find that a new word has already been spoken, that a new day has already dawned, that something brand new has already happened and that resurrection still happens everyday all around you death brings forth new life.

One poet writes it this way:

“My hope is weak, and this night has been so long and the sounds of injustice are all around.

I feel so powerless standing against it.

Who am I to try to resist this wicked machine?

Bust as I look around I see my family by my side and with one voice we lift our hands to the sky in defiance to this broken system.

In hope for the New World where injustice does not prevail and evil is not a career

And I know my hope is not in vain.

No matter how small my strength or quiet my shout every bit of hope, of faith, of love is not wasted because even the smallest victory lights up the night.

Maybe not today or the day after tomorrow but redemption Himself will come and on that day everything changes and this broken world is made new.

And so maybe, you don’t even have to worry about people who are ice-cream headaches because right now all you need is just a little hope. In those moments look to the empty tomb that tells us resurrection happens. That death is not the end. Evil does not win, and right now hope is what matters. No matter how small or how seemingly insignificant hope is what brings you to a new day. Hope is what keeps you going until a whole new world breaks forth in this place.

john Wesley writes that the kingdom of god is a condition of your soul with peace and joy and holiness that breaks forth when you realize that gods grace is even for you. that this god who gives you grace is the god who did not spare his own son on the cross and when it was darkest out resurrection happened and Jesus himself is alive to give us hope for a new day and a new life righting the middle of this one. . it may be for the whole world but it is for you too no matter what you have done.

so may today be the day you ask god to reveal your hope that you have buried under hurt. may you find that faith in things unseen.

Sermon Audio