The Twilight Zone and The Kingdom of God. Matthew 13:44,45. January 3, 2016

Transcription

1 The Twilight Zone and The Kingdom of God Matthew 13:44,45 January 3, 2016 The sermon title and scripture weren t in the bulletin this morning because Debby our secretary wanted things 2 weeks ago. And two weeks ago I still had to come up with a sermon for the 20 th and for Christmas Eve. So to make things easier all the way around the bulletin got TBD for both the Scripture and the title. There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of 1

2 imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone. Some of you might recognize the above quote as the opening monologue for a TV show from the 60 s called; The Twilight Zone. Others might recognize it from the 1983 movie, which starred among others; Burgess Meredith, Bill Murry, Dan Akyroyd, William Shatner, Vic Marrow, Kathleen Quinlan, John Lithgow and one part directed by Steven Spielberg. But most of you are probably asking what does this have to do with the church as we have just turned the page to 2016? And what does it have to do with 2 parables of Jesus that we just read from Matthew s account of His life? In the original series that ran from the main themes of this sy-fy thriller were misdirection and confused reality. In the pilot for 2

3 the show there was a man who wanders into a town where there are no people. There is a coffee pot that is brewing coffee on a stove in a café. I know who brews coffee in a pot on a stove; remember this is 1959, but there is no one in the café. There is the police station with one of the jail cells that has a shaving brush (again 1959)that is covered in shaving cream and the water is running in the sink, but there is no one in the police station. There is an drug store that sold ice cream which was still frozen but no one in the store When the sun sets all of the streetlights and the lights in the stores come on, but again no people. The local movie theater s lights come on and he races there looking for people, but no one is there. The film that is advertised outside on the marquee mysteriously starts running but when he goes up to the projection room there is no one there. 3

4 He runs from building to building trying to find people, anyone, even just one more person, but there is no one there. Finally after searching out for people in this empty town he is left screaming for help at a stoplight endlessly pushing the button to change the light. But in the end, the reality that he thought he was living, wasn t the true reality. He was an Air Force pilot who was part of an experiment to see what the effects of prolonged isolation might be on an astronaut in a round trip to the moon. He was actually in a 5 foot square room hooked up to all sorts of physical monitors that recorded all of his bodily and mental functions. He had been there for over 2 weeks, the time the Air Force thought it would take for a trip to the moon and back, again

5 In the last day his mind snapped and he was transported into that nightmare and he couldn t remember what reality truly was. He was overwhelmed by the dream and couldn t remember that he was in a 5 foot square box preparing for a trip around the moon. In another episode there is a young woman sweltering in a hot New York City apartment. Not only is the sun incredibly hot but it is daylight for more hours each day. This was because the earth s orbit had changed, it was now closer to the sun and the tilt of the earth was different and it was like the longest day of the year every day. In this episode this young woman is trying to decide if she is going try going somewhere to get out of this heat that is slowly baking everything in NYC. But that wasn t reality. Reality is that there has been a nuclear war and now the world was experiencing nuclear winter. She 5

6 was in NYC but it was bitterly cold and she was running a very high fever and her reality was a dream, a dream about how unbearably hot NYC was. But true reality was that it was bitterly cold, everything was frozen and people were headed south, not north. Her s was only fever-induced dream. So again, what does this have with Christianity and especially these two parables that Jesus told to His followers? Well, it s all about reality. Jesus in both of these parables is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. In the first He compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure hidden in a field. In the second the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great value. In each case the person who finds these things sells all that he has in order to purchase the field or the pearl. That is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. 6

7 Do you believe that? Do I believe that? Has anyone here seen the Kingdom of Heaven? Would anyone here sell everything that they have in order to gain the Kingdom of Heaven? And yet that is what Jesus is saying that His Kingdom is in reality worth compared to all that we see around us. This thing that we can t see, Touch, Or really understand. Is Jesus crazy? I don t know about you but I ve got a mortgage, car payments, and kids in college. I m not ready to sell everything that I have in order to possess this thing that I can t see or touch. But what if, like those people in the Twilight Zone, we aren t really in touch with reality? What if what we are seeing, touching, and understanding is only a shadow of what is true? What if all the things that we value so much in this world aren t the things that are truly of value? What 7

8 if the things that we put so much time and energy into each day are like a dream? What if the thing that is of great worth, worth everything that we have, is the Kingdom of Heaven? Paul says it this way, in that chapter that we call the love chapter that is read at so many weddings. In fact we read it for weddings so much we often miss this last part of that chapter in his 1st letter to the church in Corinth. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. Rod Serling and the creators of Twilight Zone were always challenging man s perception of reality in each episode of the show. Jesus Christ also challenges our perception of reality. He challenges us to believe in this thing that we can t see. Believe in it so much that we can then communicate it to others. 8

9 Serling and the writers of the show were always coming up with sy-fy scripts that focused on the deepest fears of human beings of that day. Often they were about someone s ability to wake from some form of dream or some nightmare. Jesus was always speaking about a future reality that was greater and better than the one that we cling to so anxiously in this world. Jesus was constantly telling people that their greatest fear (death) wasn t to be feared because in reality He had overcome death. He was telling those who would believe that this world isn t all there is for those who know and follow Him. So a parable that says it s worth giving all you have in order to possess the Kingdom of Heaven isn t just hyperbole (exaggeration) to make a point, but rather it points to a greater reality than the one that we can see and touch. 9

10 The power of Christianity is that this alternate reality is what is truly real. Of course there is much in what Jesus says that helps us live in this world in the present. And yes there are principles that He teaches that help us to live better lives in this world. But the greatest power of Christianity is that it points us to a greater reality. The struggle for Christians today is to accept that greater reality. One of the reasons that Christianity is on the decline in this country is that we have lost faith in the Kingdom of God as a real place. Yes we work to make this world a better place that s why we give so much time and money to missions. Missions like Haymaket Food Pantry, SERVE, The Barn, Missions that repair homes, and so many more. In fact too many to list. 10

11 But our hope, our faith, our trust in this Jesus tells us that what we see, And taste, And touch in this world isn t what God has prepared for His children. And just like those people in the Twilight Zone who wouldn t accept that what was in front of them wasn t the ultimate reality. So we as followers of Jesus Christ shouldn t accept that what we see in this world is all that God has for us. In this world we will all have our share of good and bad times. We will struggle and we will triumph. We will succeed and we will fail. But our reality isn t what we see with our eyes or touch with our fingers. Our reality is the promises of God in Christ Jesus. But ours isn t the dimension of imagination, but of the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven. 11

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