Pentecost 9A 2026

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

Matthew’s Gospel uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” more than any other book in Christian scripture. He uses language that his first hearers could understand, as the concepts arise from ancient Hebrew tradition. 

We don’t share that tradition, even though we’ve been hearing and reading the same scriptures Matthew’s audience read and heard. Our understandings of the words kingdom and heaven are colored, tainted, if you will, by more recent uses of the terms. 

It probably doesn’t help our post-enlightenment minds when Jesus uses parables to describe these words. We have to remind ourselves that the key word in these stories, several of which we hear today, is the word like. That’s a metaphor, not current usage, like, “I, like, heard this parable, and I was, like, confused by its, like, meaning.” Heaven help us from the likes of that compulsion. 

In order to understand what Jesus means by the “kingdom of heaven,” we need to accept that both terms, kingdom and heaven, are limited by our language, especially when we try to use them to describe that which is of and from God. Because, like the word “God,” when we think we have defined them, they are, by definition, wrong. 
​
Early Hebrew understanding of the word “heaven” meant what we might refer to as the sky. It was a visible area that stretched as far as the eye could see and contained not only air but also the sun, moon, stars, and, as they were discovered, other planets. This area was separated by a shield, or dome, that separated them from the earth. Think about that when you read the story of creation in Genesis one. 

The early history of Israel tells us of a one-time extended family growing into multitudes of people descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. They were known as tribes. These tribes grew until they were led by some chosen by God, known as judges and prophets. 

One of those prophets, Samuel, was approached by leaders of the tribes asking that he anoint a king to lead them, like other nations around them had. Samuel resisted until God told him to go ahead, since they were not really rejecting Samuel but were trying to reject God’s leadership of them. You can read again how all that worked out in the short- and long-term. 

That’s the short version. There’s more. 

It’s difficult to express what it means to have God in “the heaven” and the presence of that God on earth. Surely we have some understanding of the Holy Spirit, and we celebrate the Incarnation at the end of December. But wrapping our minds around an immortal one who is tortured and executed seems to defy description without making it little more than a transaction in some other-worldly marketplace. 

Then we get to work on helping others get an idea of what resurrection means for themselves and, as Paul tells us, for all creation. We fumble with words that often add to the confusion. 

So, what is the kingdom of heaven? Not "What is it like?" but "What is it?" 

It is both as near to us as breathing and yet not yet fulfilled. It is of more value to believers than anything we can attach a number to. It is at the core of our being, but not anything we can possess. 

The kingdom of heaven is at once past and future, with hints in the present when the people of God, who might call themselves Christian or Jewish or Muslim, or any other name, find themselves to be active participants in the ongoing work of caring for and revealing God’s love for all creation and its creatures. Not because they hope to gain entrance into the kingdom and grab a selfie at the pearly gates, but because the living love of God made real in the risen Christ is the guiding principle of their lives. 

The world around us, indeed, and all creation labors in its quest for the kingdom of heaven. Our task is to live in this groaning, weary world in such a way as to invite all who desire it to join us in our own quest for its fulfillment. 

It is, after all, what we’ll be praying for in just a few minutes. 

I wonder what our reaction might be if that prayer got answered at the very moment we say, "Your kingdom come, your will be done.” 

Imagine a world where evil does not and cannot exist. Imagine a world where no housing or food shortages are known, where sickness and death are no more, and where all those who are, as Paul says, “in Christ,” past, present, and future, are alive in bodies that will never die. 

Now imagine all that on this planet, not in some far-off spiritual world. Because that's what scripture teaches. It’s what we say we believe in the creeds. The resurrection of Jesus that we celebrated just a few short months ago is just the beginning of the new age of God’s kingdom, an age yet to come to its fulfillment. 

We do not build that kingdom, but we do build a community for that kingdom. That idea that we call heaven is fulfilled when Christ returns to “judge the living and the dead.” And it is to happen here, on planet earth, and will mark the fulfillment of the promise, “I will be with you, even to the end of the age.” 

That age is the restoration of God’s first gift—a garden where all that is needed is supplied, where God takes pleasure in “walking in the cool of the evening” and spending time with and in the creation restored to its original blessing of goodness. 

Maybe when we start living for that answer to our prayer “your kingdom come," we'll begin to really understand our role as caretakers of creation, stewards of all that God said is “very good.” It’s the big picture that includes us as stewards of the story that continues to be the only true hope for all creation.