The Gospel According to Alice in Wonderland

Sunday Sermon Cliff Note

The Kingdom of Heaven is . . .
Near . . . and far . . .
Easy to get into . . . impossible to enter . . .
For the few . . . and for the many . . .
A place of peace and rest . . . under constant violent attack . . .
Small and large . . .
Here and yet there . . .
Found and lost . . .
A secret place known to all . . .
Something you can’t see that’s already here . . .
Within and without . . .
Now and not yet . . .
Concerned with the living and indifferent to the dead . . .
Known and not known . . .
A place to which the signs point for which there are no signs . . .
A great banquet without any food . . .
A place where we’re going that we’ve already come to . . .
A place that is not a place at all . . .

This place that isn’t a place at all is like many things . . .
Mustard and other seeds out among the scattered weeds . . .
Buried hidden treasure . . . a place of leisure . . .
A merchant of the finest pearls . . .
A fisherman’s net . . .
A wedding banquet . . .
A king meeting with his investment advisors . . .
Day laborers . . .
A pay check . . .
Virgins?  Yes, virgins . . .
A grumbling teen-aged son . . .
A banquet feast for the least . . .
Yeast – called leaven . . .
I ask you . . . how is that heaven?

Kingdom-of-Heaven is all about topsy-turvy upside down justice, which is to say no justice – no human scale-weighing, at all.

Photo by whale05 at flickr commons

It is the Gospel according to Alice in Wonderland . . . where big is small . . . where everyone’s a winner after everyone was a loser . . . where tears cause floods and rabbits talk and the power elite are to be mistrusted. . .

Where success is failure and powerlessness is power . . .

Where children frame the picture that adults find impossible to enter . . .

Where it’s more about the net than the fish . . . the banquet than the diners . . .

The Kingdom of God is about . . . God . . . whose ways are not ours . . . whose yardstick is not ours . . . whose justice is not ours . . . whose welcome is not ours . . .

For God’s ways . . . God’s yardstick . . . God’s justice . . . God’s welcome . . .is so much more than we can imagine . . . and God’s kingdom, like many things, is none of those things, but so much, much more . . .

It’s a standing invitation, Alice . . . won’t you come in?

Won’t you step through the looking glass through which you see only dimly and come in?

Won’t you surrender your size in the world and come in?

Won’t you stop worrying about who might get there before you and come in?

Won’t you stop trying to figure it all out and just . . . come . . . in?