Sermon – Belonging To The Kingdom Of God
Matthew 13: 44-58
Sermon Preached by The Rev’d Tracey Gracey on Sunday 26 July, 2026
Last week, I mentioned that the seven parables in Matthew 13 reveal what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. But taken together, they also paint a picture of what it has meant and what it continues to mean to belong to that Kingdom.
If someone asked you what it has meant to belong to God’s Kingdom, what would you say?
Would you speak about the people who first introduced you to God?
The difficult seasons that tested your faith?
The moments your faith grew?
The questions you wrestled with?
Or the joy of discovering God in a new way?
Our stories and experiences of belonging to God’s Kingdom are all different, but we have all begun somewhere.
Jesus begins with a sower scattering seed.
Before there is growth…
before there is understanding…
before there is faith…
someone scatters the seed.
For some of us it was a parent.
A grandparent. A teacher. A school chaplain. A friend.
Someone who probably never imagined the difference they were making.
Long before we recognised God’s presence in our lives, someone was faithfully scattering seeds.
Sometimes, we don’t recognise those seeds until years later.
To belong to God’s Kingdom is to recognise and give thanks for the people who first helped us discover that we belonged.
Belonging to God’s Kingdom doesn’t remove every struggle.
Jesus knew this, which is why he tells the story of the wheat and the weeds growing together.
Our lives often feel exactly like that.
Our faith journey is rarely lived out in perfect conditions.
Like the wheat, our faith continues to grow through life’s joys and disappointments, through celebrations and setbacks.
There are seasons when our sense of belonging to God’s Kingdom feels strong and seasons when it is quietly tested.
Yet, as we look back over our lives, we can often see that every season has shaped our story of belonging to God’s Kingdom.
In the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast, Jesus offers another picture of what it means to belong to God’s Kingdom.
A mustard seed is tiny.
Yeast is easily overlooked.
Neither appears particularly significant.
Yet both become part of something much greater.
We often expect God’s Kingdom to be found in the dramatic, the obvious or the spectacular.
Jesus points instead to the small and the ordinary.
Belonging often begins in ordinary ways, yet over time it shapes our lives in ways we don’t always notice at the time.
If the mustard seed and the yeast show us how belonging to God’s Kingdom unfolds, the next two parables reveal its value.
One man unexpectedly discovers treasure hidden in a field.
Another spends years searching before finding a pearl of great value.
Their journeys are completely different.
One wasn’t even looking.
The other spent years searching.
Different journeys.
The same discovery.
Both recognised they had found something of immense value.
That’s Jesus’ point.
To belong to God’s Kingdom is to discover something worth treasuring.
People come to belong to god’s kingdom in different ways
Some can point to a single moment. Others can’t.
Some slowly find themselves drawn towards Jesus over many years.
Others discover faith when they least expect it.
Others, like the man who discovered the treasure, experience a renewed sense of joy.
Jesus’ final parable reminds us that the invitation to belong is wide.
He speaks of a great net cast into the sea.
It gathers fish of every kind.
Only later comes the sorting.
Jesus doesn’t ask his disciples to decide who belongs.
Neither is the Church called to do the sorting.
Our calling is to keep casting the net.
To keep welcoming. To keep inviting.
To keep making room for others to belong.
Every one of us is here because someone welcomed us.
To belong to God’s Kingdom is also to help others discover that they belong.
Every story of belonging to God’s Kingdom is different.
Some begin with seeds planted long ago.
Some are shaped through struggle.
Some unfold over many years.
Some begin with an unexpected discovery.
Others involve a long search.
Yet all of them invite us to reflect on our own story of belonging to the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
