Grace, mercy and
peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter. Amen
We are
talking about the Kingdom of God today. It’s
my supposition that most of us don’t think much about the Kingdom of God at all
in our daily lives. And, we probably
don’t give it much thought even as we pray the Lord’s Prayer together each
Sunday morning. The kingdom of God? It’s just words in a prayer that we hardly
know we’re praying.
Martin Luther
made it very clear that we Christians, live in two kingdoms
simultaneously. He says in the Small
Catechism, your kingdom come, what
does this mean?
In fact,
God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer
that it may also come to us.
How does
this come about?
Whenever our
heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through the Holy Spirit’s
grace we believe God’s holy word and live godly lives here in time and hereafter
in eternity.[i]
We live in a
duality that is a reality. We, as
Christians, understand that God’s kingdom, God’s realm is cosmic – all of
creation comes under the authority and rule of God. We know that one day we will join this cosmic
realm when Jesus returns to earth to claim us as God’s own. We also understand that God’s kingdom is
found right now, here on earth, and was talked about most profoundly by Jesus,
God’s son as he lived on this planet 2000 years ago. What exactly did Jesus say about the Kingdom
of God? Let’s look at some details.
In the
Gospels, the term “Kingdom of Heaven” is used 31 times and all of them are in
the gospel of Matthew, and all of them are spoken by Jesus. He was trying to help us understand the
Kingdom of Heaven by using comparisons to things we know: the poor in spirit,
little children, even John the Baptist.
Then he used parables to tell what the kingdom of heaven is like: a
mustard seed, yeast, a treasure found in a field, a pearl, a net full of every
kind of fish, a master of a household. In other words, the Kingdom of God is present,
plentiful, and pervasive!
The term
“Kingdom of God” is used 66 times in the New Testament and all but 14 of them
are spoken by Jesus himself. Many of the
illustrations recorded from Kingdom of Heaven are the same as Kingdom of God
which again tells us that this Kingdom is everywhere and for everyone!
I think
Jesus sums this up best in Luke 17 that says, 20Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of
God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things
that can be observed; 21nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or
‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
The kingdom of God is among us! Wow!
How awesome is that!?!?
And, I would argue that Jesus was not taking on a Pollyanna
viewpoint. Jesus saw every day that terrible
things happened. We certainly experience
on our daily news that people die every day from needless and senseless acts of
violence. WE do this horrible stuff to
each other and there is no doubt that evil is real and present.
AND, at the same time, beautiful things happen every
day. We got to watch some this beauty in
the Olympics this last week when Abbey D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin helped each
other cross the finish line after colliding with each other in their 5000 meter
preliminary race. It was moving and
inspirational to watch these two women help each other finish – and it was a
beautiful example of the Kingdom of God among us.
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for God’s
kingdom to come and so many times it’s just words we say by rote, maybe even
mumble under our breath before communion without thinking much about what we’re
really saying.
Your kingdom come, O God. Come now; come with truth; come with
power.
What does Jesus’ kingdom look like? When have you experienced God’s kingdom
coming? What did you see and feel? What did your heart know?
There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher.
Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she
stood in front of her 5th grade class on her very first day of school, she told
the children a lie. Like most teachers,
she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the
front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed
that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy
and that he constantly needed a bath. And
Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the
point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers
with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at
the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required
to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was
in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade
teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good
manners... he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is
an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because
his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His
mother's death has been hard on him. He
tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home
life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote,
"Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes
sleeps in class."
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was
ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas
presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy,
brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the
middle of the other presents. Some of
the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of
the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when
she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of
the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard
stayed after school that day just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you
smelled just like my Mom used to." After
the children left she cried for at least an hour.
On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing,
and arithmetic. Instead, she began to
teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid
particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come
alive. The more she encouraged him, the
faster he responded. By the end of the
year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite
her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one her
"teacher's pets."
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy,
telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note
from Teddy. He then wrote that he had
finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he
ever had in his whole life. Four years after that, she got another letter,
saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had
stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors.
He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he
ever had in his whole life. Then four
more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his
bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the
best and favorite teacher he ever had. But
now his name was a little longer-the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard,
M.D.
For you see, The Kingdom of God is when you go to and transform a place
into the kind of place that God wants it to be – or help a person become the
kind of person God created them to be.
God, please help us to do this – this week!
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment