"The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Today is a bit sticky and sets me up to be all kinds of misunderstood. So let me clarify on the front end. Do I believe in heaven? Yes! Do I believe that heaven is a place where we will be met by God in his fullness and be reunited with those that have journeyed before us in the faith? Yes! Do I believe that accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives grants us the gift of salvation? Yes!
But...
Don't you hate when a pastor says but? It usually means he/she can't leave well enough alone. Well, you are right. I can't. See, I often wonder if we haven't made the goal of this journey about getting us out of here and into heaven at the expense of the "Good News" that Jesus preached. Not that Jesus wasn't concerned with our eternal salvation. It's just, well...He seems to be really consumed with the Kingdom of God that He can't stop talking about. He was obsessed, almost as if it was really important. In fact in both Mark and Luke, his initial sermon is about Kingdom. For Mark the Kingdom was at hand...so get ready! For Luke, Jesus, taking up the scroll of Isaiah, announces a time has come when the world and its categories are turned on their heads. In both cases it's almost as if to say that when the power of God punches through and into this world, it has dramatic effects on the here and now.
Jesus appears to be announcing a new reign, a new era, a new reality, that has subverted and undermined the old ways of power, violence, greed, exclusion, injustice, indifference, hate, and all the ism's that seem to dominate our conversations. He seems to be preaching a Kingdom that threatens the power structures of this world that have gone astray and done their own thing, leaving in their wake a path of destruction and broken bodies. He's totally obsessed. Even to the point that when he teaches us to pray, He doesn't teach us to pray, "Get me up out of here!" Instead, he teaches us to pray..."Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."
What if our infatuation with heaven is a putting of the cart before the horse? What if Jesus is inviting us into a New Kingdom, a Kingdom that both straddles "here" and "what will be?" What if in being consumed about our place in heaven, what we do is turn heaven into a place of "holy selfishness?" What if instead, it's this Kingdom and our allegiance to this Kingdom, by faith and in Christ, that sets us up for Heaven?
How might that change the way we live...HERE?
Early Christians weren't tossed to lions, drowned, burned at the stake, and crucified, for proclaiming an escape hatch. They were persecuted because they were informing the powers...here...that there was a New Lord, and New Kingdom, that their time was limited. When Kingdom becomes the message, then how we live as participants in that Kingdom...the love we share, the justice we demand, the compassion we offer, the friendships we form, the mercy we afford, the hungry we feed, the naked we clothe, the sick and in prison we visit somehow reflects our Kingdom allegiance.
This was the good news Jesus preached. It wasn't a "wait until you get somewhere else" good news. It was "give yourselves away now as I am busy reforming this world to more accurately give witness to my created intent." It was a message that as the power of God punches through the here and now, good news will reach the ears of the poor, freedom will be granted the prisoners, those unable to see will be given a new vision, and those bound to the oppressions of this world will be set free. The Kingdom affects here and now as we now await it's coming fully.
And yes, those found in Christ will be granted eternal salvation, reunited by grace with those others who've participated in the Kingdom, who've embraced really "Good News."
Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Repent, reorient yourself, casting off all that hinders from giving yourself fully to the Kingdom. Take your place in a Kingdom that has punched through and is punching through into this world! Let your lives be evidence of the hope of Jesus' Kingdom here and your hope of what is yet to come.
Let us Pray...
“This, then, is how you should pray: Matthew 6:9 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
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