How's Your French?
07/21/09
Pastor
Marji Miller
Today we finish The Story. Of course, The Story doesn’t end, but we’re ending this particular series. So, why did we do this in the first place? We all need to see the big picture. There’s far more to being a Christian than Jesus-’n-me, and going to heaven when I die. Pop-Christianity so distorts the power and excitement of God’s plan that it’s no wonder people aren’t interested! The Story gives us a view of the panorama. Reminds us of the sweep of God’s purposes, the drama and excitement. The pain and joy. The passion. The hope and the power and the glory. The relevance. Today we talk about the finale! The event we pray for all the time. Let’s pray.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13 NLT
Here’s a parable. Not Jesus’. There was an office party in a French restaurant, and the menu was printed in French. Most of the partiers were frequent patrons of the restaurant and either knew French, or knew the menu. So, one by one they ordered. But there was a guy new to the office, not used to French restaurants. Not wanting to appear unsophisticated or stupid, he simply pointed to some mysterious words in the menu and said, "I’ll have that."
When the meal was brought to the table, what the man had ordered was disgustingly similar to what he had worked so hard to keep out of his garden. Not at all what he had in mind. So, be careful what you order in restaurants. If you don’t know what you are asking for, you might be surprised when it comes.
The same can be said for prayer. Be careful what you pray for. If you don’t know what you are asking for, you might be surprised when it comes. Take the Lord’s Prayer, for example. We pray it – or, we recite it – in so many situations. It’s so familiar, and so comfortable. Here is a prayer that looks and sounds safe. What could possibly be distressing about praying for our daily bread, or freedom from temptation?
But hold on a minute. Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray and Jesus began:
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. So far, so good. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 NLT
This is what biblical scholars call parallelism: what is said first – your kingdom – is defined by what is said second: May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
So, do we really want the kingdom of God to come? What exactly are we asking for when we pray this? Praying for the kingdom to come on earth might be like asking for escargot in a French restaurant and ending up with a plate of snails. You’ll get what you asked for, but it might not be what you expected.
Hold that thought and let’s review what we’ve talked about so far.
So what is the Kingdom of God? What is this that Jesus tells us to pray for? We may carelessly think it means “heaven,” the place we end up after we die, if we have prayed the right prayer, done the right stuff, been part of the right group. No, it’s NOT about going to heaven when you die!! Hard to get your mind around? Check it out!!
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10 NLT
What is the Kingdom? The Kingdom is when what God wants done is done. And what will it look like? The kingdom of God is going to look very much like us being transformed to be like Jesus. Not the other person, not the one making life so hard for us, being transformed to look like Jesus. No. US being transformed. In the Kingdom of God, who changes? We do.
In some ways the kingdom is already here!
Jesus said in Luke 17,
“…Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Luke 17:20-21 TNIV
To the extent we’ve been transformed to be like Jesus it’s here! Done deal. The kingdom of God is in your midst! But, you might ask, “Is this all there is??” First of all, this is huge! Us - you and me – being more like Jesus….. That’s world-changing!! If we were to be like Jesus, we could touch our parts of the world in ways that would bring love, joy, peace, patience, those fruits of the Spirit. And we could touch our parts of the world in ways that would bring justice, an end to poverty, an end to pollution, to prejudice, to hatred and discrimination. We could lay the foundations for our parts of the world to be the places where what God wants done is done. That is a LOT!!
But, no, this isn’t all. No matter how much we change, no matter how much we change the world around us – this is not to let us off the hook… - we are still flawed, messed up people. God has something much more comprehensive in mind. How to describe it? Revelation talks about streets of gold and gates of pearl. That’s not literal – I hope. But that was the grandest thing they could describe. Today we could take computer animation and come up with something much grander. But it still wouldn’t be adequate. Because no matter how grand it sounds to me, it might not sound that way to you. Or vice versa.
I wanted to describe the Kingdom of God in a way that would make us all tingly. Unfortunately I can’t even imagine what that would be. Let me tell you what makes me feel tingly! Here’s my ideal day in the Kingdom of God. See if it sounds like yours. You’d all be there with me. I’d get up in the morning, not tired, not wondering if something at work was going to blow up in my face today. I’d ride my pet Tyrannosaurus rex to my daily briefing with Jesus, where we’d go over the plans for the day. Then I’d ride my tyrannosaur to my team meeting, brief them and we’d get to work, doing something meaningful, and satisfying and fulfilling and exciting. At the end of the day, riding my dinosaur home, I’d be wonderfully tired, but we’d all know we had accomplished something that mattered. We’d know the boss – that would be Jesus, of course – was pleased with us and that he was glad we were on his team. And, there would be no snakes.
Raise your hand if that is your picture of the Kingdom. I thought so. Do you want to dinosaurs in your very day life? And, I’d be OK with Rev. 21:
………………., and there was no longer any sea. Revelation 21:1 TNIV
But, would you?? And I’d hate that the dogs were outside, but some of you may think that’s exactly where dogs belong. No night. Different reactions to that one, too, I’ll bet. There is no picture that will resonate with all of us. And, I don’t believe there is any description that would be a life goal for all of us. So, no, this isn’t all. Definitely not, but, I really believe we’re going to have to trust God to work out the future part of what Jesus called the Kingdom: The “when” part. The “how” part. The “what’s-it-going-to-be-like” part. We have to trust him with that future. And, God’s trusting us with some of the NOW part.
So, what is he trusting us to do? Over eighty times in the gospels Jesus referred to the Kingdom. But we don’t live in the age of chivalry, or the first century AD. Kingdoms are not what they were. We know kings from movies, books, maybe games, but kings don’t have the power they did, and we have never lived under one. Jesus was notorious for making things relevant, and I doubt that he would use that phrase today. So what term would Jesus use - today - to describe what, in 30 AD, when everyone lived under kings and queens and emperors and empresses, what he called The Kingdom? If Jesus were here today, trying to describe to us a place where what God wants done is done, he might call it a revolution. A Reversal. God’s Great Reversal. Jesus’ mom was singing about reversals before he was even born! Luke 1 – we call it the Magnificat. Mary sang:
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” Luke 1:52-55 TNIV
The Bible is full of reversals! The Story is the story of one reversal after another, leading up to The Reversal, when Jesus defeated what everyone thought was the final and undefeatable enemy – death. Reversal!!
People who are in touch with God’s dream see that his plan involves his followers confronting all enemies – injustice, racism, sexism, greed, poverty, selfishness, exploitation – not just physical death. So, people who are in touch with God’s dream stir things up! Think of Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian, willing to take on the political and economic powers of the United States of America! To fight for justice. A reversal. Then, go back 200 years to William Wilberforce, another committed Christian, whose persistence brought an end the practice of slavery in Great Britain. A reversal.
Then, Catherine and William Booth, Christians living in Victorian England. They saw the poverty and hopelessness in the cities, and started the Salvation Army, so the Least, the Last and the Lost could be part of God’s dream. A Reversal.
Think of the work of Desmond Tutu in South Africa, Mother Theresa in the street of Calcutta, Lucy Stone in women’s rights movement in the United States. All Christians. And all revolutionary. More reversals.
The call to follow Jesus then was – and now is – to join his revolutionary new way of living, of acting, to make the world the place God wants it to be. The Kingdom of God is where what God wants done is done.
What will the Kingdom of God look like? To a lot of people it’s going to look like snails. The Kingdom of God is when a despised Samaritan becomes the epitome of compassion and rightness with God. Tax collectors and prostitutes enter that kingdom before the religious. The last go first, and the first last. The nobodies receive a place of honor at the feasts. In story after story it is the worthless of the world who become the most important in the Revolution.
But, be careful about what you pray for. We are the religious! We certainly are not Samaritans or tax collectors or prostitutes. We certainly are not the poor. So, we, as the religious, the rich, the first, may not like this. When we pray for the kingdom to come, we are really asking for two things.
1) First, we are asking for a radical change in the world: a global change resulting in Gods’ will being done in politics, economics, organizations, the environment: a perfect society.
Justice for the vulnerable:
“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!” Deuteronomy 27:19 NRSV
And notice, it doesn’t specify whether the aliens are legal.
Justice for the poor:
You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. Deuteronomy 24:14 NRSV
Compassion and help for the outcast. And healing for the sick. A man with leprosy – the ultimate outcast! – came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed.
“If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Mark 1:40-42 NLT
And if Gods’ will were being done, we’d be protecting something else that is largely at our mercy. The Environment. The plants, the animals, the planet itself.
God blessed them – that would be the woman and the man in Genesis 1 – and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NCV
Because, remember what our model for “master” is. The model Master is God. Think of God’s rule over us. For us – for our benefit. Not to rape and pillage and exploit and wipe out. God rules us for our good. That is how we need to rule his creation.
This is much bigger than Jesus-‘n-me. This is cosmic. Just like our God is cosmic.
And, when we pray that the Kingdom of God comes, we are not only asking for something cosmic.
2) We are committing ourselves being part of something cosmic.
We have to become the change we want for the world. Be the change we want to see. What does the Kingdom call us to do? Be the change we want to see! What are we supposed to do? Be the change we want to see!
In the kingdom of God, we learn to love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, certainly not that neighbor!
In the kingdom of God, we give up things we value because we value other people more.
“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11 TNIV
That was John the Baptist talking, and this isn’t about giving someone your used shirt. It may have been OK then, but if Jesus were preaching in 21st century North America, he wouldn’t be talking about used shirts. He’d be saying, “instead of buying that new shirt, send the $50 to the Salvation Army, the World Gospel Mission, some organization that can get it to someone who needs a shirt!! Because your fifty dollars – that you’d have spent on a shirt – will finance ten shirts for ten people who really need a shirt.” I have dozens of shirts. How many do you have? And, of course, it’s not just shirts. It’s shoes, and books, and cars and expensive restaurants. We are all guilty.
For the neighbor across the street, or across the hall, around the world are we willing to give up our agendas, our pride, our demands? In the kingdom of God, do I have to be on top? Do I have to win? Is the other person there to meet my needs? Do I really need all this stuff?!!? More than someone in Africa or Asia needs to eat? More than he needs clean drinking water? More than she needs a way to support her family? Do I have to let my temper rule me? Do those cutting remarks have to come out of my mouth? Do I have to gossip? Do I have to indulge in that pornography? Use drugs? Make those cutting remarks? Have that relationship I know is outside God’s will? Be too lazy to make a contribution? Abuse my body with too much food or drink? The Kingdom sounds costly and uncomfortable. Unpredictable and disturbing. Even painful. Like going to a wonderful restaurant and ending up with a plate of garden pests. Or getting to God’s great finale and finding a tyrannosaur.
So, how do we make sure we like what we get when we pray for God’s Kingdom? Notice I did not say how do we get what we want. How do we make sure we like what we get when we pray for His Great Reversal? Face it, it’s not easy to want what God wants. God wants me to live with less stuff, less “me, me, me.” But I like stuff. And I’m pretty happy with it’s-all-about-me. So, how do we avoid a snail scenario?
That’s where the “becoming-more-like-Jesus” comes in. And, it comes in slowly, but the more we let him work on our attitudes and our wants and our fears, the more we care about what he cares about. As we become more like Jesus, we come to want what he wants. In the kingdom of God, society changes because WE have first learned how to change. Be the change you want to see. In God’s Great Reversal God rules the world, AND God rules our hearts, our mouths, our motives and our spending. In God’s reversal, we give up something so we can reach out to meet the need of a neighbor. And if we ask, “Who is my neighbor?” then it’s a fair guess we’re looking for loopholes not opportunities.
Most of us are good with the first part. Most of us want a better society. It’s the second part, us changing, that we don’t like. But that – wanting what he wants, more than what we want – that will make God’s future one that we will find joy in.
Now, what does this have to do with telling the story? This isn’t a fill-in-the-blanks. See, The Story isn’t just for us!! It’s to share!! How many non-believers do you know what care about going to hell? They aren’t worried about going to hell after they die! They’re worried about hell now. They’re living in it!! Their lives are so empty. They see a world that is incredibly messed up on all levels. When we share the whole story – God’s plan to revolutionize people, society, the Earth – we’re talking to them about something they can relate to, something they care about.
More importantly, we’re talking about something God cares about. Genesis one. Are we just here to put in time? Then we graduate to life without bodies? Without earth? NO. We were created as bodies, to care for each other, to care for this earth. That is the creation story. And that will be the finale. What happens in this life matters! For us. For others. For the earth. For God. Be the change we want to see.
If you want to boil it right down to the bare essentials, the kingdom of God is the reign of Jesus Christ as the Leader of our lives. It is His Holy Spirit working in us, through us, and around us in such a way that we actually live and do what God want done.
It’s about living the lives God created us to live. The kingdom of God is about living a life worth living, a life of genuine joy and excitement and happiness. Life in the kingdom of heaven is not a sheltered, careful life without risk, failure, achievement, or excitement, but a life that is on the edge, lived by faith, with eyes on God, running at full throttle, wide open, going straight ahead to an indescribable life. That’s the kingdom of God – and God never intended it to be something that’s going to happen one day out there in the future, but something that His churches make a reality every moment of every day, through the life transformation that comes only in Jesus.
Today we finish The Story. Of course, The Story doesn’t end, but we’re ending this particular series. So, why did we do this in the first place? We all need to see the big picture. There’s far more to being a Christian than Jesus-’n-me, and going to heaven when I die. Pop-Christianity so distorts the power and excitement of God’s plan that it’s no wonder people aren’t interested! The Story gives us a view of the panorama. Reminds us of the sweep of God’s purposes, the drama and excitement. The pain and joy. The passion. The hope and the power and the glory. The relevance. Today we talk about the finale! The event we pray for all the time. Let’s pray.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13 NLT
Here’s a parable. Not Jesus’. There was an office party in a French restaurant, and the menu was printed in French. Most of the partiers were frequent patrons of the restaurant and either knew French, or knew the menu. So, one by one they ordered. But there was a guy new to the office, not used to French restaurants. Not wanting to appear unsophisticated or stupid, he simply pointed to some mysterious words in the menu and said, "I’ll have that."
When the meal was brought to the table, what the man had ordered was disgustingly similar to what he had worked so hard to keep out of his garden. Not at all what he had in mind. So, be careful what you order in restaurants. If you don’t know what you are asking for, you might be surprised when it comes.
The same can be said for prayer. Be careful what you pray for. If you don’t know what you are asking for, you might be surprised when it comes. Take the Lord’s Prayer, for example. We pray it – or, we recite it – in so many situations. It’s so familiar, and so comfortable. Here is a prayer that looks and sounds safe. What could possibly be distressing about praying for our daily bread, or freedom from temptation?
But hold on a minute. Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray and Jesus began:
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. So far, so good. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 NLT
This is what biblical scholars call parallelism: what is said first – your kingdom – is defined by what is said second: May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
So, do we really want the kingdom of God to come? What exactly are we asking for when we pray this? Praying for the kingdom to come on earth might be like asking for escargot in a French restaurant and ending up with a plate of snails. You’ll get what you asked for, but it might not be what you expected.
Hold that thought and let’s review what we’ve talked about so far.
- God created the world, and it was very good.
- As the pinnacle of creation, God made human beings in God’s image.
- But from the beginning human beings have rebelled and turned away from God.
- The results have been disastrous.
- God did not give up. He worked through one people- the Jews - to bring creation back to himself. But even that didn’t succeed.
- So God sent his Son.
- Where Israel was unfaithful – and every other person and group of people before and since - Jesus was faithful to the very end.
- He really was God-in-the-flesh, the Image of God restored
- He died to take the just judgment on our sin
- And finally he rose again— he is really alive!— in triumph over sin and death.
- And the promise is that we can and will be transformed to be like Jesus
- We can personally enter God’s movement to Set all things right through turning from self’s way to God’s way and placing our faith in Jesus.
So what is the Kingdom of God? What is this that Jesus tells us to pray for? We may carelessly think it means “heaven,” the place we end up after we die, if we have prayed the right prayer, done the right stuff, been part of the right group. No, it’s NOT about going to heaven when you die!! Hard to get your mind around? Check it out!!
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10 NLT
What is the Kingdom? The Kingdom is when what God wants done is done. And what will it look like? The kingdom of God is going to look very much like us being transformed to be like Jesus. Not the other person, not the one making life so hard for us, being transformed to look like Jesus. No. US being transformed. In the Kingdom of God, who changes? We do.
In some ways the kingdom is already here!
Jesus said in Luke 17,
“…Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Luke 17:20-21 TNIV
To the extent we’ve been transformed to be like Jesus it’s here! Done deal. The kingdom of God is in your midst! But, you might ask, “Is this all there is??” First of all, this is huge! Us - you and me – being more like Jesus….. That’s world-changing!! If we were to be like Jesus, we could touch our parts of the world in ways that would bring love, joy, peace, patience, those fruits of the Spirit. And we could touch our parts of the world in ways that would bring justice, an end to poverty, an end to pollution, to prejudice, to hatred and discrimination. We could lay the foundations for our parts of the world to be the places where what God wants done is done. That is a LOT!!
But, no, this isn’t all. No matter how much we change, no matter how much we change the world around us – this is not to let us off the hook… - we are still flawed, messed up people. God has something much more comprehensive in mind. How to describe it? Revelation talks about streets of gold and gates of pearl. That’s not literal – I hope. But that was the grandest thing they could describe. Today we could take computer animation and come up with something much grander. But it still wouldn’t be adequate. Because no matter how grand it sounds to me, it might not sound that way to you. Or vice versa.
I wanted to describe the Kingdom of God in a way that would make us all tingly. Unfortunately I can’t even imagine what that would be. Let me tell you what makes me feel tingly! Here’s my ideal day in the Kingdom of God. See if it sounds like yours. You’d all be there with me. I’d get up in the morning, not tired, not wondering if something at work was going to blow up in my face today. I’d ride my pet Tyrannosaurus rex to my daily briefing with Jesus, where we’d go over the plans for the day. Then I’d ride my tyrannosaur to my team meeting, brief them and we’d get to work, doing something meaningful, and satisfying and fulfilling and exciting. At the end of the day, riding my dinosaur home, I’d be wonderfully tired, but we’d all know we had accomplished something that mattered. We’d know the boss – that would be Jesus, of course – was pleased with us and that he was glad we were on his team. And, there would be no snakes.
Raise your hand if that is your picture of the Kingdom. I thought so. Do you want to dinosaurs in your very day life? And, I’d be OK with Rev. 21:
………………., and there was no longer any sea. Revelation 21:1 TNIV
But, would you?? And I’d hate that the dogs were outside, but some of you may think that’s exactly where dogs belong. No night. Different reactions to that one, too, I’ll bet. There is no picture that will resonate with all of us. And, I don’t believe there is any description that would be a life goal for all of us. So, no, this isn’t all. Definitely not, but, I really believe we’re going to have to trust God to work out the future part of what Jesus called the Kingdom: The “when” part. The “how” part. The “what’s-it-going-to-be-like” part. We have to trust him with that future. And, God’s trusting us with some of the NOW part.
So, what is he trusting us to do? Over eighty times in the gospels Jesus referred to the Kingdom. But we don’t live in the age of chivalry, or the first century AD. Kingdoms are not what they were. We know kings from movies, books, maybe games, but kings don’t have the power they did, and we have never lived under one. Jesus was notorious for making things relevant, and I doubt that he would use that phrase today. So what term would Jesus use - today - to describe what, in 30 AD, when everyone lived under kings and queens and emperors and empresses, what he called The Kingdom? If Jesus were here today, trying to describe to us a place where what God wants done is done, he might call it a revolution. A Reversal. God’s Great Reversal. Jesus’ mom was singing about reversals before he was even born! Luke 1 – we call it the Magnificat. Mary sang:
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” Luke 1:52-55 TNIV
The Bible is full of reversals! The Story is the story of one reversal after another, leading up to The Reversal, when Jesus defeated what everyone thought was the final and undefeatable enemy – death. Reversal!!
People who are in touch with God’s dream see that his plan involves his followers confronting all enemies – injustice, racism, sexism, greed, poverty, selfishness, exploitation – not just physical death. So, people who are in touch with God’s dream stir things up! Think of Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian, willing to take on the political and economic powers of the United States of America! To fight for justice. A reversal. Then, go back 200 years to William Wilberforce, another committed Christian, whose persistence brought an end the practice of slavery in Great Britain. A reversal.
Then, Catherine and William Booth, Christians living in Victorian England. They saw the poverty and hopelessness in the cities, and started the Salvation Army, so the Least, the Last and the Lost could be part of God’s dream. A Reversal.
Think of the work of Desmond Tutu in South Africa, Mother Theresa in the street of Calcutta, Lucy Stone in women’s rights movement in the United States. All Christians. And all revolutionary. More reversals.
The call to follow Jesus then was – and now is – to join his revolutionary new way of living, of acting, to make the world the place God wants it to be. The Kingdom of God is where what God wants done is done.
What will the Kingdom of God look like? To a lot of people it’s going to look like snails. The Kingdom of God is when a despised Samaritan becomes the epitome of compassion and rightness with God. Tax collectors and prostitutes enter that kingdom before the religious. The last go first, and the first last. The nobodies receive a place of honor at the feasts. In story after story it is the worthless of the world who become the most important in the Revolution.
But, be careful about what you pray for. We are the religious! We certainly are not Samaritans or tax collectors or prostitutes. We certainly are not the poor. So, we, as the religious, the rich, the first, may not like this. When we pray for the kingdom to come, we are really asking for two things.
1) First, we are asking for a radical change in the world: a global change resulting in Gods’ will being done in politics, economics, organizations, the environment: a perfect society.
Justice for the vulnerable:
“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!” Deuteronomy 27:19 NRSV
And notice, it doesn’t specify whether the aliens are legal.
Justice for the poor:
You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. Deuteronomy 24:14 NRSV
Compassion and help for the outcast. And healing for the sick. A man with leprosy – the ultimate outcast! – came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed.
“If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Mark 1:40-42 NLT
And if Gods’ will were being done, we’d be protecting something else that is largely at our mercy. The Environment. The plants, the animals, the planet itself.
God blessed them – that would be the woman and the man in Genesis 1 – and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NCV
Because, remember what our model for “master” is. The model Master is God. Think of God’s rule over us. For us – for our benefit. Not to rape and pillage and exploit and wipe out. God rules us for our good. That is how we need to rule his creation.
This is much bigger than Jesus-‘n-me. This is cosmic. Just like our God is cosmic.
And, when we pray that the Kingdom of God comes, we are not only asking for something cosmic.
2) We are committing ourselves being part of something cosmic.
We have to become the change we want for the world. Be the change we want to see. What does the Kingdom call us to do? Be the change we want to see! What are we supposed to do? Be the change we want to see!
In the kingdom of God, we learn to love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, certainly not that neighbor!
In the kingdom of God, we give up things we value because we value other people more.
“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11 TNIV
That was John the Baptist talking, and this isn’t about giving someone your used shirt. It may have been OK then, but if Jesus were preaching in 21st century North America, he wouldn’t be talking about used shirts. He’d be saying, “instead of buying that new shirt, send the $50 to the Salvation Army, the World Gospel Mission, some organization that can get it to someone who needs a shirt!! Because your fifty dollars – that you’d have spent on a shirt – will finance ten shirts for ten people who really need a shirt.” I have dozens of shirts. How many do you have? And, of course, it’s not just shirts. It’s shoes, and books, and cars and expensive restaurants. We are all guilty.
For the neighbor across the street, or across the hall, around the world are we willing to give up our agendas, our pride, our demands? In the kingdom of God, do I have to be on top? Do I have to win? Is the other person there to meet my needs? Do I really need all this stuff?!!? More than someone in Africa or Asia needs to eat? More than he needs clean drinking water? More than she needs a way to support her family? Do I have to let my temper rule me? Do those cutting remarks have to come out of my mouth? Do I have to gossip? Do I have to indulge in that pornography? Use drugs? Make those cutting remarks? Have that relationship I know is outside God’s will? Be too lazy to make a contribution? Abuse my body with too much food or drink? The Kingdom sounds costly and uncomfortable. Unpredictable and disturbing. Even painful. Like going to a wonderful restaurant and ending up with a plate of garden pests. Or getting to God’s great finale and finding a tyrannosaur.
So, how do we make sure we like what we get when we pray for God’s Kingdom? Notice I did not say how do we get what we want. How do we make sure we like what we get when we pray for His Great Reversal? Face it, it’s not easy to want what God wants. God wants me to live with less stuff, less “me, me, me.” But I like stuff. And I’m pretty happy with it’s-all-about-me. So, how do we avoid a snail scenario?
That’s where the “becoming-more-like-Jesus” comes in. And, it comes in slowly, but the more we let him work on our attitudes and our wants and our fears, the more we care about what he cares about. As we become more like Jesus, we come to want what he wants. In the kingdom of God, society changes because WE have first learned how to change. Be the change you want to see. In God’s Great Reversal God rules the world, AND God rules our hearts, our mouths, our motives and our spending. In God’s reversal, we give up something so we can reach out to meet the need of a neighbor. And if we ask, “Who is my neighbor?” then it’s a fair guess we’re looking for loopholes not opportunities.
Most of us are good with the first part. Most of us want a better society. It’s the second part, us changing, that we don’t like. But that – wanting what he wants, more than what we want – that will make God’s future one that we will find joy in.
Now, what does this have to do with telling the story? This isn’t a fill-in-the-blanks. See, The Story isn’t just for us!! It’s to share!! How many non-believers do you know what care about going to hell? They aren’t worried about going to hell after they die! They’re worried about hell now. They’re living in it!! Their lives are so empty. They see a world that is incredibly messed up on all levels. When we share the whole story – God’s plan to revolutionize people, society, the Earth – we’re talking to them about something they can relate to, something they care about.
More importantly, we’re talking about something God cares about. Genesis one. Are we just here to put in time? Then we graduate to life without bodies? Without earth? NO. We were created as bodies, to care for each other, to care for this earth. That is the creation story. And that will be the finale. What happens in this life matters! For us. For others. For the earth. For God. Be the change we want to see.
If you want to boil it right down to the bare essentials, the kingdom of God is the reign of Jesus Christ as the Leader of our lives. It is His Holy Spirit working in us, through us, and around us in such a way that we actually live and do what God want done.
It’s about living the lives God created us to live. The kingdom of God is about living a life worth living, a life of genuine joy and excitement and happiness. Life in the kingdom of heaven is not a sheltered, careful life without risk, failure, achievement, or excitement, but a life that is on the edge, lived by faith, with eyes on God, running at full throttle, wide open, going straight ahead to an indescribable life. That’s the kingdom of God – and God never intended it to be something that’s going to happen one day out there in the future, but something that His churches make a reality every moment of every day, through the life transformation that comes only in Jesus.