"It's All About the Kingdom”
Jesus had taught about it more than anything else. It was one of the reasons many people followed him. Most of the parables are about it. His miracles were meant to be demonstrations of it. He died to bring it into being. And the church was created to be an ongoing demonstration of it. And he gave his disciples symbols, reminders of it. “It’s All About the Kingdom – the Kingdom of God.” Even in this passage of scripture the disciples were having trouble getting Jesus on this one. When Jesus talked about the kingdom, it was both present and not here yet, both seen and unseen, not of this world but in this world. Not unsurprisingly, we have trouble getting Jesus, too. But the kingdom of God is why Jesus came, why Christ indwells us by the power of the Spirit, and why we exist as the church. Fortunately, in our day and time we have solved the riddle of the kingdom. We have decided that the kingdom of God is almost exclusively spiritual and moral. Those who are in the kingdom are those who have been born anew by placing faith in God through Jesus Christ and who are by love being made into more loving, honorable, responsible and faithful people. That in large is what the church in the 21st century preaches and lives. The problem is this: This has little resemblance to what Jesus taught. If that had been what Jesus taught, the religious and governmental powers wouldn’t have teamed together to crucify him. The kingdom of God is not just a spirituality or a morality, it is a transformative way of life in the world. In the words that became popular about fifteen years ago in American politics, it is a “new world order.”
And so Jesus gathered his disciples together for a special meal – a meal that reminded the people of their liberation and being spared the plague of the death angel because of the blood of a lamb. John the Baptist would later say of Jesus, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” The Passover was generally celebrated in homes with family. For Jesus, these disciples were his family, and so are you and I. Jesus tells them that he will not drink wine again with them until he does it in the kingdom of God. He is telling them that they will get together again. That will be important, for Jesus will be on a cross in less than 24 hours. Christ’s promise is that there is a coming kingdom in which they will share. In the midst of what is totally hopeless there will still be hope.
Last night, as I was making a visit to two of our hospitals, I realized that being a conveyor of hope in hopeless situations is one of the best things we do for each other as Christians. One of those who was in a formerly hopeless situation told me last night that she was on no less than 25 churches’ prayer lists. She said, “Those prayers are what got me through.” Recently, a survey was taken among that declared that prayer makes no difference in people’s recoveries. My survey of some 6,000 people I have visited over a ministry career begs to differ. When people have hope the medicine works better, the therapy picks up pace and people make it through.
Whether it’s a divorce, the loss of a loved one, extended unemployment or a host of other challenges and tragedies, the ability to share God’s kingdom of hope makes a whole world of difference.
But the kingdom of God is not just a hope or an unrealized future, it is also a present reality. But the disciples, anticipating the coming kingdom are also trying to figure out who gets to rule. It’s not hard for us to imagine it having happened, as power struggles are part of human nature. Only Luke tells us that the discussion about who was the greatest happened at the last supper. Perhaps Jesus’ taking of the basin and towel in John’s gospel implies that such a struggle was indeed going on. But Jesus takes on the discussion reminding them that those who would be great in the kingdom must choose to be least, to be servant of all. Jesus is reminding us that the kingdom of God is not just a “hope so” in the world to come, but an alternative way to live in the real world.
Alcoholics Anonymous has what is calls for paradoxes for life: “We surrender to win; we give away to keep, we suffer to get well, and we die to live.”
Sounds like Jesus doesn’t it? For Christians there are kingdom ethics in which our yeses are yeses and our nos are nos, in which justice and truth are offered with grace added. There are kingdom economics, in which the one that has two coats gives to the one who has none, which is neither “trickle down” or a “hand up,” but radical generosity, based not on fairness or just desserts, but based in love. There is kingdom politics in which those that are powerful and gifted work for those who are disadvantaged and powerless. There is kingdom environmentalism in which those who have been given dominion on the earth are also responsible to our creator as caretakers. The church is to be the living demonstration of this kingdom ethics, economics, politics and environmentalism. We share in real bread and drink real juice, for this is a kingdom for real life.
The biggest criticism of the church is that we are so other worldly that we are no earthly good, that our faith makes very little difference in the real world. Yes, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” but we cannot then avoid living out kingdom ways in this world. Yes, people will be challenged and even offended, but they will know we are not closed in our isolation and that our walk matches our talk. To take symbols of bread and a cup together is to recommit to living as kingdom people in the world. For some that will be good news that will give them comfort and connect them to the king of kings. For others we will be a challenge and a confrontation, which will lead us to our own crucifixion experiences.
But there is a third thing about the kingdom that Jesus shares in this version of the Lord’s Supper, that the kingdom of God is a gift. To live in the way of faith, hope and love is not something that we create on our own. Many people, even in the Church, live their life as a response to continuous and escalating demands. They feel put upon and unappreciated. But kingdom people know that life, with us born anew in Christ and filled with God’s Spirit, is a holy privilege. Jesus confers the kingdom on his disciples. In so doing he gives them a gift. But in it, as with all gifts is a responsibility. In John’s gospel Jesus says, “As the father has sent me so send I you.” Just as God sent Jesus as kingdom love made flesh, so now kingdom love is multiplied in you and me. In holy communion we share these “gifts” of bread and wine, and remember that living and serving Christ also is a gift.
Yes, it’s all about the kingdom: all about hope, all about a revolutionary way of life, all about living life as a special gift from God. You are in this world, but you are not of it, for you belong to a kingdom. You are in this world, but you are called to make it a different kind of world and challenge it to be more than it is. Yes, in taking communion we “remember the Lord’s death until he comes.” But we also are reminded of who we are and what our biggest job is: to be agents of God’s way of life. And the good news is that when we live in and share that kind of hope, when we live this alternative way of life in the real world and when we experience life as a gift more than a demand, then the kingdom grows and expands: like a mustard seed that is the small of seeds and yet grows to become something that the birds make nests in. As kingdom men, women, boys and girls we then become part of something bigger than we are, the very thing our soul craves. John Burke writes,
It’s the funny thing about humans compared to other creatures. We alone know we are not yet as the Creator intended. I seriously doubt cats ever feel anxious about whether they’ll reach their full potential. But all humans know they have potential to be more. We all instinctively know there’s a life out there we were created for, but we can never fully seem to live it. People long to become all they know they were intended to be, but they can’t without God.
That says there’s still a “not yet” part of us. It’s potentially already here, but not fully realized. That’s kind of like the kingdom. And we know that one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of his Christ. We know that we who see through a glass darkly will one day see face to face. We know that when the kingdom is what it’s all about, then everything else about our life falls into place. In the meantime, we get hints, hints of something terrific, by the grace and power of God.