A More Light Congregation

Bethany Presbyterian Church

So far our study of the lord's prayer has taken us from the identity of God, the holiness of God, and now today, the kingdom of God.  The three additional scripture pieces, also from Luke, are examples of Jesus talking about the kingdom of God.  In the first example, from Luke 12, Jesus describes the kingdom of God as something new to strive for.  We strive for something that is not here yet.  Rather than strive for the things all nations strive for, we should be striving for the kingdom.  It is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom.  


When we talk about the kingdom of God, we might typically think of something perfect, in the future, and maybe even in another place, maybe only after death.  By not including the word heaven as the Matthew version of the lord's prayer does, the Luke version of the lord's prayer invites us to think of the kingdom of God without necessarily imagining another time and place.  (Figure 1) Luke 17:21 tells us that the kingdom of God is with us.  If you Google “now and not yet” the first thing that comes up is “Kingdom theology – Wikipedia.”  Kingdom theology is the study of this very thing – is the kingdom now, or is it not yet?

A question to which Jesus might answer, “yes.”  


Jim Wallis, writing in Sojourner magazine, writes, “The most profound reminders in the Lord's Prayer are true in times of peace and in times of crisis: We believe that the kingdom of God is a place with no more sin, death, disease, suffering, corruption, or evil; and we as God's servants are bringing the kingdom closer as we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy work be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Repeating the Lord's Prayer week after week keeps that vision and work ever before us. Welcoming the kingdom into our midst is what we most hope for in a time like this.”1


Indeed, just thinking of the kingdom of God brings up feelings of longing, faith, and hope.  Jesus tells us The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can b observed” meaning we can't measure the coming of the kingdom with empirical data and evidence to predict, like we can the weather.   But we will recognize it because God's kingdom is “characterized by grace – setting things in right relationship.” (workingpreacher.org)  God's kingdom is that place where God is working.


As we discussed last week, when something holy breaks into our time and space, we call that sacred.  Holy + us = sacred.


I made a diagram about what I'm trying to say.  I joked on facebook yesterday that I was more of a Minister of Diagram and Sacrament, than a Minister of Word and Sacrament.


I was trying to describe the players involved in the coming of the kingdom of God.  There's God of course.  When we interact with God, that's probably prayer.  God + us = prayer


So maybe when God and holiness come together, that's heaven.  God + holy = heaven above.


Here's the cool part.  When we recognize and remember and feel the sacred, and we prayerfully seek our next step – in a moment, in response to something now, or when we take the initiative to find a way to help – that is us, becoming the missing link in making the kingdom of God happen right here, right now.  When we work with God from the sacred in us, we are put in “the room where it happens.” (Figure 2) This diagram is in the web version of this sermon.  And on my door.


The important thing is that you and I have a part to play in the coming of the kingdom of God.  It isn't easy because decisions and circumstances are full of gray.  I want that Staples Easy Button.

I want to be able to Google “What is the right thing to do?”  I want an app called Kingdom of God.


In 2018, Chadwick Boseman gave a commencement address at his alma mater Howard University.  In it, he described his first audition for a broadway show, (nailed it) from there he got an agent, first audition for Hollywood, (nailed it) a soap opera.  He was feeling pretty hot.  He played a young black man who was troubled and interested in gangs.  He said it wasn't exactly stereotypical because the story wasn't not possible.  After his second performance, the execs said we love you, we want you around for a long time, anything you want, you just ask.  So he did, right then.  Can you tell me a little bit about my character.  Where is my father?  He left when you were young.  My character's mother is unable to be a good parent, why?  Well of course she was on heroin.  He left and went out and played the script for the day, but he was greatly conflicted.  The very next day, he got a cold call from his agent saying he was let go.  They decided to go another way.  After that, he was even more conflicted.  But, he told the graduates, if you are willing to take the harder path, the one with more meaning, you will be better off.  It's the only path to the person you were born to be, he said.  


As Christians we are called to take the harder path.  Because “The church does not have a mission.  The church participates in God's mission.” (workingpreacher.org)  When Bethany focuses on a mission path, we do so only in service to the mission of God.  


This week we witnessed the kingdom of God peeking in in several ways.  Tuesday I visited a congregation member, and the kingdom of God happened.  Wednesday Presbyterians engaged in the Presbyterian Week of Action against racism wore black.  Thursday I and an elder traveled to Palo Alto to deliver needed assistance to a stranger.  Friday two of us delivered your donations to IPB, the Brazilian congregation in Burlingame, to the church.  Saturday some of us watched episode 1 in a four part series called Trouble the Water. That roundtable discussion was the kingdom of God incarnate.  And also Saturday, the Presbytery of San Francisco participated in the national PCUSA Car-A-Van, by driving a route with each other from the First Presbyterian Church of San Mateo, to the Tanforan Mall.  Simultaneously on Zoom, these various national caravans were shown live MC'd from Louisville.  The kingdom of God was everywhere.  When we watch the kingdom of God in action, we are witnesses, not to facts and evidence, but to the very working of the holy spirit in concrete ways through us, through we mere people, who are capable of anything together with God.


I was proud of myself for getting a good start on my sermon early this week.  But earlier in the week, this was my opening paragraph:


“Maybe we should skip the sermon and go right to the prayers of the people.  Sometimes I think that would be the best use of worship.  There's all kinds of good theology about why worship is designed in any particular way.  But sometimes I don't care about wide-ranging theology.  I just want to pray.  For the fires to stop; for the rage to simmer; for covid to go away; for kids and teachers to get help to cope; for people to become fair; for people to not be hungry; for cancer to end; for racism to stop; for kindness to reign; for my headache to go away.  I'm tired.  I'm just tired!”


And yet, after a rest, after a Sabbath, after some time – the holy spirit lifts my spirits, watching others' tenacity and persistence, eating some chocolate, being physically near inspiring people like Pastor Jorge in Burlingame, I can see hope again.  I can feel hope again.  When we can't work, we can be inspired by those who can.  And when we do the work of bringing about the kingdom, we are the inspiration.   As Mary Oliver writes, in her poem Wild Geese, “You do not have to be good, You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.  You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”


We are not called to be everything all the time in our work toward the kingdom.  We are called to be what we were born to be, and that is all that God needs.  


Let us pray…



Sermon

Kingdom

Reverend Debra McGuire

August 30, 2020


Selections from Luke 11-21