Today we are coming to the end of a series of messages about the kingdom of God, which we ve been defining as God s righteous reign. Wherever life is empowered by God s Spirit to live according to his good intentions for creation, that is the kingdom of God. [VENN DIAGRAM] Bob created a Venn diagram to help us visualize the elements of a life lived as a citizen of God s kingdom. It has three circles, and where they intersect in the middle is the sweet spot of kingdom living. The three spheres of human life are contentment (what we have), purpose (what we do) and relationship (who we are). As we bring each of these spheres of our life under the good rule of God, we live more deeply into his intention for us as a part of his plan to redeem and restore all of creation. Each of the messages over the past 8 or so weeks has zoomed in on an aspect of kingdom life. And this morning, we re going to review what we ve covered together. So, if you ve missed any Sundays over the past few weeks, you are in luck because you re going to get the Cliff s notes version of the messages you missed. On the other hand, if you ve been here each and every Sunday through the whole series, you are also in luck because human brains are bad at learning things we only hear once. You are more likely to remember what I say this morning because you ve heard it before. So, you re welcome. To make it even likelier that you take something away from this morning, we are going totally old school on sermon notes. There is a blank sheet of paper in your bulletin and I d like you to write down each of the kingdom is statements as we talk about them. At the end of today s message I m going to ask you to do something with your notes, so this is not an optional activity. This is required for the class and there will be a test later, at test upon which your eternal salvation depends. So dig around in your purse for a pen or go see Becky at the Connection Counter to borrow one. We will wait. So, across the top of your blank piece of paper, start by writing The Kingdom Is and then as we go along you can list the various descriptions of God s righteous reign. If you want to write more, that is acceptable. You will not get extra credit for the class, but you WILL get extra credit in heaven. But hey, up to you. [KINGDOM AT THE CENTER] Bob began this series by introducing us to Jesus parable about a farmer who sows seeds that fall on various kinds of soil: rocky soil, soil that s too close to the road so birds steal away the seeds, soil that is parched and full of thorns. And also good soil, Goldilocks soil you might say, that s juuuuust right for taking root and bearing fruit. Each of these types of soil is a kind of metaphor for God s rule in our life. When we are rocky, there s too much stuff cluttering up our lives and the seed of God s
kingdom can t find a place to send down a root. When we re full of thorns, we might say we are full of sharp edges rage, shame, fear that threaten to choke God s rule right out of our life. When birds come to steal good seed, we re distracted from what is most important. We let our attention and our intentions wander and can t seem to stay centered on what God is calling us to do and be. But when our lives are good and fertile soil, we could say God s kingdom is AT THE CENTER of what we have, what we do and who we are. Here s the thing: A life centered around God s reign does not happen by accident. We re not good soil by chance or fate or whatever. Being good soil is a matter of intention. Centering your life on sharing God s life starts by meaning to. You make God s reign a priority, it doesn t just happen. We ll come back to this idea when we wrap up this morning, because I believe this is the whole shebang, the whole enchilada, when it comes to bringing our lives under the reign of God: meaning to. [THE KINGDOM IS ENOUGH] But for now let s explore how God s kingdom transforms how we view and use what we have: the sphere of human life we re calling contentment. A few weeks ago I started my message by playing If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof, because I will use the feeblest excuse in the world to bring a Broadway musical into the mix. But also because Reb Tevye s longing to be rich is something we can all relate to at one time or another. We re all familiar with the pangs of DIScontentment, that nagging feeling that we don t have ENOUGH. But we found out, by studying together Jesus parable about a rich man who builds bigger and better barns to store a bumper crop of grain, that directing our attention to having and being more is to be willingly caught in the scarcity trap. Brene Brown defines the scarcity trap as the never enough problem. When we focus on our LACK of time, money, safety or love, the amount we DO have is never enough. But Jesus parable teaches us that God s kingdom IS ENOUGH. If God s kingdom is the point, if living under his reign is what gives life lasting meaning and fullness, then the time, energy mental real estate we dedicate to worrying about having enough is time, energy and mental real estate wasted. [THE KINGDOM IS SLOW] But God s kingdom is not only enough, it is also slow. Like a mustard seed and like yeast, it grows slowly. It s not efficient. In fact, it resists efficiency, like writing or parenting. Like creating art. Or teaching. Praying. Or thinking well and clearly. Or even like gardening and baking. Why do these activities resist efficiency? Because getting them done is not the point. Doing them is.
When we buy into fast, into easy, into efficient, we are selling out God s kingdom. We are embracing a value that is fundamentally at odds with the righteous reign of God. Efficiency makes getting it done more important than doing it well. But God s kingdom is the doing. And the doing is enough. [KINGDOM IS POOR IN SPIRIT] Finally, in the area of contentment, Bob reminded us that being rich, having more than we need, makes it hard to center our lives on God s kingdom. Blessed, happy, fortunate, content are the poor in spirit, Jesus says, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Like the rich young ruler who was like the star of the youth group, keeping all of God s laws and making his parents proud, we are attached to our stuff. But Jesus invites us, just like he invited the rich young ruler, to set what we have to the side, either by divesting ourselves of wealth that is, giving it away so it s not an obstacle any more or by dedicating what we have to God s mission. When we divest or dedicate what we have, we are truly free. We don t have to be consumed by worry we ll lose what we have or by desire to get more. We make ourselves empty poor in spirit so that we can be filled with contentment. But what about purpose, the second circle of kingdom life that s all about what we do? [KINGDOM IS TRANSFORMING US AND THE WORLD] A few weeks ago Bob told the story of two young men, both players in the NFL, who each caused a public outcry when they took a knee on the field. Tim Tebow became famous for Tebowing, kneeling in the end zone to make clear his commitment not to take glory for himself but to give it to God. Colin Kaepernick became famous for kneeling during the national anthem to draw attention to injustice and inequality. We could think of Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick as representing two different forms of American Christianity. One values personal piety and respect for cultural norms, and emphasizes personal morality in issues like abortion and homosexuality. The other values social justice and community development and emphasizes public morality in issues like racial inequality and poverty. One is most concerned about personal transformation and the other is most concerned with transforming the world.
But Bob challenged us with the idea that the kingdom of God does not divide those two concerns but unites them. They are different sides of the same coin. By being transformed by practicing life together under God s righteous reign we participate in God s transformation of the world. By following Jesus in the power of God s Spirit, we continue the transformation he began in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Our kingdom purpose is nothing less than to continue the work of Christ on earth by becoming like him. The third circle, relationship, is about who we are. [THE KINGDOM IS SUBVERSIVE] There is a pretty weird story Jesus told recorded in Luke 16. In the story, a rich man accuses his manager, the guy who manages all of his property, of wasting his money. After the accusation, the manager thinks his best move is to pay visits to all his boss s debtors, the people who owe the rich man money, and reduce their debts. Instead of flying off the handle and throwing the manager in prison or worse, the rich man commended the manager he complimented and affirmed him for acting shrewdly, for making a wily and totally unpredictable call. What? I mean, that s bananas. When I read that parable, I don t know what to do with it. But when Bob taught on this passage of scripture a few weeks ago, he suggested that this story reveals to us that the kingdom is SUBVERSIVE. It overturns our expectations of right and fair. It upends how we think things ought to be. Bible scholar Robert Farrar Capon believes the shrewd manager represents Jesus himself. He wrote this: The unique contribution of this parable to our understanding of Jesus is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability. Respectability regards only life, success, winning; it will have no truck with the grace that works by death and losing which is the only kind of grace there is. We churchy type folks are sorely tempted sometimes, I think, to make citizenship in God s kingdom about being respectable. We re good citizens. Moral. Polite. Clean. Appropriate. But the rich man doesn t commend his manager for being moral, polite, clean and appropriate. He commends him for spending wealth that isn t his and lavishly forgiving debts to someone else. And in telling this parable, Jesus invites us to do the same: to be so flagrant in forgiveness, so lavish in love, that the absurd-yet-true generosity of God s grace is on shocking display. [KINGDOM IS CRUCIFORM]
Which brings us to the most subversive display of God s love in history: the cross. The kingdom of God is CRUCIFORM. It s cross-shaped. What does this mean? Last week Bob walked us through the ancient Jewish idea of the day of the Lord, which the prophets foretold. The people in Jesus time were waiting in anticipation of a time when they believed God would fulfill his promise to overthrow their enemies and establish his kingdom on earth. They waited for a day when God would act to throw out their oppressors, the Romans, and restore the kingdom of Israel. In Luke 4 when Jesus gets up in his hometown synagogue to read from the scriptures, he reads from one of the prophets, Isaiah, who foretold the coming of the day of the Lord. And then he tells his friends and neighbors, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. That s fantastic, they say! Finally! Let s get this show on the road! Except Jesus doesn t establish God s kingdom by overthrowing the Romans and reigning on a throne in Jerusalem. He establishes God s kingdom by dying. The real enemies of God s people, of all people, are sin, evil and death. And those enemies cannot be defeated by fighting on their terms. As one of my favorite theologians, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, would say, You can t beat evil by doing evil. No, God beats evil by loving so fully that he d rather die than kill. God beats sin by loving so completely that there s no room for selfish desire. God beats death by loving so transcendently that the grave cannot hope to hold him. The kingdom of God is not established by force but by a cross. The kingdom of God is CRUCIFORM. So what have we got so far, for those of you teacher s pets who are still taking notes? The kingdom is enough. The kingdom is slow. The kingdom is poor in spirit. The kingdom is transforming us and the world. The kingdom is subversive. The kingdom is cruciform, cross-shaped. Here comes the real assignment. We re heading into a season when it s reeeeeally easy to get distracted, to become soil picked to death by the birds of gift-buying, family-scheduling, holiday-partying, kid-wrangling, church-event-producing, sugar-
avoiding and emotion-managing. But the very word holiday holy day tells us we are meant for something deeper and richer, earthier and anchored by strong roots, bearing good and nourishing fruit. This is my challenge for you this morning as we look forward to the final six weeks of 2017. Looking at that list of what the kingdom of God is, which ONE will you choose to focus on in the coming weeks? We ve been journeying through this series for a couple of months now and if you re like me, you may feel a little overwhelmed, looking at that list, at the thought of trying to live ALL of these kingdom values right now. So don t. Let s not trick ourselves into doing nothing because we don t feel up to doing everything. My challenge for each of us is to circle one and practice that ONE. Tape up your circled note somewhere you can see it. Write some Post-Its for your car, office and nightstand. Pray and meditate with your one kingdom value in mind. Slap a Post-It on your cart or screen when you shop, and spend with God s kingdom at the center. That s practicing contentment and bringing what you have under God s righteous reign. When you re at Thanksgiving dinner with crazy uncle Harry who assumes every sane person shares his despicable politics, ask God to transform you and how you respond. That s practicing kingdom purpose, and bringing what you do under God s righteous reign. The next time you notice yourself enjoying a little us-and-them thinking, glance at your Post-It and realize you re making someone your enemy, whether it s a family member, a friend or coworker, a political party or another religion. Ask God s Spirit to transform your relationship into love all the way down. That s practicing kingdom relationship, bringing who you are under God s righteous reign. The kingdom is at the center of our life only when we put it there. And the way that happens is not by being ashamed or overwhelmed so much that we are paralyzed into keeping the status quo, into staying crummy soil that can t bear fruit. No, the way the kingdom becomes the center of our life is that we mean to. We start. We practice. We give a little bit of space and time and attention and intention to the seed of God s righteous reign over our life. And then a little more. And then a little more. As we worship together this morning, I invite you to choose where you will start meaning to. Let s pray.