Sermon for August 7, 2016: Admission Standards for the Kingdom

This sermon was preached by Rev. Mark T. Peterson at Christ the King Lutheran Church, Holliston, MA on August 7, 2016.

Luke 12:32-40

[Jesus said:] ³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
  ³⁵“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; ³⁶be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. ³⁷Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. ³⁸If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
  ³⁹“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

  

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ,

As many students prepare to go back to school, especially those who are off to college somewhere, the excitement of the day that an acceptance letter came from the school of one’s dreams has certainly faded by now. The joy that came when the packet was opened, and that young person read, “Congratulations, we are excited to offer you admission to….” or maybe it went, “It is our good pleasure to welcome you into the distinguished….” or some other greeting, which was both warm and enthusiastic.

I started thinking about these letters and the spirit with which they are written, and it occurred to me why they could come across in such away, it’s because these schools get to choose who is good enough to get one of these acceptance letters. Each school gets to pick people who will be contributors to the school’s student life and academic reputation, and so they are excited about picking people who will make them better. And, hopefully, each prospective student will share this excitement in return.

The one caveat with these acceptance letters, which perhaps some of you have framed, or have safely kept somewhere, is that they aren’t good forever. In order to go to the school, you have to keep your grades up during your senior year and most certainly graduate. When you do get started, you of course have to keep your academic life on track, pass your classes, don’t do anything too horribly wrong, and of course, most importantly, keep the checks coming in on time. If you fail at this, the warm greeting that you received in your acceptance letter will be replaced by other messages telling you to leave.

This morning, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Now this, is an acceptance letter as it is an offer of entrance into a Kingdom. Now, this is not simply any Kingdom, but this is the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom that is at the top of every publications “best Kingdom’s” list. It is a great kingdom for all majors, all careers, all different types of people. This is the Kingdom that Jesus declares it is the Father’s good pleasure to give to us. In comparison, I’m guessing that not many schools out there are including invitations to sit on the Endowment Board as a part of their acceptance letters. Schools out there are happy to give you the opportunity of an education, but they aren’t real anxious to hand over the whole institution.

God though, operates differently. God doesn’t just welcome us into the life of the Kingdom, but hands over the whole thing. What’s also different, is that none of us even needed to apply. This Kingdom has been given to us in the waters of baptism, by the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is in these waters where we are made citizens of this kingdom. The citizenship that we are given is the work of God’s grace, not our own achievements, but is given to us because right from the get-go, God has made us miraculously and marvelously, and has stitched that wonderfulness into every inch of creation. Ultimately, it is a sign of how much God loves what God has made, and out of this love, God gives to us the Kingdom.

In receiving this offer, just as one goes to college or university, there is work to be done in this Kingdom. Joyful work. The work of creating, restoring, and giving life. The work of relationships. The work of seeing and giving thanks for the joy that is found in each and every day, and that is found in each other. This is the work of love, and it is the work that we are called to in those waters of baptism. This work is our daily vocation, the work of living lives that reflect the Kingdom’s love, peace and justice. This is the work that isn’t about making a living, especially as we hear Jesus tell us to “sell everything we have and give the money to the poor.” This is the work of realizing the abundance we have been given and growing in our generosity of that abundance. This is truly the work of the Kingdom. The work of faith.

19 years ago, I was about to head off to college myself. I had my sights on becoming a social studies teacher. Four years later, I graduated and then taught for another 5 years.

10 years ago, at this time, I was just finishing our Summer Greek class, on my way to beginning seminary. I was ready to go down the road to becoming a pastor.

As I take stock of these years, it’s easy to see that my profession has changed, my title has even changed, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the work, the work of faith…the vocation. This is the calling from God to be loving and caring, the call to be a steward of God’s creation, the call to learn to trust in God and proclaim God’s grace. This is a calling that has been formed in me since I was baptized as a little baby. This is a calling to the work of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it has been given to me as a family business is passed on from generation to generation. This is the work that God gave to Abram, or Abraham, so that it would be passed on with such abundance that the numbers receiving it would be more countless than the stars.

Now in my 37^th year of this work, with the days remaining before my 38^th year dwindling, I must admit that I have not been a big success in this “Kingdom Work” that God has given to me. I’ve hurt people instead of loving them. I’ve lied. I’ve taken things that don’t belong to me. If you could find ways to be incompetent at this Kingdom work, I’ve found them…we all have. And, that’s just counting the things that are on the outside, I don’t even want to get into the stuff on my mind and in my heart, the stuff that is not very Kingdom oriented, the stuff on the inside that tells God exactly what kind of person I am.

If I were God. If I were the one making this Kingdom, I would surely pick someone different than me, someone different than all of us. I would pick people who have much better qualifications then simply being born. I would pick people that actually listened to what I wanted them to do, and who actually did it. Even more so, if any of those worthy candidates who I picked to give the Kingdom to, who I left in charge of running it didn’t do it right, I would kick them out, or at least put them on double-secret probation.

It certainly seems like God could have chosen better citizens of the Kingdom than us. Yes, the Kingdom is still here and still going on, but sin remains as well. Our sin, sin that continues to mar this Kingdom with violence and death, selfishness and greed, envy and hatred.  Yet, in the midst of our own sinful incompetence in the work of the Kingdom, what we are given eyes to see is that this work of faith is ultimately not ours, but is God’s. This is work that has gone on long before we were here and it will go on long after we are gone.

 When God opens our eyes to the work that God is doing, God also gives to us a vision of faith, just as Abram was shown the stars in the sky as a promise of how numerous his unlikely descendants would be. This is the vision of faith we put our hope and our trust in, this is the vision of Jesus Christ who continues to complete this work of faith in us. This is the vision of Jesus Christ continuing to call us through his mercy and grace to be a blessing to others, by giving them these same things.

As we stand before God, knowing our applications don’t look good and there’s not much we could show God to continue justifying our presence in the Kingdom of Heaven, we give thanks that God doesn’t kick us out. Rather, God comes to us, in flesh and blood, and gives us this life, and through his work assures us that he knows what he is doing in picking us for the Kingdom. God comes to us in Jesus Christ and lovingly affirms that it is truly the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.

While we get ready to go back to school, or college, as we enter into Kindergarten or if we haven’t gone back to school shopping for years, our calling remains the same. As Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, as Children of God we have been called to the work of faith. The very work that is being done in us today, the work of love, the work of our Lord, Jesus Christ, giving himself for each of us and for all of creation. May we share in this work wherever our roads lead, and may we share and proclaim this Kingdom life that we have been given, and the one who gave it to us.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Amen

Be a Values Voter!

Through Jesus Christ, God has established the Kingdom of Heaven, right here, in this time and space, right in our very midst. Yet, while the Kingdom is certainly established, God continues to grow the Kingdom, by acting through us humans. My favorite vision of this Kingdom comes from Micah 4, which says:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the                          mountains, and shall be raised above the hills.
People shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain            of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may             walk in his paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The Lord shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;               they  will beat their swords in plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; and they will            not learn war anymore.
But they will all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one will make them             afraid.

Knowing that God uses us to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven, we should remember that a very formidable tool that we have been given, is a recognized voice and vote in the way that our community, state, and nation are governed. Here, in this time and place in the world, using this tool of participatory government is not just a privilege we have, but our Godly duty. Indeed, we are called to be values voters!

 Before continuing, a few clarifications about the government we are called to participate in:
--First, the government is not our Savior, it’s merely a system, and an imperfect one at that. 

--Secondly, the government is not “ours” and by that I mean the property of Christians, or any other group that would claim ownership of it, at least not in this country.  

--Thirdly, governance and order are a gift to us and our world from our creator, and they are given to help us live together according to something beyond our own whims and fancies. These authorities in our lives and world require our attention, even if it means standing up to them, rather than supporting them. 

--Finally, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his church, are not held in peril by any government, whether it is our own, or the Roman Empire. Our faith is secure, Jesus Christ has won the day and will continue to live eternally, both in places where Christ’s Church is persecuted and in places where the Church has become the persecutor.  Therefore, we remember that government, whether a democracy or monarchy, whether representative or autocratic, whether peaceful or warlike, whether open or repressive, and whether brutal or compassionate, is merely a system, and is neither our salvation nor our greatest threat.  

Moving on, we, who live in the United States, have the opportunity to actively and safely, ( At least in theory, many who are neither white nor male could argue this with a long list of exampls to the contrary.) participate as representatives of the Christian faith, as ambassadors of Christ, in the system of government that helps bring order, for better and worse, to not only the 310 Million people who live in this country, but the billions that live in this world. It is incumbent on us as Christians to work to influence these systems that have authority over us so that God's righteousness, justice, and love is not a forsaken part of this ordering.   At the same time, our Christian duty to be involved in the workings of our government does not mean that we seek to make a Christian state. We as a faith community place our trust in the fact that God's Heavenly Kingdom has already been establish, and that God has instituted the community of the Church to be the place where Christians are called and transformed.

Ultimately, the way that we are called to act in our government is as an active voice, representing those who society forgets and tramples, with the truth of God. This is a truth of a Godly justice that values all life, and especially the lives of those our systems usually discard; the lives of the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned, the persecuted, the immigrant, and the refugee. This is a truth that stands in solidarity with these forgotten ones, and stands opposed to our human ideas of justice, which all too often places a higher value on order, profit, vengeance, and power, than it does upon the life that God creates.

Today, as many people vote on Super Tuesday, remember that it is indeed, right our duty and JOY that we should in all times and all places proclaim God's truth. Here in the United States of America, we have a freedom that should make this proclamation easy, and there is little excuse to keep us from yielding our freedom on behalf of all people, even and especially those who can't make campaign donations. So go vote!

Finally, a word from the prophet Ezekiel:

34The word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them—to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? ³You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. ⁴You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. ⁵So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. ⁶My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.