Know
this, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Luke
10 11
Do you remember how eagerly you looked forward to your birthday or to a
special holiday? This was the mood of the early church- they
expected the return of Jesus at any minute, and they wanted to convert
as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Two
thousand years later, we are much more lethargic. We have
realized that God’s time is not our time.
In Revelations. We read: “I know your deeds, that you are neither hot
nor cold.” Too often, that can describe any one of us. We
don’t really care. We are unenthusiastic- in fact, the exact
opposite of the members of the early church. I grew up just a
mile or so from the “hallowed” Wimbledon tennis courts. That
induced enthusiasm! I would cycle there after school, and thought
nothing of queuing all night on the eve of the finals in order to buy a
ticket for a standing place at centre court. Many of you will
have experienced similar enthusiasms.
Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is near. How excited are we
about this? And how do we recognize this? Only when we are
near to death? Keith Howard, one of my favourite contributors to
the United Church Observer, tells of visiting a dying
parishioner. The family was falling over itself to let him in the
front door and into the bedroom. The man was very near to death,
drifting in and out of consciousness. Mr. Howard asked him why he
wanted to see a minister, but he had forgotten. The
daughter-in-law asked him to pray for forgiveness, courage and
hope. Other family members joined in with their requests, but the
dying man was not interested. It was too late! Why wait
till the eleventh hour? What a waste of time that could have been
used to love and serve God! So many people are too bust to
recognize their need until the eleventh hour. Are they so
self-sufficient that they feel no need of God until the weakness and
frailty of extreme age makes them aware?
This world does not run on “automatic”. Good behaviour does not
necessarily ensure good results, with avoidance of calamities, sickness
and pain. What a boring world this would be! God treats us
with respect, but does not promise us “goodies” if we behave
ourselves. Job certainly discovered this, as we all do very
quickly. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed is
the name of the Lord.” We have no reason to ask why certain
things happen to certain people. We know it is not because of
right or wrong behaviour. What we do need is absolute faith,
trusting in God’s help to survive hardships, sickness and war. A
farmer once experimented by removing all of the stones from his
field. But that year, the crop was very poor. So he brought
the stones back, and next year his crop was much improved. The
stones were in fact necessary to the life of his plants. And in
the same way God has a reason for our “thorns in the flesh”.
This is a holiday month, and I trust that you are enjoying a more
relaxing time, with no meetingfs to attend, no choir practices, and no
Sunday School lessons to prepare. But, praise the Lord, God does
not go on holiday! And we must not take a break from being a
Christian. No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back
is fit for the Kingdom of God. As John Wesley put it: “If we are
sanctifies, we love God with all our heart and serve Him with all our
strength, and love our neighbours as ourselves. Our souls are all
love, which our lives show, doing God’s will on earth as it is in
heaven.”
“He wills that I should holy be;
That holiness I long to feel;
That full divine conformity
To all my Saviour’s righteous will.
We don’t automatically become perfect just by saying “yes” to God’s
call and coming to church each Sunday. God has set us an ongoing
task to strain towards the ultimate that we can be. Because there
are less calls from the church during the summer months, we can spend a
little more time with Him, talking, listening and reading the
scriptures each day.
What is the secret of a church that is alive? Keith Howard
describes a largely black congregation. These people need the
church. They need the gospel and the fellowship, and so do
we. Someone calls out “John needs a job- does someone know of a
vacancy” “A couple of Grade 12s have just graduated”- and the
whole choir joins in a loud allelulia. “Marian is sick’ and
prayers are quickly offered for her.
Worshipping God is not a little extra to make life more interesting,
something to fill up our spare time. It must become the main
focus of our existence. If our Christianity is only for our spare
moments, we have not got the point. Our faith must be central to
our work, our family life, our hobbies, and all of our living.
This is one reason why I think our tea and coffee after church is so
important. We don’t necessarily want the whole congregation to
know our needs, but you can discuss them with one or two friends after
the service. You can tell someone that you are worried about the
friends your son is making at college, about your daughter who has a
new job, your nephew who is traveling, or your mother who is scheduled
for major surgery.
So, we are asked to make today count. We are called to accept
God’s love and to love others; to forgive and to be forgiven.
Dare we go to the uttermost, to stretch our boundaries? God can
use us today! A man left home in order to be away from his
business, his computer and his phone. This was great! On
Sunday, he attended the local church. But alas, he didn’t know
anyone. However, at the end of the service, he felt a tap on his
shoulder. “You’re a visitor here. I’m so glad you came!”
Years later, the sermon and the anthem were forgotten, but this man
remembered the kindness of this lady. Kindness means a great
deal, and it can change things. As Wordsworth put it, the best
parts of life are “the little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness
and love.”
The Kingdom of God is near. Are we ready? Our God is ready
to give us hope, forgiveness and love. May our prayers be love
letters, and not shopping lists!