December 3, 2006
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Christmas and Kingdom
Matthew 10:7
Very often, at Christmas, we hear stories retold, like Mark
Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, where King Arthur
dresses in peasant’s garb and visits the subjects of his kingdom. The king lays
aside his royal robes and privileges in order to identify with life outside the
castle, and experience life as it is lived by the “common people.” The king is
transformed by the experience, and the people now understand that he cares for
them and has broken out of the castle walls. Those are great stories, and they
do capture an important part of the truth about Christmas and God coming to our
world. It is the mystery of the incarnation. But there is another side to the
story. In fact, it is an opposite side of the story that we need to understand
as well. King Jesus has not only stepped outside his heavenly castle, in order
to come to us and experience our life here, his purpose in doing so was to lead
us back to his kingdom that we might experience the delights of his life as
king. In other words, it was not so much to experience our life that he came,
but in order that we might experience his life. It was important for him to
come into our world, but his reason for doing so was for us to be able to come
into his world. It is one thing to have a God who is willing to come and share
in our suffering, it is quite another to have a God who is able to deliver us
from our suffering. It is one thing to have a God who is willing to take on our
identity, it is quite another to have a God who wants us to take on his
identity. It is one thing to have a God who is willing to come to the squalor
of our world, and quite another to have a God who invites us to step into the
glory of his world. Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in
God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so,
I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that
you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3).
I would suggest to you this morning that this is not always seen
as good news, because it means that this king is like no other. For first of
all: This kind of King elicits fear in us. That might sound strange to
you, but consider the times when God has come to the world and invited his
people into a new realm of existence. Remember the Israelites in Egypt. They
groaned and complained to God about being slaves, and rehearsed to him the
terrible treatment they received at the hands of the Egyptians. They thought
God was as cruel as their Egyptian masters since he had allowed them to become
slaves. But when the good news came that God had appointed a deliverer for
them, and that they were to leave Egypt, putting their slavery behind them, they
were not so sure they wanted to leave. After Moses’ first visit to Pharaoh, the
people wanted Moses to stop asking him to let them go. They discovered that
leaving was difficult. Once they finally left, they said to each other, “We
should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:4). In the book of
Acts, Stephen retells the story. God had said: “I have indeed seen the
oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come
down to set them free. . . . But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead,
they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron,
‘Make us gods who will go before us’” (Acts 7:34-40). And, by the way, the
golden calf which Aaron made was one of the gods of the Egyptians. What is it
in us that prefers slavery to freedom?
This is the question that haunts me. How many times have I seen
someone whose life is in shambles? Their life story is one of despair and ruin,
yet when the opportunity for a new life is presented to them, they turn away —
not because they are not in need of help, but because they cannot imagine what a
life of freedom would be like. How many times have I seen someone come to
Christ and experience his presence and the glory of forgiveness, only to see
them turn back to their old life of bondage because they were familiar with
slavery, and freedom carried with it responsibilities and work? Leaving a life
of slavery seems harder than being a slave. The Israelites found their new life
difficult and said, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost — also the
cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic” (Numbers 11:5). (Not the kind of
folks you want to get real close to!) Can you imagine? Fish and food at no
cost? And of all the things to remember and long for! They were thinking of
their appetites and remembering the food of Egypt, and forgetting the
taskmaster’s whip and back-breaking labor!
By way of contrast the Bible talks of Moses saying, “By faith
Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake
of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was
looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26). Ah, there it is! The people
of God who are able to persevere are those who keep their eyes on future
reward. The present difficulties are nothing compared to the future glory.
Paul wrote: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). The people of God gladly
put up with delayed gratification. They can curb their appetites and longing
for pleasure, because they know they have a greater pleasure coming. It is
unpleasant to delay gratification, but when you know that to deny yourself a bit
of chocolate now will result in a banquet with a whole table of deserts later,
you have a new motivation. The Bible talks about the heros of the faith saying,
“Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them”
(Hebrews 11:16).
But because there is not always instant gratification, the good
news of freedom is sometimes seen as bad news by those who love slavery and are
used to living in bondage. The taste for leeks, onions and garlic overcome the
distaste of the whip and the hope of something new. They remember the tempting
things from their imprisoned past, and forget the future promises of the
kingdom. The key is to let the fear of the new and the familiarity of the old,
be overtaken by the desire to be truly free. The key is to allow the misery of
the old slavery to be replaced by the expectancy and ecstacy of a new kingdom.
And all this is possible because the king has come to us in order to bring us
into his Father’s house. Christmas is the promise of a new kingdom.
If we understood what the king has come to do for us, we would
not be afraid. The second point is that: This kind of King inspires hope in
us. I love the story of Jesus and the disciples as they are on the Sea of
Galilee. They have seen many miracles that Jesus has done. Deaf ears and blind
eyes have been opened. Lame people walked and multitudes were fed. They had
seen all this happen. The disciples knew that Jesus was definitely a man of
God. They believed that he was more than a prophet, he was the Messiah. But it
was not until they were out in the middle of a life-threatening storm, where he
simply spoke to the wind and waves, and they collapsed into an eerie calm, that
they began to see and understand Jesus in a whole new way. The Bible says, “In
fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this? He commands even the
winds and the water, and they obey him’” (Luke 8:25).
It is not that the disciples are not afraid — they are, but they
are also exceedingly hopeful. Now that they understand who this person is, it
opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Instead of running from him, they
run to him. They do not question him, they worship him. Now they understand
who he is and what he can do. All kinds of possibilities have been opened, and
the future looks entirely different. They now see the world with new eyes.
Jesus said to his disciples at one point, “I confer on you a kingdom, just as my
Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my
kingdom and sit on thrones. . .” (Luke 22:28-30). All of a sudden, not just the
reality of the kingdom of God is beginning to sink into their brains, their new
role in that kingdom is dawning upon them.
And the hope is grounded on the fact that the Kingdom is not just
coming some time in the distant future, but is suddenly and unexpectedly here.
If the kingdom of God was not breaking into the world, then the sick would not
be healed and the wind and sea could not be calmed. But the kingdom was
here, so those possessed by evil spirits were delivered and the dead were
raised. This was not like winning the lottery, it was like inheriting the
entire world. This is what Paul meant when he said, “All things are yours,
whether . . . the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are
yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
The point is that there is hope once we recognize and accept by
faith God’s reign over the present world. When John the Baptist began
preaching, he said, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and
believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). This is not some distant possibility, it
is a present reality. But one must understand, one must believe, one must
repent and one must hope. Christmas is the beginning of something new. It is
the birth of hope, because Christmas is the breaking in of the kingdom of God
upon the world. When the King was born, a kingdom was set in place. We have
good reason to be people of hope.
The third, and most thrilling, point is that: This kind of
King makes heirs of us, We are not just so much accidental protoplasm
taking up space on planet earth. We are not “nobodies” or just “anybodies,” we
are children of the King, and one day the earth will rise up and take notice
that we are the heirs of the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . . . Blessed are the meek, for
they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:3&5). This is not just the 15 seconds
of fame that some people strive for, it is an everlasting acknowledgment of the
reality that God has called us his own and conferred on us a kingdom. No longer
will the world be able to deny who inherits the earth, or who the heirs of this
kingdom are.
It was the winter of 1926, an age where narrow-mindedness and
bigotry still had power in many places. A woman from Chicago named Thelma
Goldstein decided to go to Florida for her first real vacation. She was not
familiar with the area, and she unknowingly drove to a restricted hotel in North
Miami. “Excuse me,” she said to the man at the desk. “My name is Mrs.
Goldstein, and I’d like a small room for two weeks.” “I’m awfully sorry,” he
replied, “but all of our rooms are occupied.” Just then, she noticed a man
checked out at the counter next to them. “What luck,” said Mrs. Goldstein.
“Now there’s a room.” “Not so fast, Madam. I’m sorry, but this hotel is
restricted. No Jews allowed.” “Jewish?” she said, “Who’s Jewish? I happen to
be Catholic.” The man at the desk said, “I find that hard to believe. Let me
ask you, who was the Son of God?” “Jesus, Son of Mary.” “Where was he born?”
“In a stable.” The man pressed on, “And why was he born in a stable?” With her
eyes flashing, she said, “Because a schmuck like you wouldn’t let a Jew rent a
room in his hotel!”
In this world, at the present time, there will be those who do
not recognize us for who we are, or respect us. Nevertheless, we are children
of the King. And the Scripture says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs
— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in
order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17). We have a royal
future, so we tolerate any rejection we experience in the world, knowing that
the King himself was rejected. We tolerate it easily enough, for the Bible
says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with
him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12).
Christmas is not just a story of a King who was born. It is the
story of a King who came, ushered in a new kingdom, made us his children, called
us his heirs, and invited us to live and reign with him in his kingdom. The day
will come when that kingdom will be fully realized here on earth, but already
this kingdom is here. It is both now, and not yet. It has begun and one day
the full reality will overcome the world. The bigness and responsibility of all
this frighten us, but it gives us hope for the day when the kingdom will be
fully present, and the scripture will come true that says, “Blessed and holy are
those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power
over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with
him. . .” (Revelation 20:6).
C. S. Lewis, in his essay “The Weight of Glory” says, “It is a
serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember
that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a
creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. . .
. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe
and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings
with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are
no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
The Bible talks about the day Christ, “comes to be glorified in
his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This
includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (2 Thessalonians
1:10). This is the meaning of Christmas — a kingdom has come. “Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).
Rodney J. Buchanan
December 3, 2006
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Mulberry
Street United Methodist Church