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3rd Sunday of Epiphany - January 27, 2008 - St.
Christopher’s Episcopal Church The Kingdom of God Recently the Dallas Cowboys bussed a bunch of our soldiers to the Cowboy’s Stadium, fed them, gave them super seats, and included them in half-time activities, then bussed them all home. The kingdom of football came close to Fort Hood. In the same way Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, when He met four fishermen: Peter and Andrew, James and John. They went on a trip with Jesus and preached that the Kingdom of God had come near, and they healed everyone of their diseases. When Jesus ascended back into heaven three years later He left with those four men and 7 others, a command to go into all the world and preach—that the Kingdom of God has come near, and that He would be with them. We’re still preaching that the Kingdom of God has come near, and Jesus is still with us. How does the Kingdom come near? Everything that brings someone or something under the rule of Jesus Christ brings the Kingdom near. The life of the Church is the primary way that the Kingdom draws near, especially in the rites of Baptism and the Eucharist. The words of I Corinthians 11:26 are still true: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” The whole of the Eucharistic celebration has as its purpose to proclaim the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to make us participants in it. Can you think of a way in which the Kingdom could come closer? The first half of the worship service addresses the mind. In Creation God shared with us a particularly powerful intellect that perceives our surroundings, infuses them with meaning and changes them to match meanings that are beyond them. For example, why do we build our houses on straight lines and right angles? We believe down deep inside that straight lines and right angles are innately true, right and beautiful. So we value straight streets running north-south or east-west (except in San Antonio,) and we build square houses with square rooms, and we sit in straight benches and face liturgical “east,” constructing even our relationships along straight lines and right angles. My beautiful wife grew up in Africa. For Africans circles are true, right and beautiful. They build round houses in round villages and sit around in circles, defining their relationships in terms of family circles. Indeed we create our world after the image of our minds. Therefore, the forming of the mind is of deeply spiritual concern. We are not at liberty to create reality after our own broken image, as Adam and Eve did when they ate the apple. As Christians we must build our world in the image of the One in whose image we are made. Paul, in Philippians 2, says, ”Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus….” We form our minds after the mind of Christ and we will build our worlds after the kingdom of Christ. The Ministry of the Word forms our minds: In it we read from the old Testament—the history of how others have been formed by the Spirit of Christ; from the Psalms—songs that reminds us that worship forms our thinking in ways teaching never can; from the Epistles—the Apostolic teaching about how to have the mind of Christ; and from the Gospel—the story of Jesus so we might know what the mind of Christ looks like. And we respond: In the Nicene Creed we accept the church’s definition of Christ, in the prayers of the people we express the mind of Christ for our lives, in the confession we measure our behavior by the mind of Christ, and in the Peace we commit ourselves to living the mind of Christ with one another. The ministry of the Table addresses the heart. Jesus preached that the Kingdom had come near. Paul says in Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God.” The word “image” is the Greek word “eikon,” from which we get “icon.” On the computer, when you click on that little square with a “W” in it you get—Microsoft Word. Behind the icon lies the program. Well, when you click on Jesus you get—God. Behind Jesus lies the Kingdom of God. When Jesus comes near the Kingdom comes near. The mystery of the Table is that we offer to God who we are, and He responds with who He is. We lay on the altar the bread of human existence and the wine of the human spirit. We ask that by the death and resurrection of Christ these things be transformed into the very presence of Christ, His Body and His Blood. We ask that by consuming them we might consume that Presence and be transformed by it, and then in faith we find that He answers. When Jesus comes near the Kingdom comes near. Now here is the good part: Whereas the death and resurrection of Christ happened in this temporal realm about 27 A.D, the spiritual reality of the death and resurrection of Christ is an ongoing timeless truth in heaven. Imagine, if you will, the wonder of God, at our invitation and invocation, intersecting our world here and now, in this temporal and passing world, with the eternal and unchanging reality of the death and resurrection of Christ, and lets us touch that eternal reality by consuming His spiritual body and blood under the temporal elements of bread and wine! When Jesus comes near the Kingdom comes near. No one who came close to Jesus ever left the same. And if that was true in His earthly body 2000 years ago, how much truer it is of His spiritual body now! Coming close to Christ effects a change in us, whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not. Our part comes in how we respond to that change. We can walk out of church and ignore it, deciding that it is all just foolishness, and, according to today’s Epistle reading, side ourselves with those who are perishing. Or we can walk out of church and choose to live in the Kingdom of God come close to us, and find that it is the power of God in those who are being saved. Our post-communion prayer calls us to the latter, and our dismissal commissions us for it. The whole of Church is about Christ’s presence bringing the Kingdom close to you to transform you and empower you to transform your world. If you leave wondering why you ever came to church in the first place perhaps it doesn’t have as much to do with the preacher or the choir as with your own decision on what to do with what you are given. If you leave enthused to live in the power of the Kingdom then no matter what the preacher said, no matter what hymns you sang, you have heard the voice of Christ calling you to leave the beach and follow Him. Truly the Kingdom has come near. Are you going to take that transforming presence into the world and fish for the hearts and souls of men and women, or are you going to turn away and walk back down the beach into your own foolish life? Fr. Paul Moore+
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