This post, by Heather Weir, is a reflection on the “In the Name of Jesus” sermon as part of the “In the Name of Jesus” sermon series.
I work as a bookseller. Sometimes people come into my store and talk to me about their whole lives, often much more than I want to know. A couple of weeks ago a young man came into my store and as he talked to me, it became clear that he was raised in a Christian home. Prayer is important to his mother, he told me. But it was also clear that prayer is not important to him. He told me his wish was that he would get to be 50 and be the guy that his wife left and his kids hated because he worked such long hours. He could imagine being that guy. I found this a sad imagined future and expressed some doubt that this was what he really wanted from life. He assured me that it was. He could see it, and he was willing to work for it. But his goal for life sounded like bad news to me.
Elaine reminded us on Sunday that the gospel, the good news that Jesus preached, that he commissioned his disciples to preach, is that the Kingdom of God has come near. The Kingdom of God has come near. God’s kingdom, if you can imagine it, is an upside down kingdom, a kingdom that is not at all like the kingdoms of this world. In her sermon, Elaine described the kingdom of God as “a kingdom that is about shalom, about peace, about wholeness, about inclusion, about dignity and worth and personhood, a kingdom where those who are on the margins become the centre, those who are least become the most and those who are last become first.”
I often wonder if I have any idea at all what the Kingdom of God actually looks like. I wonder if I impose my ideas of what the good life is on the phrase, and then think, well, it must be like that. But I am pretty sure that many of my ideas of the good life come from a culture that is broken. Some of my ideas about what is good are probably not actually good, but are bad news, just like the vision of the future described by the young man in my store. Fortunately, the stories of the gospels help to correct my bad news ideas and replace them with good news.
The good news is the kingdom of God has already come near. It is visible in unexpected places and spaces. You and I are ambassadors of this kingdom, its representatives on earth. We are the messengers of peace, of reconciliation, of grace, of love. When joy breaks out, the kingdom of God is visible. Can you imagine it? This is a future to work for – God’s kingdom come on earth as in heaven. Imagine that.