Upholding the Kingdom

Every so often I like to take a “time out” to reflect on ministry. Not just about where I have been and where I need to go. I try to reflect on what I have learned and what I still need to learn. I consider what I have taught and what I still need to teach to those who are around me. What do they need to hear, to see and to experience?

The Gospel lesson this week helps us to focus our personal and our corporate missions and to, as someone once wisely said, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” It is a lesson that we as people and we as Church need to keep on learning over and over again. We are called to announce the kingdom to the people, places and spaces that we find ourselves connected to and with. We are commissioned to go to our appointed places and spaces and uphold the kingdom and its values, constantly and consistently that people and places would know that the kingdom of God is real and true.

So how do we do this – how do we uphold the kingdom? First we need to recognize that we are sent people, as those disciples were. We are sent before the Lord’s “flinty” face to prepare is way because he is coming to them and he will visit and redeem them. And we are sent “without” guarantee of success and security of person. Ministry makes us vulnerable. We are sent without budgets, strategic plans; without libraries and computers. We are sent into hardship and into danger like lambs amongst a pack of wolves. We proclaim our scarcity though our learning to depend on God and lean on each other to provide the things that are needed for ministry to the people of the places and spaces.

And in the going we are to take the peace we have with God to other people. When we enter a country, a city, a home we are to pray God’s shalom over each and every country, city and home we enter. We do so not just to try and remove the wrong but also to pray in the abundance of God’s blessing and justice so that the wrong and the sin cannot displace the good God intends to offer. We are to keep in front of us at all times, that we are about the kingdom and God’s business. We are to uphold the kingdom and its life.

We also learn about how to deal with people’s reactions to the kingdom being announced. If we are not heeded – move on and take nothing with you – not even the dust on your shoes. Leave it behind so that it does not stay with you. Ministry is about making the kingdom and its life known and available to others. We are christened into this. We are not responsible for being successful nor for the failures do we experience. What we must be is faithful and learn to leave the rest to God almighty. This Church, this city cannot afford a “no biggy Gospel”. If the message we share with others is true and if it is real, then it is a big deal because it is life giving and we need to share it with those we find around us.

We have a unique role for each other and with each other. We are entrusted with the Good News of God in Christ: that God is visiting and redeeming his people. The word of God is living and active in this city and that it is incarnational (that it has flesh and bone). We are being drawn into this flesh and bone ministry of God to help birth a new generation of Christians in Canada and for the world. We are to be humble and possess humility so that as we encounter others, they can respond, be transformed and live the life of the kingdom with us and never be the same again.

So what can we accomplish for the kingdom of God in the next week?

Jason+