The Flow of Grace

The Flow of Grace

-Being Graceful Citizens of The Kingdom of God-

Matthew 18.21-35

DBC 8-27-06

Are there obstacles to receiving God’s grace? If so, we need to identify them because theKingdom of God requires that we become graceful people.

We’re to seek to live as graceful citizens of the kingdom of God in this world.

In our immediate world

In the our extended world

What would that look like?

The flow of grace is exhibited in forgiveness, peace, and acceptance (inclusion) toward our neighbors, locally and globally. We, as followers of Christ, are like taps of grace; we’re to be tapped into the God of grace and let grace flow freely out of our lives to all we come into contact with.

What does grace look like when it flows out of the follower of Christ? Grace takes the shape of the Kingdom of God: Peace, Love, Joy, Acceptance and Forgiveness.

When I was a kid I use to get the Labor and Memorial holidays mixed up. I was always unsure which month each occurred in, September and May or vice versa. Nowadays, September is no longer just the month of Labor Day; it’s also a month for memorial as well. We are now charged with remembering the awful destruction of Katrina and Rita from last year and also still (and forevermore) the painful recent memory of the 911 terrorist attacks of 2001.

A few days following 911, I went to be a part of a prayer/support rally to lead one of the public prayers that nearby neighborhood sponsors had requested. There was a big banner that people were signing and writing prayers and encouragements on for the victims of the terrible 911 terrorist attacks. As I was passing the banner, I noticed a third grader that was kneeling down and scribbling out his message; I watched, in disbelief, the little boy write out, “We will find and kill the people who did this.”

Similarly, the other day I read about an East Texas Baptist preacher during a stump speech in support of Israel rattle off, “We Will not turn the other cheek!” (Christian Century, August 2006)

Are these kind of attitudes fit for followers of Christ, members of the Kingdom of God?

Today’s scripture tells a story of how the follower of Christ and citizen of the Kingdom of God should show grace in this world and life.

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

[Peter, as we mentioned before, has always strikes me as a strong guy that would never back down form a fight. It’s noteworthy that he is the one who asks Jesus this question concerning forgiveness. It’s also noteworthy that he’s inquiring about how many times he should forgive his covenant brother (fellow Jew).

It amazes me how hard it is for some Christians to be graceful to each other, much less those outside of the church. Holding grudges and having grace cannot coexist in the follower of Christ. Christ calls us to be graceful, peaceable, and forgiving towards all inside and outside of the church.

Peter generously recommends 7 times of forgiving the same brother for his offenses. The Babylon Talmud commanded three times (three strikes and you’re out). Jesus says 77 times or in another translation (NKJV) 70 times 7. Was Jesus literally saying to forgive 491 times? Jesus was speaking using the tool of exaggeration to make the point that his followers of his Father’s Kingdom should always be forgiving and graceful people.]

23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

[Looking back over the last three Sundays I’ve noticed how the subject of the kingdom of God has repeatedly come up. A few Sundays ago, the sermon was about running after peace (1 Peter 3.8-12); it very well could have been subtitled “The Peaceable Kingdom of God.” A couple of Sundays ago, the sermon was about the end of all things and with that we acknowledged that announcing the end of all things was really a way of announcing the beginning of God’s kingdom (God’s kingdom is here and now). And last Sunday the sermon was about how the Kingdom of God is spacious and how the host of the great banquet invited in all who could not heal (save) themselves (Luke 14.21).

The Kingdom of God was the new Gospel that Jesus was proclaiming and ushering into reality.

The Kingdom of God is the true follower of Christ’s heartbeat.

The Kingdom of God is the true follower of Christ’s a life-mission.

The Kingdom of God is the true follower of Christ’s heart’s prayer. “Your Kingdom Come and your will be done.”]

24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. [600 Talents was the yearly tax in Southern Palestine; so 10,000 Talents would be roughly 16 and half years of taxes.]

25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

[Pity can be translated compassion. Christ was compassionate and we should be too; that’s an expression of grace.

There is a peace and power in the letting go of grudges and debts in life. When your heart is empty of bitterness, grace can overflow in your life bringing the greatest sense of peace, love, and joy. When you let go of past offenses, grudges, and bitterness you then can experience God’s grace. Bitterness has a way of enslaving the one who holds grudges in their life.

A hundred denarii was the equivalent of 100 days of wages; so it was no small debt in and of itself.]

He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. 29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' 30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

In order to receive God’s grace we need to be willing to be graceful ourselves; to receive God’s forgiveness we need to be willing to forgive (Matthew 6.16). In fact, God’s grace transforms us into a graceful and forgiving people the more and more we yield to God’s grace.

I was thinking of what God’s grace in action, in the flow of this life, would look like in the church or the community of followers of the way of Christ in this world.

There is a character in the book, The Story We Find Ourselves In that is preaching the Sunday following 911:

“It Strikes me that what we’re learning about terrorist cells has something to tell us about what it means to be a community of faith. Terrorist cells involve small groups of people secretly banding together, willing to give their lives for their cause, plotting how they can spread fear and violence to achieve their own ends. In much the same way, but with completely different motivation, the church brings cells of committed people, willing to give their lives for God’s mission, plotting a spiritual revolution of God’s love and hope and reconciliation to achieve God’s dream.” (McLaren, The Story We Find Ourselves In, 135)

Grace Enough For Charlie Brown

Grace Enough For Charlie Brown
-The Graceful Kingdom of God-
Ephesians 2.1-10;II Peter 3.18

Looking back over the last three Sundays I’ve notice how the subject of the kingdom of God has repeatedly come up. A few Sundays ago, the sermon was about running after peace (1 Peter 3.8-12); it very well could have been subtitled “The Peaceable Kingdom of God.” A couple of Sundays ago, the sermon was about the end of all things and with that we acknowledged that announcing the end of all things was really a way of announcing the beginning of God’s kingdom (God’s kingdom is here and now). And last Sunday the sermon was about how the Kingdom of God is spacious and how the host of the great banquet invited in all who could not heal (save) themselves (Luke 14.21).

Last Sunday’s sermon, in particular, was really a sermon about God’s gracious invitation extended to people who are broken and needy, broken and needy people that know their sin and great need for forgiveness.

Today, I sense the need to carry on with the theme of God’s grace and God’s graceful kingdom.

I have in mind Charlie Brown from the Peanuts cartoon strip. Charlie Brown is the cartoon proverbial everyman; he’s the opposite of Superman. In fact, he’s a mess: he’s already bald as a child and apparently owns only one t-shirt that he wears over and over in every cartoon strip he’s in.

There’s a one particular Peanuts cartoon where he approaches Lucy at her 5-five-cent advice booth. She says to Charlie Brown:

“Life is like a deck chair; on the cruise ship of life, some people place the deck chair at the rear of the cruise ship so that they can see where they’ve been. Others place their chair at the front of the ship so that they can see where they’re going. Which way is your deck chair facing?”

Charlie Brown dejectedly replies, “I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded.”

I often fill like Charlie Brown. When life gets out of hand and the future is so distant and the past continues to linger and when the now is unpredictable we need God’s grace.

The more we live, the more we realize that life is not organized or as predictable as we once might have thought that it is or hoped that it would be. At our most honest moments we realize how weak we are and how fragile and complex life and this world is.

Christianity is for people who are know that their lives are messy and broken.

Christianity is for all the Charlie Browns who know that they are undone and can’t get it together.

In order for us to receive God’s grace we have to know that we are desperately in need of God’s grace and that it’s something that is able to transform our lives.

Grace transforms, it doesn’t merely cover up our mess; it requires that one is honest and desiring to be a graceful person toward others and all of God’s creation in return.

To receive God’s grace we must first know that we desperately need God’s grace and that we are a broken people who cannot save ourselves alone. Paul wrote:

1-As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2-in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3-All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4-But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5-made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

God’s grace gently and persistently pursues us.

Anne Lamott writes of her conversion experience in her book, Traveling Mercies. Just prior to her conversion she was an utterly defeated alcoholic and drug abuser. Just prior to her realization of Christ loving her she had had an abortion and was severely bleeding. she remembered her conversion this way:

After a while, as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner, and I just assumed it was my [dead] father, whose presence I had felt over the years when I was frightened and alone. The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there--of course, there wasn't. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus. I felt him as surely as I feel my dog lying nearby as I write this.

And I was appalled. I thought about my life and my brilliant hilarious progressive friends, I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed utterly an impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, "I would rather die."

I felt him just sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love, and I squinched my eyes shut, but that didn't help because that's not what I was seeing him with.

Finally I fell asleep, and in the morning, he was gone.

This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition, born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then, everywhere I went, I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever. So I tried to keep one step ahead of it, slamming my houseboat door when I entered or left.

And one week later, when I went back to church, I was so hungover that I couldn't stand up for the songs, and this time I stayed for the sermon, which I just thought was so ridiculous, like someone trying to convince me of the existence of extraterrestrials, but the last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling--and it washed over me.

I began to cry and left before the benediction, and I raced home and felt the little cat running along at my heels, and I walked down the dock past dozens of potted flowers, under a sky as blue as one of God's own dreams, and I opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there for a minute, and then I hung my head and said, " . . . I quit." I took a long deep breath and said out loud, "All right. You can come in."

So this was my beautiful moment of conversion. (Traveling Mercies, 49-50)

We must know that we are a broken people and that we can’t help ourselves alone in order to receive God’s Grace.

We must surrender to God’s grace and surrendering to God’s grace means that we realize that our lives no longer are our own but they belong to God.

Paul continues:

6-And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7-in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8-For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

What does that mean, it is the gift of God?

In the Greek it means a present. But it’s like a birthday or Christmas present; it’s a sacrificial offering; it’s a costly and sacred gift of life.

I thought of an earthly comparison that might help us relate to how sacred and special God’s gift of grace is:

When I was doing hospital chaplain work (cpe) I spent a lot of time with heart patients. One time I made a visit with a man who was recovering from a heart attack. Most of the time my conversations with heart patients involved gratitude for life and a realization that everything in life is fragile and that things in their life, specifically their health and way of life, had to change. This man, however, felt that his heart attack was an inconvenience and gave no hint of any need for grace or changing his way of life; all he could think of was his list to do at the office.

I knew another heart patient; in fact, she was heart transplant patient. She was in her early 20’s and she knew how precious and fragile life is. She received her new heart as gift of grace.

Grace is something that you treasure and that you allow to transform you.

Grace is something that you let wash over you and fill your life.

Grace is God’s sacrificial gift, Jesus, that he lavishes on those who know that they are broken, undone, messy, ruined, sinful, and who desperately want a new lease on life, forgiveness for their past and a living hope for their future.

Paul continued:

9-not by works, so that no one can boast. 10-For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The Latin, and eventually English, word poem originates from the Greek word used here for workmanship.

People washed in God’s grace become God’s poem.

U2 has a song entitled grace:

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain

It could be her nameGrace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma

When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips

She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

There are two lines that strike me in that song:

1. She travels out side of Karma. Grace is underserved and it doesn’t play by the rules of karma. Karma is getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don’t deserve. We’d be in deep trouble if Karma were our final Judge.

2. Grace makes beauty out of ugly things. When it comes to humanity all that God has to work with is ugly and messy lives. God’s saves sinners. God forgives evil wicked people. God’s grace makes beauty out of ugly things, because that’s all he has to work with. We are sinners and sin is not beautiful.

Grace transforms and doesn’t allow us to remain ugly or in the ugliness of sin. Peter says, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.

There is grace enough for you and Charlie Brown; there is grace enough for the most sinful and wicked of us; there exists grace greater than all of our sin.

Full Plates and Empty Seats

The Kingdom of God

-Full Plates and Empty Seats-

August 13, 2006 DBC; LK 14.15-24

The context of Luke 14.15-24 is set at a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee (14.1).

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

[One of the dinner guests reveals the Pharisees’ exclusive perception of the kingdom of God. This attitude continually plagues Christianity; in the early church the first Jewish Christians excluded the converted Gentile Christians from fellowship (Acts 15).

Self-righteous believers are always taking the party out of the kingdom of God.

Self-Righteous believers seek to take away the grace, forgiveness, openness, and acceptance from the kingdom of God.]

16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

[The indulgence in affairs, pleasures, and business of this world prevent people from making the kingdom of God a priority. There is a similar phenomenon (indulgence with the affairs of this world) with devotion to Christ within his church.

Too many believers seem to have too little time for God and the things of God.]

19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'

20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'

21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

[The kingdom of God is extended to those who can’t help (save) themselves. Jesus came to seek and save the lost (like Zacchaeus LK 19.10). The scandal of the kingdom of God, in the eyes of the self-righteous, was that it was extended to sinners; “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you [because they truly repented]” (LK 21.31).

We are saved by grace; grace is what “gets us into” the kingdom of God. Don’t bring your résumé, list of accomplishments or important credentials to the kingdom of God thinking that God will let you on your stellar merit; grace is how we are accepted by God into his fellowship and grace is how we should accept others into our fellowship.]

[I’ve love the true story that Tony Campolo tells about a late night experience he had (I’ve read it in several sources). One night in one of his travels he was caught in a different time zone and could not fall asleep. Late in the night he wandered over to a downtown doughnut shop. When he sat down, some local prostitutes ventured into the doughnut shop. He overheard their conversation: One of them, named Agnes, said to the other, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday; I’m gonna be 39.” The other prostitute snapped back, “So what do you want from me! Do you want me to throw you a birthday party or something!”? Agnes sadly replied, “You don’t have to be mean about it. I was just saying that it was going to be my birthday tomorrow. I don’t expect anything from you. I’ve never had a birthday party my whole life, so why would I start having one now?”

After they left, Tony asked the manager if the ladies came to the doughnut shop every night. The manager replied that they were regulars every night. Tony got an idea and asked the manager if they wanted to throw a surprise party for Agnes the next night. The manager and his wife were excited about the idea; the next night, in preparation, they put up birthday streamers and party decorations in the doughnut shop. They had a cake with candles in place and Agnes’s name on it.

When Agnes and the other girl came in, everyone in the doughnut shop yelled out, “Surprise!” Agnes was stunned; she couldn’t believe it. All of the doughnut patrons began to sing happy birthday to her. Agnes began to sob and could barely blow out the candles. She was invited to cut the cake, but she hesitated. She asked if she could just keep the cake for a while and savor the moment. She left the doughnut shop carefully holding and guarding the birthday cake like a priceless treasure.

After Agnes abruptly left, the crowd didn’t quite know what to do. Tony offered to lead a prayer for Agnes with the remaining group. The manager remarked that he didn’t know that Tony was a preacher and asked what kind of church Tony represented. Tony answered the manager; “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3 in the morning.”

The manager could not believe it. "No you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there were I’d join it. Yep I’d join a church like that!" (Retold in part from McLaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus, 145-146)]

22 "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' " OR [Verse 24 message] “I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.'"

[The Christian’s compulsion is the Love of God: “For Christ’s love compel us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” (2 Cor 5.14)

The kingdom of God is open to all who know they are sinners and desire change in their lives. The door is narrow to the kingdom of God; but, Jesus, who is the door, himself goes out to seek and save the lost (Lk 19.10). Jesus said, “People will come from the east and west and north and south will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Luke 13.29-30)

The kingdom of God is a party with full plates enough for all at the table, but there are many empty seats awaiting those whom are still invited. The kingdom of God is a full and forgiven life that God offers and that he starts here and now. The kingdom of God is for those who are made clean and invited by the host of the party.

How do we, in the church, reflect God’s gracious invitation to his kingdom party?

The End Of All Things Is Near

The End Of All Things Is At Hand

1 Peter 4.7-11; Mk 1.15; Luke 17.21

Peter utters a phrase that so many self-proclaimed end time prophets (more like end time profiteers) have built a shallow, but lucrative, ministry out of. Peter warns that, “the end of all things is near;” another translation reads, “Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up . . .”

Even with a cursory reading of the New Testament, one will observe that its writers believed that Christ’s return to this world was imminent. So, were Peter and the other NT writers, two thousand years since, wrong in their end time pronouncements?

Before I address that question, I must share a grave pastoral burden of mine: I’m gravely concerned for so many believers that are so easily programmed and influenced by smooth, fanciful and forceful Middle East prophetic rhetoric.

Among many Evangelicals there even exists doom’s day delight in the current wars happening in the Middle East; that is, there are believers that are happy about the current wars because they believe that those wars are ushering in the End Times and the 2^nd Coming of Christ.

“At the center of it all is Pastor John Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. While Hagee has long prophesized about the end times, he ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West.

When addressing audiences receptive to Scriptural prophecy, however, Hagee welcomes the coming confrontation. He argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia's leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel, leading to an "inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon.’” (Sarah Posner)

Bruce Prescott recently expressed his concern:

“Theological and exegetical incompetents who roll out their end-times charts and impersonate fortune-tellers for their gullible followers might be considered harmless.

When they roll into Washington and lobby to have the government launch wars to fulfill their warped fantasies, they are dangerous.

These warmongering Evangelicals do not faithfully represent the Prince of Peace.”

Lets get back to better understanding Peter’s pronouncement, “The end of all things is at hand.” First, I think putting Peter’s statement in context with Jesus teaching is paramount to our understanding of Peter’s end time’s phrase.

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God, in a real way, is already here. Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel;” or as another translation reads, “Time’s up! God’s Kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” (MK 1.15)

Was Peter wrong or are we looking for the Kingdom of God in the wrong places and wrong ways?

One time, the Pharisees cornered Jesus on the topic of the coming kingdom of God; Jesus told them:

“The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here! Or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.” Or “The kingdom of God is within you.” (LK 12.20-21)

The kingdom of God is not merely an external destination; it’s an ever present and internal growing seed. The Kingdom of God is within the Believer and its fruit becomes evident by the Believer’s prayers, showed love, kind hospitality and ministry toward others (1 Peter 4. 7b-11).

Too many have made the End Times into a single geographical and external sensational event, when really the biblical End Times are more about the advent of a new era and reign, namely the kingdom of God within our hearts and faith.

It’s harmful to look and see the kingdom of God as solely an external happening. Like the Pharisees, we are tempted to pride ourselves in outward appearances and actions. Not just in our culture and era, but also over all human history:

Humanity has been obsessed with outward beauty over inward purity.

We have also been infatuated with external material possessions more than internal and inner character and integrity.

Our human nature has become so distracted by superficial and outer concerns, so much so, that our human notions of God and God’s kingdom have all been reduced (perverted) to outside works of righteousness, appearances and events (Pharisees).

God looks at the heart and humans have judged life upon outer appearances. This is why the Pharisees and others were rocked (shocked) when Jesus said, “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you [because they truly repented].” (LK 21.31)

The Kingdom of God is a present reality; however, there also seems to be a future and fuller realization as well.

I do believe that future realization and manifestation of the kingdom of God is partly up to our faith actions. That is, that this present world system is rapidly passing away and that the Kingdom of God is coming into sharper and clearer focus, more and more, with each act of sacrificial love, pursuit of peace, heartfelt prayer, and immediate acts of obedience by Christians to Christ.

Brian McLaren states that, “this kingdom [of God] advances slowly, quietly, under the surface—like yeast in dough, like seed in soil. It advances by faith: when people believe it is true, it becomes true. And it advances with reconciling, forgiving love: when people love strangers and enemies, the kingdom [of God] gains ground.” (The Secret Message of Jesus, 32)

Now Peter would later write that the timing of the fruition of the kingdom of God is somewhat relative:

“There is no difference in the Lord’s sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants all to turn away from their sins.” (2 Peter 3.8-9)

Peter in considering that the end of all things is near, seems to admonish believers to hearken the Kingdom of God’s full arrival with inner faith expressed through fruits of prayer, sacrificial love, kind hospitality and ministry toward others (1 Peter 4. 7b-11).

Today, we break bread and observe the Lord’s Supper. Jesus once said the Kingdom of God is like yeast (MT 13.33). Yeast works its way through the flour and over time and within the right conditions the yeast causes the dough to rise and then bread occurs.

The kingdom of God received by faith into your life, works its way through your heart, mind, spirit and life. But we have to receive it and let it work into our lives. It’s a subversive action and often we are unaware of its transformation. There are times, nevertheless, when we pray, sacrificially love others, and continually submit our lives to the reign of Christ then we can perhaps glimpse into the very nature and person that is the Kingdom of God, Jesus our Lord.