Henry David Thoreau once wrote: “We are still being born and have as yet but a dim vision.”
Often it is hard to see beyond the immediate challenges of each day in order to experience a vision of the coming tomorrows! “One day at a time, sweet Jesus, one day at a time.”
But God sees and knows the yesterdays and the tomorrows, our history and our future. He, before whom a thousand days, is but as yesterday, sees how things will turn out and both his message to you and the message of his church to you is that you will like the end of the story. You will be pleased with how things ultimately and finally work out. It becomes my task to help you see more clearly the coming future, to help us all visualize the coming kingdom. It is time for a new vision and the modern world is in desperate need for a new vision.
Now you have heard the Lord’s Prayer read from a section of the scripture called, “The Sermon On the Mount.” (Matthew 6:8-13) It is noteworthy to call to your attention that the most ancient of Greek manuscripts ends the prayer with the phrase “deliver us from evil.” That’s it, period. It ends with the recognition of the presence of evil. Yet, Sunday after Sunday, when you pray this prayer in worship, we together conclude with the words not: “deliver us from evil,” but “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”
What you discover as you read the Bible is that these concluding words of the Lord’s prayer are not even in the Bible, but in a very tiny footnote at the bottom of the page following Matthew 6:13 are the words: “Some ancient authorities add in some form, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.”
These words were probably added around the end of the 1st Century after Christ. Here this memorized phrase, which we use every Sunday in worship, is an added phase to the lips of Jesus. The Church had gone through some difficult years of persecution at the end of the1st Century.
The final book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, was written around the same time, toward the end of the reign of the Emperor Domitian. It was the time in which the disciples were persecuted and John was in prison on the Island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. Here he envisions a coming Kingdom where evil is destroyed and cast in a lake of fire and God rules. So the scriptures ended with this vision of a coming Kingdom where evil would be dealt with in a final way. The Church was trying to say, “God will come and deal with evil.” Always has. Always will. “For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”
Therefore, the Church took it upon itself to top the Lord’s Prayer off with a theological doxology: “For thine is the Kingdom, power, and the glory forever.” And let the Church say, “Amen.”
I’m glad the Church did this, added the phrase, “For thine is the kingdom, power and glory,” because every Sunday we need to be reminded of this confident hope. Jesus didn’t end with the crucifixion. Deliver us from evil was not his last word, but glory, power forever and ever! Not crucifixion but resurrection.
It is so easy to be overwhelmed by the problems of today and to loose your energy for living. So for the Church, who has a longer perspective than any one-generation, it is important that in it we occasionally hear voiced and affirmed that God’s Kingdom is forever and ever.
So the Church in every generation says: “Your cries have been heard by God. Your tears have touched his heart and he will come to you to deliver you, for it is ultimately his kingdom, his power and his glory. Amen!”
This past year has been a hard year. September 11th. Living in terrorism’s shadow. We as a church have lost to death dear friends who have journeyed with us for years. I have lost the last of my blood family to death – cancer and old age has claimed them all. And I am tired. I think over this rather difficult and challenging year, all thinking people, caring people, Christian people have become tired.
When Mary McMillan was asked to leave Hiroshima, Japan, she came back to the states and worked in the refugee camps of the west. American citizens of Japanese descent were placed in political camps. The bomb was exploded and Mary heard nothing from her friends in Japan. She wrote in her diary, “I am tired.” Well, this has been a hard year for many of us. Most of us, if not all of us, are tired.
This morning, if down deep you are tired and find yourself praying that God will deliver us from evil, then that’s when the words from the church of hundreds of years ago will come to us with greatest meaning: “Thine is the kingdom, power and glory, and it will be so forever!”
It is time for the Church of today to speak more clearly of God’s Kingdom, which will enable the people to see beyond the problems of evil, beyond a society where one’s own needs are placed first, beyond what is and to see what God desires and is causing to happen. For some of you who are tired or whose situation is overwhelming it will be a real challenge for you to see beyond your own situation. Perhaps it will be next to impossible to get beyond your problems, so maybe the best thing you can do is just be still before God and wait and listen to the voices of those around you who finish the prayer from the Church’s perspective – “For thine is the Kingdom, power and the glory.”
It’s time for a new vision from the Church. A vision of God’s Coming Kingdom.
1. A Kingdom free of the weight of sin and evil. The coming Kingdom is a realm of existence in which you are free. Free of the mistakes of yesterday. Free of anger, free of ignorance of God’s saving power, free of the mistakes.
Jesus said: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, but if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Sometimes we carry with us the weight of mental, emotional, or physical problems. Our Church sponsors “Prism,” which is a Christian weight loss program. We have people coming to our church now who don’t carry the heavy weight they used to carry with them. They are more disciplined about putting food in their bodies that helps drive their energy than food that stores in their caboose.
A friend went backpacking in the wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He trained by putting weights in his backpack and walked with them on his back. The day came for the big adventure…
2. Kingdom without fear. Many persons are afraid of people not liking them, or of what the future may bring, afraid of their own shadow, afraid of dying. The Lord of the coming Kingdom says: “Do not be afraid, I have overcome the world and so will you.” Psalmist said: “Thou are the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.
3. A Kingdom, which is not based on our power and strength, but God’s.
The Apostle Paul must have known this strength for he wrote: “I can do all things, though Christ who strengthens me.
I like Billy Graham’s old story about the man who was to be electrocuted for murder. The morning of the execution arrived and the other inmates lined up to offer their last words of comfort. And as the poor fellow headed toward the electric chair one inmate said: “God bless you, Joe.” Another called out: “Good luck.” And the last man overcome with emotion blurted out: “More power to you, Joe!” The Church in the last addition to the Lord’s Prayer reminded us, “It’s God’s power.”
When I was a little boy, I would read the old Marvel comic books of the battles against evil of such characters as Spiderman and Captain Marvel. Just as Clark Kent, a nerdy newspaper reporter would later be able to be transformed into Superman, so a poor, orphaned boy by the name of Billy Bateson could be turned into Captain Marvel just by uttering one magical word: “Shazam!” Shazam was really an acronym for stating all the powers that Bateson received when he was transformed into Captain Marvel. Shazam stood for:
Solomon’s wisdom
Hercules’ strength
Achilles’ courage
Zeus’ power
Atlas’ stamina
Mercury’s speed
God sent the Holy Spirit as a powerful spirit, which came from the early disciples, beyond them into them to strengthen and energize and guide. And he still sends that same spirit. This power goes far beyond the minor gifts granted to Captain Marvel. The Holy Spirit enables the disciples of Jesus to move beyond the evil of today and to work for the coming Kingdom, which strangely enough is already present in our very lives.
4. Finally, there is a new vision coming to the church that encompasses all people everywhere. Our doors are always open…
Jesus had trouble with his Jewish disciples because it was difficult for them to see beyond themselves. They believed that Jesus was to establish a Jewish Kingdom. And when Jesus said to them, “I send you forth starting in Jerusalem but to all of Judea, and to Samaria, and all the nations of the world.” They could not grasp the implications of this new vision. All people everywhere. That’s the coming vision.
The Muslims make no room for Christians. The Jehovah Witness’ limit the number who will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The Christians make no space for Hindus. Liberal Protestants shake their heads at the spirited shenanigans of the Assemblies. And, Deep Water Baptist wonder about the validity of the salvation of those sprinkled with a little water. God must laugh at us all!
It is a time for a new vision, which encompasses all people. A Vision of a Church Family with Doors Wide Opened and Inviting and Welcoming All God's Children of All Ages.
Summary: It is not so much that the church has neglected to proclaim this vision of God’s coming Kingdom. It hasn’t neglected it, the people have just been too preoccupied to hear it, or too busy with other things. While some have no clue, others have gotten it:
John got it: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
Margaret Mead, a sociologist, got it as she wrote: “A small group of thoughtful, creative, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that always has.”
Rabbi Harold Kushner got it when he wrote his book, “A Life that Really Matters.”
Peter got it: “One day, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Maybe the problem is not with the church but with you. Maybe you haven’t gotten it, and if so, here it is: The Final Word Is Not Deliver Us From Evil, But Rather: For Thine Is The Kingdom, Power And Glory. Amen.
When I saw him, I saw it immediately; it was written all over his face-I'm tired, alone, jobless, homeless, unloved, unappreciated, helpless.
At various times in our earthly journey, we have all had similar feelings—perhaps in a small way, on the edge, not really included? Disenfranchised? Unloved? Unappreciated? As Charlie Brown is prone to say: "I don't have a single person that I can call my friend."
The Old Testament Scripture read today is a story of an individual who, in fact, was homeless, unloved, helpless, and on the edge of society and, who was "kicked out of society" along with her son. Her name was Hagar. She was a slave woman of the house of Abraham, and her son by Abraham was named Ishmael.
In these old stories in Genesis, is contained the origins of the great prophetic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They developed over long years of time with Judaism being the oldest perhaps as old as 4000 years ago, Christianity 2000 years ago and Islam the youngest 1600 years ago. In these stories is contained the origin of the Jewish and Arab people. All look back in these early beginnings and look to one common father: Father Abraham. So all are clearly cut from the same piece of geographical and anthropological clothes. Perhaps remembering this old story will help us better understand what is going on in the Middle East today and suggest a way out of one unholy mess.
When Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were advanced in years and Sarah went to bed early to sleep. They talked of a son, but no son ever came and so upon Sarah's suggestion, they worked out this arrangement where Abraham had a son with the Egyptian slave girl who lived in their home, Hagar. The son's name was Ishmael. But much to Sarah's amazement and Abraham's delight, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth also to a son, named???? Isaac. Good, you know this story…some of you know this story.
So now, Abraham who has been childless, now has two sons: Ishmael, the first born, and Isaac. But it is not long before the issue of the inheritance begins to cause mother Sarah some uneasiness to say nothing about her jealousness of the younger woman Hagar, and mother Sarah turns against Isaac's half brother Ishmael and demands that Abraham kick the slave and half-breed child out of the family. Which, Genesis' story tells us Abraham in fact did, without a great deal of mental anguish.
Kicked out of their own household, for no reason, other than the jealousy of Sarah concerning the place in the family of her son. Kicked out!
I can understand kicking out someone because they are not performing their duty or living up to the standards expected. I have seen military officers kicked out for “behavior unbecoming a gentleman,” CEO's kicked out for falsifying company balance sheets, Priests or ministers kicked out who have abused children or women, County Commissioners kicked out, for bribery or dishonesty. Drunks kicked out for being drunk.
There is in this world something, which says, "What goes around comes around." There is such a thing as justice or divine retribution or the law of consequences. You will get in like kind, what you give. And frankly I am glad there is such a law for it keeps us all within boundaries and within those boundaries usually we can find justice, peace and a structure where no one is unreasonably hurt.
But in this story before us today, there is a mother and a child kicked out not because they have done anything wrong, but because a wrong was done to them, and when this happens, there is a groaning from the Abyss of life.
Her Mother and child are left in the Judean desert to live or die on their own. Our Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, says that God hears the cry of this distraught mother and shows Hagar a well of water. The Koran, the Islamic Bible, contains this same story with a bit of embellishment of a picture of Hagar running back and forth between the mountains looking desperately for water and tripping over a rock which when moved, gushes forth a stream of water and she and Ishmael are miraculously saved.
Judaism traces their family heritage back to Father Abraham through his son Isaac and to this day the Jews are know as the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Islamic, Arabic people trace their ancestry back to father Abraham through his son Ishmael. And to this very day, the Mid Eastern struggle is nothing more nor less than a family feud, a real live Hatfield and the McCoy's family feud. The land is mine, says one son's family. The land is mine, says the other son's family. And the truth is somewhere between these two extreme positions. And the battle goes on, a family feud, with little intelligent reasoning, zero compassion, and a lot of hatred across the line. And now the Jews want to build a fence to keep "them" out. And the Palestinian girls, strap bombs to their bodies and everyone perpetuates this irrational hatred across the line of racial, religious, sociological differences.
Rather than dealing with the legal or political issues of the people of the Middle East today, let me draw from this story, the theological lesson of divine truth. Ishmael and Hagar were kicked out of Abraham's family, which was a very complicated family decision which has left battle scars for all these years, and, yet, although kicked out, Ishmael and Hagar were not beyond the love of God who called them into being. You can never be beyond the providence of God. Jesus said, “Consider the birds of the air, who neither keeps nor stores in barns, but God takes care of them.”
If you feel victimized, kicked out, on the edge, not having received your rightful inheritance, beyond hope, without energy to take another step, then perhaps you among all the peoples of the earth, need to hear this truth. Never can you be beyond the love of God. Never! He will come to you. In the desert, there will be a stream of living water. Never will you be deserted by the Creator. Come you who are thirsty for this truth, this reality. Come and drink from the fountain of the water of life without price. Come Drink.
As Jesus said, "not even a sparrow who falls to the ground is beyond the knowledge and love of God." An old hymn in our tradition voices this affirmation of spiritual truth:
His eye is on the sparrow and I know he cares for me.
His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.
I sing because I’m happy – I sing because I’m free.
For His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches me”.
When we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, we are free from the bondage of sin's destructive ways and enjoy the "fruits of the spirit" as God blesses us with abundance. To live in any other way is to live below your potential and to invite destruction into your life.
This is but one of the many wonderful times of the year when you appreciate the fact that we are privileged to live in Pensacola Florida. The warm soil and occasional rains produce fruits and vegetables in abundance. Corn, tomatoes and potatoes, beans and blueberries. So nice, the fruits of God's good earth. The rewards of cultivated crops on God’s good land.
About this time of the year, I recall the old story about the minister visiting a parishioner’s garden filled with the fruits of the productive earth and the minister says: "My, my, look what you and God have done with this beautiful garden.” And the gardener says: "Yes, but you should have seen it when God had it by himself." The old story implies that fruits of the earth don't just happen; they are the result of great effort and disciplined steady work. So also are their results of the effort and discipline of Christian commitment.
Much of the Apostle Paul's life was spent in a land area not so unlike our land and he also appreciated growing things and the fruits of the earth. Like Jesus, he drew illustrations of divine truth from common everyday things about him, and in a time of harvest he wrote of the fruits of the Christian Life: Galatians 5: "The Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Isn't that a nice basket of fresh fruit!!!
Love, joy, peace,
Patience, kindness, goodness,
Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control of what he calls the "works of the flesh" or the "wages of sin". You are either a slave to sin or alive to God, That's The Two Positions.
And the Apostle uses these "fruits of the spirit" to contrast the evidence or the other. And Paul is a real help here for he identifies the visible evidence of Being A Slave To Sin In The Following Explicit List: Cheap Sex, Trinket Gods, Magic Show Religion, Paranoid Loneliness, Cutthroat Competition, A Brutal Temper, Small Minded And Lopsided Pursuits, The Vicious Habit Of Depersonalizing Everyone Into A Rival, Uncontrolled And Uncontrollable Addiction". (Peterson in The Message)
The Apostle’s contrast of being dead to sin is a life in which you are alive to God, and Paul's visualization of what this kind of person experiences is as follows: "Affection For Others, An Exuberance About Life, Serenity, A Willingness To Stick With Things, A Sense Of Compassion In The Heart, And A Conviction That A Basic Holiness Permeates All Things."
You definitely want to be "alive to God", not dead to sin!
Well the season and the scriptures read this morning come together to point out to us that the disciplined Christian life will result in "the fruits of the Spirit” or as Jesus indicated: "Rewards of The Christian life".
So this morning we celebrate that our life in Christ results in at the least the following rewards:
1. The gift of aliveness or Exuberance about life now and after death.
2. The gift of Sanctification or Christ likeness.
3. The gift of freedom or a life beyond fear.
4. The gift of Fellowship or companionship with good people
I wish you could have known her as I had known her. She was so much alive, in love, and there was exuberance about everything. But there was a time when she was depressed and lethargic while other times she was anxious and off the wall. These devastating mood swings were kept in check with various medications but when I saw her there was a difference. I even asked: "Are you on a new medication?" And she said: "Yes, but there is something else, I have since I saw you committed my life to Jesus Christ,” and now there was a steadiness about her, a glow, a confidence.
It makes a difference when we surrender our life to Christ. The Apostle says: "You have passed from death to life when you are in Christ Jesus". As Paul says in Romans 6:11 "Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
When you are free in Christ you are free…Free of sin's seductive ways. Free of fear of being caught in some wrongdoing. Free of the fear of hell. Free of not measuring up. Free of making a mistake. When I am in Christ, I am Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I'm free at last.
You don't have to worry about whether or not you told the truth on one given occasion when you have a policy of truth telling. You are not afraid of breaking the law because you are not a lawbreaker. You are not going to get caught doing wrong, when you are not a wrongdoer. When you are in Christ, you are different!
And then there is the gift of fellowship with good people when we are in Christ. My graduate studies in Sigmund Freud are not necessarily pleasant memories but one insight was when he talked about two families of influence: "balcony influences and basement influences". The basement influences are persons who are negative about everything. They see clouds on sunlit days. They are the voices, which say things like "Be careful. You can't do that. You're dumb. You're not gifted like that." While the balcony influences say things like: "Go for it! You can do it. My money's on you. You are one super person."
Among the great gifts of the Christian walk, among the rewards of the Christian life, is that you are privileged to experience "balcony people". People who are always there for you and who believe in you and are always encouraging influences.
The rewards of the Christian walk await our commitment to Jesus Christ.
In Jerusalem on Mt. Zion, at the sight of the Jewish Solomon's temple, which is long gone, there is a beautiful mosque known as the Dome of the Rock. It is built around a rock on which tradition has it in the Old Testament story in Genesis, father Abraham took his son Isaac and was willing to sacrifice his son. God provided an alternative, which he seems always to do for his people, but the point of the story is not for us to do physical harm to ourselves or to our children in order to receive a payoff from God. Rather it illustrates the need for a radical commitment to following in the way of God, trusting that even in desperate situations that God will provide. He always has. He always will.
When the Muslims pray in the Dome of the Rock or any other place, they kneel and place their foreheads on the ground. This symbolizes for them the fetal position thus reminding the Muslims of their need to be reborn. The very name of their religion is Islam, which comes from the Arabic word meaning "surrender" or "commitment".
When we come to Christianity, such utter surrender has the possibility of opening our lives to God's blessings and such results or fruits or gifts as a sense of aliveness, freedom, Christ likeness and wonderful Christian friends. These are but a few of the gifts God gives to us. Identifiable rewards of the Christian walk.