Kingdom People

a Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on January 4, 2009 at St. Mary's Medical Center, based on Matthew 2:1-12.

Someone once facetiously suggested that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those that don’t.

Today we want to align ourselves with the first group and say that we believe that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe in God’s Kingdom and those who don’t.

“Kingdom People” believe in the Kingdom of God. They know that there is a God who has eternal power and a divine nature. They know that He is a mighty King, who has made the world and everything in it. They know that the Creator King made us and they know WHY we were created – to have communion with the King. Those who believe in the Kingdom know that every created thing in the world exists as “food’ to be eaten in order to sustain us in our lives; to enable and facilitate communion with God.

They also know that when Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit of the tree of The Knowledge of God and Evil, that they upset this God-ordained order and that as a result all things have been marred by the effects of their choices.

Kingdom People know that because all things have been marred by sin, all things must be restored – saved, or made whole. Since no human being has the requisite power or righteousness to do this restoration, we need a Savior – someone to come into our marred world system and save us.

It’s like the story of a little girl and her friends who were misbehaving at a party, much to the consternation of their parents. When confronted, this little wise soul said, “We’re being bad – and we don’t know how to quit.” (Quoted in “Acedia and Me”, by Kathleen Norris).

Kingdom people, or “Christians”, know that God helps us to quit being bad by saving us from ourselves. They know that the Bible records God’s righteous dealings with His people, in which He creates lopsided favorable Covenants with them, but that these same people fail to keep their end of the Covenant with God. We can actually think about Adam and Eve living under the first Covenant until they broke it through their gustatory rebellion. They had a perfect world with perfect freedom and they still ruined it!

After the Fall, God reiterates one Basic Covenant many times with our first parents and their successors: I will be your God and you will be my People. He says it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the Children of Israel wandering in the desert, to David and his house – and finally to us Christians. The history God’s Covenant-making recorded in the Bible shows us that God wants to create a Kingdom People for Himself; a people who will Worship Him as King, and who will enjoy His favor, protection and Love – on earth as it is in Heaven. He makes Covenants with us in order to woo us into a Love relationship with Him.

But over and over we demonstrate the sad truths that:

He likes to make Covenants - and we like to break them.

He wants “Kingdom People” - and we want our own little fiefdoms instead.

He wants our Love, and we give him Lip Service instead.

In our Gospel reading today, we meet the inscrutable Magi, the ‘three’ Wise men, who were “Kingdom People”. Even though they were not Jews, but astrologers, practitioners of magic and divination - most likely from Babylon - they were people who held a real Kingdom Mindset. The Magi had been trained to perceive, penetrate and interpret the mysteries of God’s dealings with man. Their worldview said, “We take for granted there is a God – or ‘gods’… and that God communicates with Man via the natural world.”

So when they saw a new star arise, they connected it with the Prophecy they had heard or read in the Hebrew Scriptures, that a Child would be born a King. The star obviously pointed to the birth of the King in the prophecy. This is completely normal and not to be seen as ‘breaking the laws of Nature”, but rather as the Sovereign King communicating with the Universe through the Stars – Star Mail if you will.

The Magi realized what the star meant and they took Gifts for the newborn King - much in the same spirit in which Cindy and I and Father Peter attended the inauguration of our new Mayor on Friday evening – or in the way people will attend the inauguration of the New President on January 20. You hear the news, you want to be part of the event and so you go – just like that.

The Wise men are wise in that they understood and accepted the interaction between God and the World. The creatures of the King respond to the Will and Communication of the King. That’s what we do. Since man is made to worship, the Wise Men went to worship the King. Nothing could be more natural.

Now Herod, on other hand represents the group of people in our second group – those who are not Kingdom People, those who are rather building their own kingdoms here on earth. We could call them ‘secular humanists’, or ‘Worldlings’. Worldlings know there are Religious people out there and that there is a Religious Establishment to be reckoned with. But the Worldling ignores the reality of God, choosing to respond to God’s followers as a political constituency. Herod the Worldling knew there was power in religion – but since he perceived it as political and not Personal and Divine, he did not go to worship the Baby along with the Magi. His desire to find out from the Wise men where the Christ child was born was only a ploy in order to do the exact opposite, to kill the Christ.

Herod represents the ‘secular’ or autonomous man, who may recognize and utilize religion, but who does not give heed to the personal claims that the King makes upon Him. He is a Realist, who makes a split between religion and politics; religion and “Life”. His worldview says:
“It’s fine for people to have their religious ideas, but don’t become fanatical about it; don’t even begin to think about living your life in view of religious ideals. And whatever you do, don’t let religion diminish your personal and political power. Lets’ keep those two things separate!”

Herod is ruthless and not to be trusted. As James Taylor sings in his song “Home by Another Way”, “…a king that will slaughter the innocents will not cut a deal for you…” He is a man hell-bent on building his own kingdom – and he’s nasty to boot!

We look at Herod and we may not identify with him. He’s too evil; we just can’t relate. But what about Herod’s essential secular outlook? … his defacto acceptance of the ‘natural’ world as the ‘real’ world? What about our own tendency to be blindly pushed along by this world without ever really questioning it?

I got a neat gadget for Christmas, a digital photo frame, and I spent a fair amount of time the other day trying to figure it out. First I had to ponder the slogan on the cover of the User Manual: “Technical Achievement Pleasure”. Then, I opened the manual read the following: “Settle a space in a twinkling at your happy time! Need not a computer, need not to hurdle to print, re-appear fascinating appearance at any time!” When the instructions went on to advise me to read the Product Usage Manual as soon as possible, I knew I was in trouble. After a good deal of juggling, I did get some pictures to appear, but could not for the life of me figure out how to prevent the picture from rotating 90 degrees when I pushed the advance button…

On Friday, I tried to install a printer on my wife’s Macintosh IBook, only to find out that the operating system was too old to accommodate the newer printer software. I called the customer punishment hotline and the chirpy young lady helped me realize I had entered Terminal Digital Darkness and that I should buy a new computer! AAUGH!

My daughter sent me her husband’s perfectly good cell phone because he got an upgraded model – I took one look at it and through up my hand's in despair!

Isn’t it just so easy to be swept along by the demands of our technologically-driven culture and allow ourselves to become droids or pawns of our culture rather than speaking into the culture? I know it is for me. I suspect it’s so for you too.

Although we may not see ourselves aligned with Herod’s evil scheming, don’t we often act as Worldlings when it comes to obeying our technology in our daily lives?

The danger is that by living closely aligned with the kingdom of this world, we become fleshly, or ‘carnal’ in nature and we become spiritually dense, unable to discern the things of the Lord. This is not a contemporary problem per se. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians ( I Cor. 3:1) “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.”…

To turn around a phrase, we can become so worldly minded that we’re no heavenly good. Really, we’re not even any earthly good at that point either.

In the second letter to the Corinthians (6:16), Paul challenges believers in this way:
“What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

To bring it over into our terms, Paul is challenging the Corinthians to become “Kingdom People” - those who have a vision for the Kingdom of God to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In a Word, to be Transformed.

Transformation is not an option, it’s a command. “Do not be conformed to this World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”, says Paul in Romans 12:2.”

The Divine Experiment.

In order to obey this command, we as a church will participate with six other churches in the Divine Experiment January 11 through February 1. We’ll have a pre-experiment seminar with Rhonda Hughey, Friday January 9 and 10 in which she gives us an overview and specific suggestions about how to make the most of this Divine Experiment.

During this time, we’ll observe what’s known as a “Daniel Fast” – that is, a time of limiting our diet and our engagement with certain aspects of ‘the World System” – notably our addiction to materialism, busyness and entertainment.

Each one of you will receive today a booklet subtitled, “Stepping over the EDGE for God. The acronym EDGE stands for the statement: “We covenant to EARNESTLY seek the face of God, trusting in His DIVINE GUIDANCE to carry us where He wants us to go, continuing with EXPECTANCY that God will bring transformation.”

Included with the booklet is a card you can sign and date, stating before God your commitment to the Divine Experiment, which will serve as a reminder to you during these three weeks.

Next Sunday, you’ll be receiving a Divine Experiment prayer guide that contains themes for each week and each day of the Experiment.

Fr. Peter will preach next week, further preparing our hearts for what God might do during this experiment.

St. Brendan’s and St. Barnabas Eighth Day Life groups have already heard Peter and Betty talk about their personal experiences with Transformation in Hampton Roads, Virginia. They’ll be visiting with our remaining group this coming Wednesday evening and I’m positive you will be encouraged and inspired by their testimony. Don’t miss it!

Finally, let me issue you this challenge: God wants us to be Kingdom People, like the Magi, not Worldlings Herod. He LIKES us and wants to enjoy our company – and He’s eager to meet us and pour Himself out to us in ways that we cannot even imagine!

Between now and January 9, begin to open yourself up to the possibility that God might actually do something in our midst that will surprise and delight us. Who knows, He might even cause a New Star to arise – this time in our hearts, not just in the sky. AMEN.