Kingdom Building
October 31, 2019
Scripture Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfil by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul seems so please with the church of the Thessalonians who love for one another is increasing. I wonder if Paul in his wildest imagination could have envisioned a world with so many Christian denominations, they cannot even be counted each with a slightly different nuance on Christ. Even within so-called denominations there are differences. I write this when one faith group refused to serve communion to former Vice-President Biden for supporting legislation related to abortions. Upon hearing that I was first stunned coming from a faith group that recognizes the Lord’s Supper as open to all followers of Christ no matter what. I realized after thinking about it that my faith group and this other faith group have very different interpretations of the meaning of one of the most central acts in Christian worship.
My second reaction stemmed from my strong support of separation of church and state. I do not think God ever wants anyone to choose to follow God because they are forced to follow God. I do not even think that is possible. What people do on the outside to survive in a dogmatic world does not always reflect what they experience internally. God looks at the heart and judges each of us accordingly and I have grave doubts God surveys our fellow humans sampling their opinions of our behavior to help God judge us. Thus, regarding civil law, I think God endow us with the ability to think and reason, to form values, and to use those values as individuals to find common ground among people of all faiths toward providing for the Common Good. In similar vein USA citizens are blessed to live in a nation that protects our rights to practice our faith broadly without any interference from the state.
Prayer: Lord, as your Spirit still moves among us searching for ways to make us the one Body of Christ, guide us in our role as citizen to foster values that complement the building of your Kingdom ruled by love. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.