Kingdom Building

July 26, 2019

Scripture Reading: Colossians 2:6-19

Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. –Colossians 2:16-19

If I may personify the world, the world likes to distract us with pesky things so that we will not go forward with building the Kingdom of God ruled by love. We have a lot of that going on right now. It is extremely hard not to get caught up in it instead of proactively working to change the world one step at a time in the direction of a world ruled by love.  

Some of our politicians excel at this. It was rather breathtaking this year tracking legislation in Oklahoma because for the past several years stalemate ruled our legislature and executive branch. Elections matter and while there was little change in the ratio of members of the various parties did not change much, people were elected who were willing to work on things that mattered. We still have a long way to go but progress has been made in education and criminal justice that were sorely needed. In very few instances was progress distracted by inflammatory issues that instantly distract from the hard work wisely using our tax dollars to assure our children get quality education and our criminal justice system become a source of restoration rather than confinement.

Paul of course in the scripture above is reacting to the distractions that can occur in churches pulling us away from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ while we fight over what color the carpet should be or do we want to take communion by intinction or serve it row by row in small individual containers. Sometimes I think we busy ourselves with distractions because it is just easier than dealing with the messiness of addressing hard issues our world lays in our paths. Changing the color of our carpets does not require us to change ourselves. Ending racism does, welcoming the stranger may, restoring prisoners will. What we need to remember is adapting to Jesus’ ways molds us into becoming the people God created us to be.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage we need to love like you. 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.