How prone we are to miss the drama. The tyranny of the urgent, the plainness of our patterns, and our propensity to look inward rather than outward all push us to find our callings, our surroundings, our own souls to be rather dull affairs. We read of the great upheavals of history and then find ourselves scraping the burnt bottoms of our casserole off the dish. We watch Hollywood make believe about invaders from Mars and then go home to balance our checkbook. We, according to Jesus, construct foolish drama by worrying about what we will eat or what we will wear, while missing the battle of eternity is going on right before our eyes.
When Jesus calls us to cease worrying about those things the heathen worry about He isn’t inviting us to heave a sigh of relief, and flop down on our hammock with a glass of lemonade. No, we put down our petty concerns, that we might take up the one vital concern, the kingdom of God.
Our Lord reigns. His kingdom knows no bounds, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Him. But there remains in His realm rebellion. There is work to do. In this country, once a haven for believers, once an errand into the wilderness, to be a city on a hill, we have once again denied the humanity of an entire class of persons- the unborn. Of course we have significant, damning racial issues. The unborn, however, are the only class of people whose murderers the police and the whole justice system labor to protect. How twisted, how distorted, has a state which God ordained to punish evildoers become when they instead use the sword God gave them to guard the grisly practitioners of this crime? How twisted, how distorted have men become, who were made to protect and defend women and children but now drag their girlfriends, wives, daughters to a killing center? How twisted, how distorted have women become, who were made to nurture their babies, but now hire assassins to kill them?
This is the battle. Here is the drama. Souls are being twisted, and slowly dragged into the very pit of hell. And babies are being burned alive, on purpose. And we, even though we have been made alive, even though we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, worry about petty things. Right now, in our own neighborhoods, persons are at stake. Every one of them, young or old, believer or not, every one of them will die. And when they die they will become fully, finally and forever one thing or another.
CS Lewis, in his classic work, The Weight of Glory, reminds us what is at stake. He reminds us what is wood, hay and stubble, and which jewels will shine evermore. And in turn, he helps us see what this means for our todays, that forever counts right now-
“It is a serious thing … to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
We don’t seek the kingdom merely when we read our Bibles, or sing our hymns. We seek it when we love our wives, and cherish our children. We seek it when we weep and mourn for the murder of our neighbors, and when we weep and mourn for our neighbors, murderers. We seek the kingdom when we call on men to be men, and women to be women. We seek the kingdom when we welcome the least of these into our lives, into our homes, into our families.
The righteousness we seek is both ours by imputation, but it is also becoming ours in truth. We in Christ, despite all that we have to repent for, are being made into everlasting splendors. For all that we must repent for, for all that we mourn over, for all the horror of what we as a nation have become, we rejoice to know that we are citizens of another kingdom. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We once were not a people but are now the people of God. We are those who have tasted that the Lord is good. May we then keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against us as evildoers, they may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Powerful message. May God bless you sir.
Thank you John. And may His blessings be on you.