Homily on Luke 8:1; 13:29; Colossians 1:12-14; and 2 Corinthians 5:17-20. Delivered 13 July 2014. My first homily delivered as the assistant pastor of Pequea Evangelical Congregational Church.
Good
morning, brothers and sisters. It's a delight to be here today to
celebrate a new beginning. And I can't think of a better place to
start a first sermon than with the story of 'in the beginning': In
the beginning, God was king. God created and ruled everything in its
pristine goodness. God created humans in his image, for priestly
service and kingly rule over the earth, to spread the worshipful
order of the Temple of Eden over the whole land. But we see in the
story of King Adam and Queen Eve how they lost their way and settled
for smaller lives. They fell into rebellion against the God of Gods
and King of Kings. And through that familiar human demand to govern
life on our
terms instead of his, the whole creation fell short of the glory God
had in store for it.
As
their heirs, we became broken rebels. We need to be reconciled to
God, our rightful king. And so, at the climax of God's long mission
through Abraham's family, through Israel, through a remnant, God sent
his very own Son. He sent Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the King of
Kings, to reconcile us back to him. Reconciliation is no cheap or
easy thing. Jesus, anointed with God's Spirit and preaching about
God's kingship, was often despised and rejected as he preached the "good news of the kingdom of God". His message led King Jesus to
be crowned – with thorns. It led King Jesus to be enthroned – on
a cross.
But
now, praise God, King Jesus is a risen king! Amen? Earthly kingdoms
rise and fall, worldly kings live and die, but King Jesus is an
eternal king, and his kingship has no end! King Jesus rules over his
kingdom from God's own heavenly throne, where he's installed as
prophet, priest, and king. And he invites us in Revelation 3:21: "To
the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my
throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his
throne".
Those who
follow only this King, and who seek first this Kingdom
and God's righteousness, are the church: the people redeemed through
their King's blood; the people called out of every tribe and tongue
to be a holy people and a royal priesthood; the people built together
as the one living temple of God's own Spirit; the people under God's
kingship who live to show their living faith in their living King.
Through union with King Jesus, the church shares his inheritance and
is a living glimpse of the new creation that God has promised.
No matter
what nation claims their mortal birth or their residence, faithful
Christians' highest allegiance is to this
King, who calls us to serve our local and global neighbors in his
name. As our own Discipline
declares, "under the New Covenant the 'nation whose God is the
Lord' is the Church of Jesus Christ, with its member-citizens
scattered throughout the nations of the world". So wherever the
people of King Jesus live, we have dual-citizenship, earthly and
heavenly; and we're sent to our neighbors as ambassadors.
And so the
local church is an embassy of God's kingly domain. As an embassy of
the kingdom, King Jesus calls us at Pequea EC Church to reach out to
our communities with spiritual words and self-sacrificing love –
the same way that Jesus himself exercises his own kingship. We
invite our neighbors in all our cities, our towns, our villages, and
our countryside: "Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ!" In
this way, and through our public life of Christian faith, hope, and
love, King Jesus wants to transform the many local communities
through which we here are spread – and so are we made a sign
pointing forward to God's new work of creation, which even now is
bursting into the world.
And now here
we are, gathered as God's people, to worship God in song and
to witness to one another what God has done. When we leave
this place, we're sent out to worship God in loving our
neighbors and to witness to them about what God has done in
Jesus Christ – and is still doing today! And then we come back
together to repeat the rhythm, drawing strength from our spiritual
communion with God and with one another. This Sunday, that communion
is represented physically in the bread and the cup. Our King Jesus
invites us into his presence, to his
table, to eat with him the food that only he provides, because
only he could pay the price. He invites us here to worship
God in thanksgiving, and to bear witness of Christ's death
until he comes. Our communion points back to the Last Supper and the
cross, but it points forward to the wedding supper of the Lamb, when
all who accept the invitation will sit down together as one
reconciled family in the kingdom of God.
Until that
glorious day, we pray, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven". Until then, we pray, "Maranatha:
Come, Lord Jesus". Until then, we point to Jesus, pleading with
family and neighbors, friends and strangers, loved ones and enemies,
and even the very institutions of our culture itself: "Lay down
your arms! You have sinned, but Christ has died! What's more,
Christ is risen, and Christ is coming again! So in him, be
reconciled to God, and become disciples of the one true King".
That's our message and our mission. Here at Pequea Evangelical
Congregational Church, I've already seen your love and faithfulness
to our King and to his message and mission, and I'm thankful that he
sent me here to join the Pequea embassy staff. Together, as we
partner together and with other believers, we will
bring this message to our communities in word and in deed, and we
will see the mighty
work of God's Spirit as he reconciles Lancaster and Chester Counties
to himself, one life at a time.
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