The Gospel of Matthew is considered by many scholars as one of the first curricula for discipleship. And it’s purpose seems to be about growing Jesus’ disciples into what we have called a Kingdom Community. That is that all who would follow Jesus would become a Community of people who both individually and would fulfill the prayer of Jesus, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
And that must be our objective, too. That is the reason that God has called us to follow Jesus Christ. That is the reason that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. That is the purpose for God sending his Son into the world, that is the goal of the Holy Spirit offering us life with God that is abundant and eternal, that is the reason why we gather to worship, that is the rationale for why every church even exists: To fulfill the prayer: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Starting with Matthew 6, we have looked specifically at the obstacles that will keep us from being Kingdom people.
• The first obstacle is to overcome our addiction to the praise and affirmation of people. Which we do by practing a spirituality of secrecy, of growing in inner righteousness that is focused on pleasing God alone.
• The second obstacle is to overcome the worries and insecurities about tomorrow that keep us from being faithful today. We do this by putting God first, even in our finances, ambitions and decisions.
Now, we have turned to a third obstacle. In my opinion, this is the most difficult, discouraging, and painful of all. If it is hard to give up the praise of people, if it agonizing to reprioritize and put the Kingdom before your security and financial well-being, if it is costly to commit to make the Kingdom the first thing in your life before all others, then it is like the salt of the world is rubbed in an open sore to do these things surrounded by other Kingdom people who just don’t.
• The third obstacle is the disappointment of other Kingdom People who are not living out the life of the Kingdom.
What do we do with those believers who aren’t acting like believers? What do we do with Christians who are acting profoundly unchristian? What do we do when the church that is meant to be the Kingdom of heaven embodied on earth is so damnably disappointing?
In Matthew 7:1-12, we learn that we DON'T Judge, and we DON'T tolerate, we talk. We confront. Humbly and prayerfully, yes, but we do confront.
And this is, in my opinion, the gaping sin of omission of our time and both the world and the church suffer for it.
In a world filled with backstabbing boardrooms, political infighting, gossiping co-workers, passive-aggressive tactics and families that have failed to teach us how to be caring and candid at the same time, I believe that one of the radical gifts that we have to give to the world as "salt and ligt" is the wisdom of biblical conflict.
If we can truly learn to hate the sin and love the sinner, be in the world and not of it, to speak the truth in love, to not let the sun go down on our anger and to do unto others as we would have them do to us, we will be salt and light. We will have something genuine and profound to offer the world that is so different, so good, so real.
And lets face it, mostly the church is no better than the world. It is time that we repented and learned to love each other with truth and candor, commitment and prayerful humility.
There is an old song that says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” I believe that. I really do. But maybe you and I need to think about the way we love when its difficult to do so, maybe, the world will really know we are Christians by our fights--by our disagreements, our standing by one another and humbly, prayerfully confronting each other--until we truly become more and more the embodiment of “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
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