May the mumbling commence!
We are in the Lenten season. We are on a forty day journey. It is a time of preparation for baptism. We set our faces and walk toward Jerusalem with Jesus. Some Christians practice the spiritual discipline of letting something go – like sweets or soda or radio or TV or Facebook. We let some of these things go to be free.
Have you ever heard of the way some trappers in Africa trap monkeys? They set up a jar with something shiny and attractive inside it. The mouth of the jar is just large enough for the monkey to squeeze his hand into the jar. But, when the monkey grasps the object, its hand is no longer able to contort itself to get back out. The monkey is often not willing to let its prize go, so it stays in the place for the trapper to retrieve it.
How often do we hold desperately onto something that traps us? Have we ever honestly asked the question – who owns whom? Sometimes it seems that our possessions actually have possession over us.
There is freedom in letting go – letting go and letting God take over. How will we use our newfound freedom? Idle hands are the devil’s playground. Let’s consider how we can begin revealing the kingdom of God.
Where is the kingdom of God? Is it even here yet? I believe it is. The kingdom of God is here – but not fully realized. What would it mean this Lenten season for you and me to help reveal the kingdom of God to the world? Read from Luke chapter seventeen:
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Verses 20-33)
What is this passage from Luke but a call to let go? Humanity too quickly gets caught up in themselves. Humanity too quickly gets caught up in the here and now. Too often we ask ourselves: How will this affect me now?
The road to the kingdom of God is quite different. Jesus says that we will not find it with careful observation. Jesus says the kingdom of God is within you. And that Greek “you” is plural. Some translations say the kingdom of God is among you. I believe there is truth in both translations. The kingdom of God is not about you or me. It is about us. How we relate to one another matters.
May we let go the entitlement craze and the narcissism that often goes with it. May we hold our possession loosely so that they do not own us. May we give our lives to community without regard to what we might lose – even our lives.
As we let go this Lenten season, let’s find ways to reveal the kingdom of God through selfless acts of kindness and love. When we do these godly things, the kingdom of God is within each one of us. And that kingdom is made known through us.
Our God is a God of love, and love requires rightful relationships with God and with all of creation.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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