Tag Archives: Kingdom of God

Preparing for the Kingdom of God (Sermon) November 9, 2014

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Sermon – November 9, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

22nd Sunday after Pentecost Year A Proper 27 Track 1

Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:13

Please be seated.

Recently, I was looking through some old photographs.  Yes, actual photographs.  Unfortunately, I was not a good cataloguer of my photos.  I didn’t always write the date on them and I didn’t put them in albums in chronological order and many times, I got duplicate photos then stuck them in different albums!  I’m so grateful that we now have online archives of digital photos and computers that somehow know when the photos were taken!

So, I was looking through album after album, remembering the process of taking the photos, using up the roll of film, taking it to be developed, maybe even to a 1-hour processor, and then getting them back, and finally seeing if they were any good or not.

Then I saw it.  I had forgotten I took the photos of the event, but it is seared in my mind as a place and time when I got a glimpse of the Kingdom of God here on earth.  It is a photo of a diverse group of people…diverse in culture, gender orientation and age.  We are sitting around some tables having dinner and conversation and plenty of fun.

I looked closely at the photo from the early 1990s.  I did know most of the people and am still in touch with many of them.  But some have died.  I couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, although I remember a lot about the owner, whose name I’ve also forgotten.  I didn’t even remember what time of year it was or why we were there.  But I clearly remembered it as a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

Why is that?  Because there were so many things in that group that could have divided us…could have kept us separate.  Things like race, culture, class, age, sexual orientation.  Yet, we were together and having fun and so grateful for our friendship.  I just knew and know the Kingdom God is like that.

In today’s readings, we are asked first of all in Joshua, to choose the God we will serve.  Last week I asked you what makes you cling to Jesus, despite the challenges of being a Christian.  Now this week, you are asked to be clear about whether you will serve God or whether you will serve other things in your life that you think are God?  Will you serve your own pride and ego?  Will you serve money?  Will you serve property?  Or will you serve the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca…the God whose Son, Jesus Christ came to live and die as one of us?

If you will serve the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, the Father of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, then in the Gospel of Matthew you are told to “Be Prepared” for the coming of the Kingdom of God!  Those of you who were members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will remember those words!

Always be prepared.  Always be prepared for the Kingdom of God!  So how do we prepare for the Kingdom of God that we’ve never seen?  Jesus did give us some hints.  The Kingdom of God will be filled with all kinds of people, especially those we least expect.  Remember Jesus found that the outcasts of his day…the marginalized of his day…the tax collectors, the women, the prostitutes, the Gentiles…were the very ones who believed in him…believed in his message…and changed how they lived their lives.  Having oil in our lamps…Being prepared and awake…means that we look around us and see how our relationship is with those people today who are marginalized or on the fringes.  Does our church look like the Kingdom of God because all people are active members of our body?

Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  So at the heart of the Kingdom of God is love.  Do we love ourselves?  Do we forgive ourselves?  Do we learn from our mistakes, ask forgiveness and move on?  Or are we constantly abusing ourselves?  Having oil in our lamps means that we love ourselves, faults and all.

And what about our neighbor?  Are we judgmental, rather than using good judgment?  Do we work so that all of our neighbors have what they need to live a good life or are we just concerned with ourselves and our family?  Having oil in our lamps means that we love our neighbors.

So, choose this day whom you will serve, and then Be Prepared…keep awake…have enough oil in your lamps, because the Kingdom of God is amazing and you won’t want to miss it!

Amen

Saying Yes to God’s Banquet (Sermon) October 12, 2014

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Sermon – October 12, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 23) Track 1

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. Matthew 22:1

 Please be seated.

I LOVE weddings.  As a little girl, my mother gave me her beautiful half slips for my dress-up clothes and you could often find me wearing them on my head as pretend veils.  At 7, as a Roman Catholic, I “made my first communion.”  The experience was fraught with trying to remember so many details.  The best part was wearing the beautiful white dress and the veil.  The best part of the Sound of Music was Maria’s wedding dress.  I still have my Barbie doll’s wedding dress.  And if you would have seen me Friday, my day off, you’d have seen me watching a marathon of, “Say ‘yes’ to the dress.”  I guess in addition to the love and community witness of weddings, I especially love the clothes.

Recently, my grandchildren attended the wedding of their former day care teacher, Miss Tina.  I loved seeing the photos from that day.  The kids looked like they were having so much fun dancing with the bride and with each other.  Later, I was talking with my son.  He said my 8 year old granddaughter, Sydney, really loved the wedding.  She asked her daddy to hold her so she could better see the bride come down the aisle.  As the bride approached, escorted by her father, Sydney whispered in her father’s ear, “We’ll be doing that some day.”  My son said it was all he could do to not start blubbering.

Yes I’d say I’m a feminist and all for women’s rights.  I am astounded by the costs of a wedding and understand why people elope.  All of that is true and I still love a traditional wedding.

And if you’ve planned a wedding or even a big party, you can relate to the king in our Gospel lesson today.  How wonderful that your child is being married.  The day comes and you prepare a sumptuous banquet and party for the community.  You’ve sent invitations and asked people to let you know if they’re coming so you know how much to prepare.  Once the banquet is ready, you send out the notice and suddenly people who said they’d come, don’t even acknowledge you!

Of course you can’t believe it, so you once again send out, explaining all of the work you’ve gone to to create a wonderful party.  Now, those you’ve invited are annoyed and even kill the messengers!  Finally, you just need the food to be eaten — kind of like we try to get people to take home food after pot luck – and you invite everyone, every single person you can find, both bad and good, we are told.

Jesus is trying to explain the Kingdom of God to us.  God prepares a sumptuous banquet, like any parent would prepare for their child who is getting married.  But the day comes and what happens?  Oh, so many other things appear to be more important.  Just like the Israelites in the desert worshipping the golden calf, we find so many other things pulling at us.  This wonderful, loving banquet seems unimportant.  We don’t want to go to the feast.  Sometimes, we even kill those who bring the invitation to us.

And God wants people at the banquet.  God invites all people.  The banquet is open to everyone!  God’s feast is available to everyone, not just a few.  God’s feast is available to everyone who will come to partake of it.

Yet, you cannot come lightly or thoughtlessly, like the man who showed up disrespectfully without a wedding robe.  You cannot expect to slip in, eat some food and dash out!  Stepping into the banquet hall requires responsibility and accountability.  Stepping into the feast God has prepared for us means we acknowledge our host, we respect our host, and we do the right thing by our host.

We join the banquet community.  We do our best to live as God has asked us to do and as Jesus showed us and as the Holy Spirit continues to speak to us.  We do our best to put aside the golden calves in our lives and remember the giver of the feast.

God is delighted to prepare the banquet of life in Christ for us.  God is delighted for us to know how much we are loved.  God is delighted to show us how to live in ways that serve each other, reject evil, worship God in community, and strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.

We must first accept the invitation, then we must show up, and finally, we must come prepared.

Amen