My Kingdom v. His Kingdom

Thanksgiving came as early this year as it can come, which among other things means that there are more shopping days between Black Friday and when Santa Claus comes as possible. It also means that if you use a real tree for your Christmas tree and typically put it up the week of Thanksgiving – you need to come up with a plan to keep it going for a week longer than usual. 

For those of us who are believers, this season can create all sorts of internal conflicts. We know that Christmas is actually about the coming of Christ into the world to redeem God’s creatures and God’s creation. We know that because He came – “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” as John says – the season of Advent (that begins next Sunday on the Christian Calendar) can truly be about preparing for His reappearing in glory. We even know that He is King of a kingdom that is not of this world, as John 18:36ff so powerfully says.

But we also know and experience the reality of living in this world as we wait for the reappearing of the King in glory. You don’t need me or anyone else to tell you that can be a challenge!

Think about it. For some of us, our personal preference wasn’t elected in the recent election cycle in our country. That could be the candidate I wanted to be President of the United States or the candidate I wanted to be County Coroner and a whole hosts of other offices. For others, our favorite football team, the one that began the season with all sorts of promise, isn’t even bowl eligible, much less in line for a national championship. Then there are those who stood in line for hours in anticipation of Black Friday sales – we even missed our family’s Thanksgiving Dinner – only to discover that the last of the sixty inch, HD, flat screen televisions at Walmart was given to the person in front of me in the line. Then there’s my friend who put her 23 pound turkey in the kitchen sink on Thanksgiving morning, and the sink collapsed down into the cabinet.

Life in “my kingdom” can get a bit messy. I haven’t even mentioned the price of gas, the unemployment numbers, how many foreclosures happen in Georgia every day, and the cost of college tuition. We can’t forget the challenging issues associated with the cost of health care, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 

And don’t forget, while you’re on this journey to realizing that “my world” isn’t all that it is cracked up to be – that the Middle East, ever a bit testy, is in one of those very testy moments that makes even the most optimistic among us stagger with cynicism. Just thinking about what in the world (this world) is going on in Egypt is enough to give one a bit of a pause.

In the Christian Calendar, the season of “Ordinary Time” comes to an end with the Sunday before Advent. This particular Sunday is sometimes called “The Feast of Christ the King,” and because Thanksgiving was so early this year, was actually this past Sunday. The Feast of Christ the King celebrates the reality that Christ truly is King, and “His Kingdom” is not deterred by “my kingdom.” 

Listen to Jesus in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

In response to the question of James and John about their own place in His kingdom, Jesus reminds them that “His kingdom” and “my kingdom” are not the same. Why? Because in “His Kingdom,”  we follow a King who said, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

How will that work out when all is said and done? Pretty well,  at least if you allow Paul to offer an answer. “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

But in “My Kingdom” there is always this sense of how could this be. Again, Paul comes to the rescue by reminding us “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17) Apparently the King of this other Kingdom, the one not of this world, is able to hold this world together, even if it seems like “my kingdom” is falling apart all around me.

We are on the longest possible journey from Thanksgiving to Santa Claus right now. It will, no doubt, have a few ups and downs that can thrill us and challenge us. We are living this out on “this fragile earth, our island home,” fully aware that there is tension between “my kingdom” and “His Kingdom.”

May that tension be tempered and tuned by our confidence that “when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

Flipping the Thanksgiving Coin

For me and dozens of other students back in the day when Roy McKinney was a professor at Atlanta Christian College, he served as a mentor, model, mediator, and lots of other things that have caused us to remember him, despite the fact that he died over twenty years ago!

One of his regular comments was something to the effect that “Thanksgiving was the most missing virtue among believers these days.” He really wasn’t talking about the holiday, of course, and I suspect his words are as true now as they were then.

Paul’s little trilogy about life in Colossians 3:15-17 has always caught my attention in terms of the importance of thanksgiving in a believer’s life. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts . . . and be thankful; let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly . . . with gratitude; whatever you do, whether in word or deed . . . giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” 

If the peace of Christ, and the word of Christ, and the whatever you do of life are the “heads” side of the Thanksgiving Coin, what do you suppose might be on the “tails” side?

If I give thanks for the peace of Christ that rules in my heart, should I not be humbled by the reality of what my life would be without the peace of Christ?  And if I have gratitude that my life is strengthened and transformed by the word of Christ that dwells in me, should I not be humbled by the unpleasant reality of what I would be without that transforming presence? And if whatever I do – word or deed – can be done in the name of Christ with thanksgiving, should I not be humbled by how different life would be if I weren’t able to serve in the name of Jesus?

Somewhere in my heart it simply seems to me that when I flip the Thanksgiving Coin, I should discover a lot of humbleness in the realization that what I’m thankful for isn’t something I earned, deserved, or somehow obtained on my own.

I have always been thankful for my parents and the family into which I was born. Shouldn’t the flip side of that thanksgiving be the realization of what my life might be, were it not for the family into which I was born? Which might even lead to a better understanding of how hard it is for some people to get the gospel into their lives because they weren’t born into a family like mine?

Thanksgiving is such an American holiday, it seems impossible that one would not be thankful for the United States of America as our place of birth. Yet the flip side of that should again cause a little humility to well up inside of us – realizing that hearing and obeying the gospel for most Americans is far easier and far more likely to happen than is true for lots of people in the world.

My wife and I are so thankful for our two children and our son-in-law. And again, when the Thanksgiving Coin is flipped – I’m humbled at all the opportunities we were able to give our children. Opportunities that so many people in the world would not have even dreamed about, much less been able to do.

I could go on, but maybe the point has been made. It might be possible that sometimes our thanksgiving is offered with a bit of pride, maybe even a little swagger. It isn’t too difficult to cross over the line and be thankful for all I – the center of my universe – have accomplished.

Yet the brutal, but straight from God truth is that for everything I put on my list as an item for which I’m thankful, there is the flip side that reminds me of two crucial lessons – first, it is, when all is said and done, a gift from God and I should be humble before Him; and second, it should, at every juncture, cause me to be aware that not everyone in the world has shared in my blessings.

Humble understanding. I wonder how much more of an impact we could have on the world were we all marked by a little more humble understanding.

Happy Thanksgiving. And remember, there’s always a flip side to the Thanksgiving Coin.

We Stand Firm

Last Thursday morning, while sitting in the very simple home of a Chilean pastor and his family, who had graciously shown me hospitality despite the language barriers we faced, I learned something about faith that I hope sticks with me for a while.

It was a cold, rainy day, despite the fact that the southern hemisphere is currently moving from spring time in to the warm days of summer. The house, heated only by a wood heater, wasn’t what I would call “comfortably warm.” Sitting at the table with us was a young lady from the United States, who is living with this couple and their three children as she works with the native Chilean people group, the Mapuche. Rachel was her name and she was translating for us so that the conversation could work.

The day before, in some free time I had been taken to the base of one of the six volcanoes that surround Lautaro, Chile. The snowcapped volcanoes were amazing to look at. We saw a waterfall that was absolutely stunning. We also spent time, including lunch, with another Chilean pastor and his family, who serve a church and the Mapuche people right at the base of the volcano.

I asked my Chilean host if the volcano had erupted since they moved to Lautaro. She told me that it did about four years ago, and described all the normal concerns one would have with a natural phenomenon of that magnitude happening that nearby. 

I’m guessing she could see my eyebrows rising in wonder about all of that. She then told me about other events of nature that make life that far south in Chile. And then, not unlike Paul’s comment in 2 Corinthians 11:28, where, after a long list of hardships, he notes “there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches,” the pastor’s wife talked a while about the hardships of ministry in the place where they feel called to serve. 

It was about time to head to the class I was there to teach and she looked at me and said, “but we stand firm.” She didn’t have to tell me that – I could see it at every turn in her life and service and that of her husband.

As Paul again might say it, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV) As I’m writing these words, I’m sitting in the home of ministry friends in Santiago, Chile – another family whose life and ministry, service and commitment, has blessed my life significantly. Their ministry in Chile has impacted hundreds of people into serving Christ – including my Lautaro hosts.

Tonight I fly home, returning to the family I love, the students at Point University I care deeply about, a nice home, reliable car, internet, satellite television, all kinds of places to go out and eat, and all the other stuff that I so often take for granted.

After watching my Lautaro hosts this week and visiting in some of the homes of Mapuchi followers of Christ and seeing the challenge of ministry in a difficult place – geography, culture, tradition, and a whole list of similar difficulties abound – I’m going to do my best not to complain that gasoline is still over $3 a gallon! I know some people who would love to be able to pay that for the old, worn-out car they use in serving Christ.

In my friends words, I want to “stand firm.”