The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
Praying with Jesus: A Kingdom Turned Upside Down
Amos 5.18-24 and Luke 17.11-21
Amy Jacks Dean, July 13, 2003
Our day began at 4:30 AM this morning when our alarm clock sounded the voices of the BBC on National Public Radio. We wanted to be in the back parking lot of the church at 5:00 AM with 9 youth, a few parents, plus Ed and Molly Caldwell, all of whom are headed for Passport Youth Camp in sunny Florida for a fun-filled, mission-filled week of memory-making experiences. I am grateful for Ed and most certainly for Molly who commit their week to the safety of our youth and to the spiritual growth of our youth. There is nothing like a week (24/7) with youth to really get to know them (the good and the not-so-good!) I recall a youth trip that college friends of ours led - back when we were all youth ministers. They were so clever. Jon’s group was headed to a weekend mountain retreat where the theme centered on Civil Rights and equality for all people. Stan was to be the guest retreat leader and meet the group at their destination the next day. On the way, I can just picture it - a bus loaded with giggling, screaming youth, eating junk - no one asleep (on the way to any youth retreat no one sleeps - on the way home from any youth retreat everyone sleeps the entire way - except hopefully the driver!) Jon slows down the bus because he sees a hitch-hiker. As he slows down he can see that this guy is a regular looking guy that hadn’t shaved or showered in a few days. Keeping in mind that all good youth ministers keep safety as the first and foremost issue of importance, you will be surprised - as were the youth and other chaperones on the bus - that Jon stopped to check on this guy. He needed a ride and a meal. So Jon let him on the bus and the hitch-hiker traveled the rest of their journey with them. Jon offered him a portion of their evening meal, and then began persuading him to move on his way. But the hitch-hiker was feeling more like staying than going. I can imagine the glances the youth were giving one another. I can just hear their whispers and their anxiety. (And all of you who are parents of youth or children are thinking - I’m glad we hired Ed and not Jon - surely Ed knows not to pick up hitch-hikers while taking care of our youth!) It was time for the evening session to begin where the discussion centered on the issues surrounding the Civil Rights Movement: equality, justice, reconciliation, fairness, loving neighbor. The hitch-hiker was listening in instead of moving on. He was even participating - asking the hard questions - questions that could only come from the kind of person he was - outcast, put down, discriminated against. As the discussion moved on - it was revealed that the hitch-hiker was actually Stan - the guest retreat leader - and they all spent the rest of the retreat debriefing the whole event.
It is a shame that fear takes over, and we do not allow “Thy Kingdom [to] come” most of the time. Don’t get me wrong. I have no plans of picking up any of the guys that hang out at the corner where Park intersects Tyvola and Fairview that I pass everyday on the way home from work. But I do wonder about them. Where do they live? Why don’t they have a job? Do they suffer from mental illness or are they taking advantage of whatever good soul or sucker gives them money. (By the way, I believe most good souls are suckers - or at least that is what I want to be.) If I am in the lane closest to the median where one stands, I give them something - a little something and then struggle internally with whether what I did was more enabling, and therefore harmful, or did I do the right thing. I heard Barbara Franche say one time that all she had in the car when she passed this intersection was a piece of fruit and so she gave it to one of them. Paula Knight was telling me about a friend of hers that keeps little baggies of non-perishable items like beef jerky, hand wipes, crackers in her car to hand to folks on the street asking for something. I like that idea for I think that person must understand what it means to pray “Thy Kingdom come.” When she leaves her house every morning she must believe that her prayer “Thy Kingdom come” may just be answered. Perhaps the very ones for whom God’s Kingdom is meant might just come into our midst which means that perhaps we should be prepared instead of caught off guard. How is it that we can so consistently be caught off guard by something that never goes away?
To pray “Thy Kingdom come” is a political statement. We live in the midst of all kinds of kingdoms that function in this world. These kingdoms make sense to us. Government is laid out in a three branch system that is easy to comprehend. We don’t have to like it all the time, but we understand it. It flows in an orderly fashion. It’s a system of checks and balances that is designed to be fair and just - as the world defines fairness and justice. Our financial structure is another kingdom we understand. Money. We all want more of it - to save and to spend. We understand how to make it, how to invest it - we don’t always win with our investments - but we at least comprehend how it is at least supposed to work. It flows in an orderly fashion. When we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying that the kingdoms of this world would be overpowered by God’s Kingdom. We are praying that the Kingdom of God would come right here in the midst of us, among us, within us - and if our prayer is answered our world will be turned upside down for the Kingdom of God does not flow in an orderly fashion; it is not something we can easily understand or comprehend; it is not fair or just in our estimation. We should be afraid to pray “Thy Kingdom come” for, given what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God, I’m not so sure I’m in!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5.3-5) Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas interpret this section of the Beatitudes this way: “Blessed are those who are unemployed, blessed are those suffering from terminal illness, [blessed are those who are depressed], blessed are those who are going through marital distress . . . Blessed? Fortunate? Lucky? What kind of world is this? In America, if you are unemployed, people treat you as if you had some sort of disease. They don’t want to catch what you have. If your marriage is a failure, you are a failure. That doesn’t sound very blessed. [But God’s Kingdom is not] built upon success and achievement and earnest striving. [God’s Kingdom is a] topsy-turvy, [upside down] place [where] our values are stood on their head. Little in the Kingdom of God comes naturally.” (Lord, Teach Us, Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, page 56)
The Kingdom of God is not plain or simple. It is not laid out in a three branch system that we can diagram and trace. We only have “hints, analogies, parables and images, rather than definitions and explanations.” (Lord, Teach Us, page 56)
The Kingdom of God is:
In other words, the Kingdom of God is for those we would least likely expect to find at a wedding party. Willimon and Hauerwas say “that is precisely why being in the church can be a real pain, considering the sort of reprobates Jesus has invited to the party.” (page 59)
What we know of Jesus we know through the eyes of those who loved him and followed him. It escapes us sometimes, I think, that “Jesus repulsed more people than he attracted.” (Lord, Teach Us, page 53) Do you think his way was any more popular with the kingdoms of his day than they are of our own? He was killed because of what he taught about the Kingdom of God coming among and within them - it was a threat to society, it was a threat to the powers-that-be, it was a threat to government and religion - and it still is today.
The words “Thy Kingdom come” is evidence that God is interested in a just world - real justice - the kind of justice where the lion and lamb will lie together - where all of God’s people have enough and not too little (or too much) - where justice will roll down like waters. C. S. Lewis said that “Jesus spoke and acted in such a way that one either had to follow him or else decide that he was crazy. There was no middle ground in his kingdom. You either had to move toward it, risk letting go and being caught up in his project, or else you had to move on, realizing that you wanted to retain citizenship in the kingdoms of the world.” (Lord, Teach Us, pages 53-54) Was Jesus crazy? I think yes. Are we his crazy followers? Sometimes. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of “Thy Kingdom come,” but, I will confess, it does not come naturally. Even this week, in studying for this sermon, I have put into practice this phrase of the prayer. When messages were piling up on my desk, on my email and voice mail, and I had a sermon to write and folks were in the hospital, I had to do my part at the UBA VBS. I knew there would be children there that I remember from the last 2 years - a couple that seem to just carry a bad attitude with them. One girl in particular has the facial expression that she is miserable and mad and all things and all people are just plain stupid. I thought, “maybe she won’t be there this year.” But when I saw her come through the door, I prayed “Thy Kingdom come.” You see this girl with a bad attitude is precisely the one, not only for whom the Kingdom of God has come, but in whom the Kingdom of God has come. You see, in the upstairs of St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church where the lights are too dim, the Kingdom of God did not come when the 11 volunteers from Park Road Baptist Church ascended the stairs, the Kingdom of God only came when bad attitude girl made her way up the steps. (I actually saw her smile this year and her attitude didn’t seem quite as bad to me. I wonder if she changed or had I.)
On Wednesday morning, as we were trying to rush out the door to get across town to lead another fun-filled day, Ed came in my office to say that there was a man out front that wanted to see me. A black man on a walker. There are moments that I hate that phrase “Thy Kingdom come.” God’s Kingdom coming doesn’t usually fit my schedule. Russ and I stood in the circular driveway, late to our appointment with UBA VBS, with this man perched on the brick wall, and listened to his story. He had a lot of paperwork to back up his claim for a need for money to pay his water bill (the water had already been turned off). Almost daily, often multiple times in a day, we get these requests - either in person or by phone - and it is trouble to pray “Thy Kingdom come.” “Thy Kingdom come” is going to disrupt our already busy schedules. “Thy Kingdom come” is going to cost us money. “Thy Kingdom come” is going to make suckers out of us. “Thy Kingdom come” is going to test all of our fears and challenge us in ways we cannot even imagine.
So when you travel down Park Road and you get to the intersection where Park crosses Tyvola and Fairview, and you see the guys with their signs, know that your prayer has been answered this day – “Thy Kingdom come” is among us right there in that intersection more so than it is in this sanctuary according to Amos and Jesus. And that should turn our world upside down. May it be so.
Thy Kingdom come, we pray. Before we pray that prayer, O God, perhaps we should pray “Give us courage. Calm our fear. Give us a clear vision so that we may recognize your Kingdom when it comes among us for your Kingdom looks nothing like what we know to look for if we hold ourselves as an example.”
Thy Kingdom come, we pray. Before we pray that prayer, O God, perhaps we should pray that love would so invade our hearts that we would be overcome by what we would call the least of these.
Thy Kingdom come, we pray. Before we pray that prayer, O God, perhaps we should pray to become followers of a crazy Jesus who turned his world and our upside down.
Thy Kingdom come, O God, today, in us. Amen.