Reclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. Luke 4:1-13

Over the past several weeks I have spoken to you about being participants in the story of the kingdom of heaven. We spoke about joining God's epic story and the risks that come with being a part of the kingdom of heaven. We spoke about the need to tell the story together and that the kingdom of heaven does belong to one person but to the whole community. We spoke about the trials of the middle and how Israel struggled to continue on their journey to the promise land and their desire at times to turn back. Today, we are going to look at happens when our story is hijacked by something other than God.

The hardest part of any story is for the characters to listen to the writer. I have been told, and have discovered this some in my own writing, that the characters or the subject matter tend to take a life of it's own. I have experienced this while writing sermons and papers. I would have my thesis written, scripture passage chosen, and theme outlined and I would start writing. As I wrote I discovered a great struggle between myself and my topic or my character. I would write a paragraph and reread it only to discover that something hijacked the story and what I wanted to say was not being said and I would have to delete the entire paragraph.

I believe the hardest part of being a participant in the story of the kingdom of heaven is listening to the voice of the One who is writing. It is hard in a long journey to listen to the voice of the shepherd, of the leader. The Israelites struggled listening to Moses because they felt God was absent even though the signs all said differently. Christians today struggle with the story of the kingdom of heaven because our story is continually hijacked by something/someone other than God. We continually wander through the wilderness listening to other voices who claim to be speaking for God. We turn to the voices of ministers and preachers who reside in positions of power instead of turning the voice of the one who washes our feet.

At the heart of the temptation of Jesus rests the issue of power. Every temptation Satan presents Jesus with is a temptation on being in power and remaining in control. Jesus has the power to command the stones to turn to bread and feed himself. He is given the opportunity to use this power for his own selfish need, a negative we will see him turn into a positive when presented with the hunger of others. Satan's temptation is not about hunger or satisfying one's hunger, it is about something greater. It is an opportunity for an outside force to hijack the kingdom of heaven. The same is said of the other two temptations. Satan presents Jesus with two more opportunities to gain power and control over the kingdom of heaven.

Satan offers Jesus an opportunity to showcase his power in very worldly ways: To throw himself down in order to prove he is the messiah, a temptation that is he is forced to revisit again from the cross, and to bow down and worship him. Two temptations that are about seizing power and control in the coming kingdom. Jesus denies each of these temptations, reminded himself that we do not live on bread alone, we are not to test our God, and we are to worship and serve God alone. He denies not only spiritual and physical temptations but he denies Satan an opportunity to hijack the story of the kingdom of heaven. He remembers and listens for the voice of God, the voice of the one ushering in the kingdom of heaven.

If I may speak boldly I would suggest that the story of the Church in America has been hijacked by the American Church. What I mean by that is that we have become a people who have traded in parts of God's story of the kingdom of heaven with man's story of America. Meaning, we have equated a particular party's platform (Democrat, Republican, Tea Party) as representative of the Kingdom's purpose on earth. Allow me to share a story.

In the book Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide, Mike Slaughter tells a story of when he could begin to tell when some his congregants began to marry their faith with their politics, specifically conservative politics. “Phil, a really great guy who loved to serve,” Mike writes, “and was a real support for my young family, asked if I thought it would be okay for him to insert voter guides in the Sunday morning worship bulletins. He handed me one of the brochures to peruse. I called Phil a couple of days later and mentioned that I noticed all of the recommended candidates were Republicans. He assured me that all of the candidates stood on a pro-life platform and that was the reason for lack of inclusion of Democrats. Well, I was all for the pro-life part, so I asked why my friend Tony Hall, a U.S. congressional representative from our area, wasn't listed. Tony was pro-life, an outspoken Christian, an advocate for the poor, and a Democrat who had spoken at a men's dinner at Ginghamsburg that year. Phil's response: “Tony's economic ideology is too liberal.””¹

The kingdom of heaven is indeed a story about pro-life but it is an all-encompassing story of pro-life. It is not just about where a Christian view on abortion. It is about where a Christian stands on the surpassing grace of justice that is being ushered in through the kingdom of heaven. It is the pro-life proclamation of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the pro-life proclamation from the desert in which Jesus refuses to feed himself to satisfy his own hunger. It is the pro-life proclamation of the feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus takes compassion on the hungry and feeds them. It is the pro-life proclamation from the cross, “Forgive them.” “Today you will be with me in paradise.” It is the pro-life proclamation that being a resurrection people, a people who faithfully believe that life is a right for all people, not just an argument on Roe v. Wade. We are a people who are willing to protect life not just from pregnancy to birth, but from birth to childhood to adolescents to adulthood and until the parting of this world. That is being pro-life, protecting all life and knowing that life at any age is sacred. We must realize that the kingdom of heaven is being hijacked by political affiliation that defines life to begin at conception and ends at birth. That is not what it means in the story of the kingdom of heaven.

Jerry Falwell constantly preached against abortion but he did more than just preach or protest. He didn't just say he was pro-life, he went the extra mile. He provided women with housing, financial assistance including medical expenses, and loving support, even arranging adoptions for those who chose not to keep their babies. His pro-life stance went beyond political platforms. Likewise, Mother Teresa went beyond just a pro-life stance. She would say to women who were thinking of getting rid of the child, to reconsider. She pleaded for them to give those babies to her, and she would see that they were cared for and nurtured.² When was the last time those of us who claim to be pro-life went beyond just standing and protesting?

In his sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct”, Martin Luther King Jr., writes, “The other day I was saying, I always try to do a little converting when I'm in jail. And when we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens and all enjoyed coming around the cell to talk about the race problem. And they were showing us where we were so wrong demonstrating. And they were showing us where segregation was so right. And they were showing us where intermarriage was so wrong. So I would get to preaching, and we would get to talking—calmly, because they wanted to talk about it. And then we got down one day to the point—that was the second or third day—to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, "Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. You're just as poor as Negroes." And I said, "You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white. And you're so poor you can't send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march."³

King acknowledges the temptation we face each day with the powers that be. He speaks to the corrupt feeling of security and superiority of the tempters and how they hijacked the Civil Rights Movement. Civil Rights was not just about equality, ending segregation, or voting rights, it was and is about kingdom justice. It is about the justice of Christ saying, “I do not live on bread alone. But on the living word of God.” “I do not worship power and control and prestige. I worship God alone. I have come not to be served but to serve.” “I will not put my God to the test and use my gifts to prove my worth and my word. My word and deed alone are enough.” (my translation). It is reclaiming the story of the kingdom of heaven from the voices who would say, “Not all people are created in the image of God. God's favor only belongs to (insert party, race, gender, class).”

Through his temptations Jesus reclaims the story from Satan. Jesus sets the parameters of it means to be a part of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus tells us that if we wish to tell the story of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot tell the story appropriately or faithfully through the power of politics, the power of ministers in the public eye, or the power of self-righteousness. When we seek to tell God's story of the kingdom of heaven through the means of power we ignore the weakness of the cross. When we seek to tell God's story of the kingdom of heaven through the means of power we give in to the temptation to hijack the story for anything but God's kingdom. We give into the temptation to lean ourselves and our own understandings. We take the story away from the lowly manger, the weak cross, and the empty tomb and we give the story back to the powers and principalities of this world.

However, when we seek to the tell the story of the kingdom of heaven from a grateful heart, a place of deep gratitude and love, we begin to reclaim the story. When the church begins to function as a place of worship, a community of believers, a gathering space for the broken and faith departed, the church reclaims the story from those who wish to seize the story for their own desires and their own pursuits.

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, a time when we break down this idol of power and control and give up such desires and direct our attention to our Lord, Jesus. We are able to reclaim our story from the powers and principalities and transform ourselves into faithful storytellers of the kingdom of heaven. Let us reclaim our story. Let us take back that which has been seized and perverted for selfish gains. Let us re-imagine and be reborn and return to the true nature of the kingdom of heaven: the nature revealed through and in the temptations of Christ.

1Mike Slaughter & Charles E. Gutenson. Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide pg 26-27

2Shane Claiborne//Tony Campolo Red Letter Revolution: What if Jesus Really Meant What He Said? pg 93

3Martin Luther King, Jr. “The Drum Major Instinct” 1968 http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_the_drum_major_instinct/