Missed Opportunities
Missed opportunity became the topic of our discussion that evening after a simple meal my host had carefully prepared for me. She and her husband had painstakingly developed a friendship with a family of another faith and culture, so the missed opportunity was a grave disappointment for her. I had witnessed a similar scenario a week or two before. My conclusion had to be that the visiting couple would leave church that day and never return. It may have been inadvertent but the message they received was that they were not welcome, their presence not having been acknowledged.
My friend and I went on not to lament or complain about the church, but to discuss why missed opportunities happen and how that could change. How can we be a church that loves like Christ loves? We agreed it was a heart issue. If we would have known what Dr. Hall was teaching the following morning we would have called it how can we have Kingdom living. Instead we asked “how do we do it?” But we didn’t know exactly what to call it. We discussed how Kingdom living was modeled to us. We believe it is really very simple. We believe if we practice it and talk about it, it is something that people can catch on to. I told her about Pastor Ed and how he consistently talks about how God speaks to him, how he obeys what he hears and how he loves people in tangible ways. I think we need to get Kingdom living into our minds. We need to think about how we can demonstrate our love and concern for others. I listened carefully to my friend speak about her ministry to women from a different culture. I told her that having been stripped of any form of official ministry I am reduced to just loving people. No programming to follow, no agenda to accomplish. But I don’t see myself set free from being Christ’s servant. At the present time all I can do is attend church and love the people he sends my way. I think that is what Kingdom living is all about. And as I write this I am beginning to see the down time I find myself in is a great gift.
Before I began to write on the text, before I picked up where I left off yesterday I cleaned a closet. I found my notes from a study I had done on fasting and praying. On Sunday, Dr Hall suggested we read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 devotionally during the week. Within the text there is instruction for fasting. And I what caught my eyes in my study was the term humbling of the soul. That term appeared also in my morning devotional reading of Psalm 35.
13 Yet when they (my enemies) were ill, I put on sackcloth
and humbled myself with fasting.
When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
14 I went about mourning
as though for my friend or brother.
I bowed my head in grief
as though weeping for my mother.
The Psalm speaks of being grieved by the sin or omission of another so as to inquire of the Lord, to pray earnestly with fasting on the behalf of another so they will see their sin, not judge their sin, but desire that they repent.
As I begin to write I know God is speaking to me. I don’t believe in coincidences and the Lord has a particular way of speaking to me through specific scripture. The personal study was on fasting and prayer and I had just completed a fast when I left for my friend’s house. The Lord usually speaks to me after I break a fast. It was after the meal that night that I sat down and spoke to my friend.
It seemed like a normal conversation and I really didn’t think God was particularly speaking to me until I heard the sermon. Then I thought “Oh, God is speaking.”
What stood out? And what was the Lord saying to me? First of all Dr. Hall formulated the question my friend and I had. I asked her how can we do things differently so we don’t have missed opportunities or leave people feeling unwanted. He simply stated, “What is Kingdom living?” Dr. Hall said, “We have forgotten how to love and live out the Christian life.” If I would have gotten to choose the topic for the sermon Sunday morning I would have wanted to look at Jesus as the best instructor on living the Christian Life. So without asking, I got my way.
Dr. Hall introduced Jesus to us at the point in his ministry where he interrupts physically healing hundreds of people to teach. We find Jesus sitting by the Sea of Galilee and pointing to the cities on a hill and preaching about the Kingdom of God.
If you look at the text, the teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount, it begins with Matthew 5:1. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach
And it ends with Matthew 7:28-29.
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
These statements are full of personal pronouns.
he saw the crowds,
he went up on a mountainside
His disciples came to him,
he began to teach
the crowds were amazed at his teaching
because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
You see, it is all about Jesus. He is the ultimate teacher on Kingdom living. If you want to have the answer to the question, how do you have Kingdom living, you need to look to the one who knows, the one who has authority to teach. If we want to be a Christ follower we need to suspend activity and sit at the feet of the master and learn from him.
When Jesus suspended his healing ministry he wasn’t showing us that he had a limited capacity to heal. He could have healed all the people who came to him. There are many stories in the gospel showing us he didn’t even have to be physically present to heal people. He is not limited in that way.
He wasn’t showing us that miracles of healing aren’t important. Healing was an important part of Jesus’ ministry; it gave authenticity to his ministry.
But I do think he wanted to tell people there is more to the Kingdom than healing. The story of the ten lepers show us that you can be healed by the King, but never enter the Kingdom. Only one of the ten turned around and thanked and acknowledged the Healer. (Luke 17:12)
He wanted to show us that his ministry was more than meeting physical needs. In the teachings contained in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus the Great Physician was explaining to the people on the hillside and to us today that he has preventative medicine for physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. And he is telling us that we are to seek first his Kingdom, his righteousness and not his abilities. He was giving us himself and by doing so teaching us the ethics of Christian life. We can’t duplicate his righteousness, but we can imitate him.
Words are powerful and they can shape us both for the good and the bad. Jesus in this text encourages us that he will teach us his ways. He will teach us to know when God has spoken to us.
Jesus sat down and taught and he gave all who would have ears to hear, an opportunity to participate in the ministry of the Kingdom. To those who are only auditing the Kingdom he invited them to participate in a relationship with the King.
There was a message he has that he didn’t want people to miss. The teachings he introduced were not like the ones the people were hearing from the teachers of the law. He even said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20
In the Matthew 5:41 He astonishes the crowd with “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Jesus is teaching us in the breadth of these teachings, to love, to love with a kind of love that is beyond expectation to love beyond what is required. Kingdom living is some thing more, something beyond our ability.
So what exactly did Jesus teach? He taught
"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.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5: 3-11
You will notice in the text that there is not a pronouncement of blessing without a prescription for it. And the things we find we are to do we cannot do. Or we cannot do naturally. He is not saying you are blessed if you are poor, don’t flaunt your money. Poor here means poor in spirit, bankrupt in our own capacity, empty of self. It refers to the act of dying to self.
Jesus, the one qualified to teach because he had the authority to teach, also comes
As Lord, not helper,
The Bread of Life, not a vitamin.
The Water of Life, not a flavored drink
Sustainer not a quick fix.
Comforter not a band aid
Giver of Life, not an appeal
We are just plain full of ourselves and we need to die to self in ordered to fully participate in Kingdom living. Paul said in Colossians 2:6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. We came to Christ knowing we could not save ourselves, we live in Christ knowing we have no righteousness of our own.
If I am empty of myself then God can fill me. Why would a Christian not want Jesus to fill their lives? What gets in the way? We don’t continue to live in Christ and allow ourselves to be full of him when we don’t understand Kingdom living is not an accumulation of knowledge. Paul says we are to die to self daily.
We get off track when we overlook Christ as the source of Kingdom living because we take the road of success and accumulation. We become afraid of what it might mean for us personally if we totally give our lives, will we have to quit our job, move some where we don’t want to move, give up a habit? Living fully for Christ can be fearful.
We may fail to live fully in the Kingdom, in the power of Jesus in us because we are holding on to something. It may be a grudge we hold against someone that is keeping us from Kingdom living. It may be a prejudice we have, we may not want to leave our comfort zone. Or we may just be content were we are and are not frustrated with our lives. That will keep us from becoming more like Christ. Comfort is as deadly to the pursuit of the Kingdom as temptation. In fact in resisting temptation we are more likely to see our need for God than someone who is comfortable.
And if we do not wrestled with the things that keep us from the Kingdom we will miss the blessing of God. Blessing meaning the fullness of happiness.
Tonight as I finish this devotional I look back on these teachings and the weeks in-between their writing. Sometimes the distance of passing time gives one a better perspective. I took dinner to my friend tonight; a simple act of love. It was healing for me, more so than I believe a relief for her to not have to cook as she cares for 4 little ones and a husband recovering from surgery. I have a full stomach and the fullness of happiness the scriptures talk about. I just wish more people would taste and see that the Lord is good, that they would love beyond themselves. The world needs that and we need it even more.