Sunday November 25,
2018 34th Sunday Ordinary
Time (Cycle B)
Jesus is Lord. What Are You Going To Do About It?
The tie in between
today’s reading: The reactions to: Thy Will Be Done.
There is one pervasive theme running throughout all of our
readings today: Jesus Christ reigns! In heaven; he rules absolutely. When He
commands Gabriel to jump the response is, “How high?” I suppose if you’re an angel, that’s a
legitimate question. On earth, things are a little messier as God allows the
drama of this sinful world to play out while He gathers the last of His elect
to Himself. But know this: He will come
back to claim His throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. It will be a day of
thunderbolts and earthquakes, of rewards and retribution. The Alpha and the Omega will fulfill the
opening statement of the Our Father: Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In this present life, we all live in one of
three categories in our relationship to Jesus Christ and His second coming. You
are either in conflict with it, compliant in it, or committed to it. The
question is where do you fit in?
Conflict is simple enough. You have a free will and you will
not have Jesus to reign over you. You’re
not alone. It’s a pervasive philosophy throughout the world. You are convinced
that the outcomes of your choices will be better if you disregard God. I mean,
if God happens to agree with you, so much the better, but it’s not necessary.
Your pride places your intellect above the Omnipresent Brain that sees the end
from the beginning. This is the very nature of sin and it is dumb. Essentially,
heaven would be hell for the person in conflict with the Almighty. What’s left
for the God of light to do but to oblige your autonomy by sending you out away
from Him and into the darkness to create your own little universe. Consider
though, He did everything divinely possible for you to avoid that fate. Be
careful what you wish for.
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The compliant person sees the benefits of a virtuous life. He believes in the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man. He is invested in
the social gospel of love thy neighbor in order to create peace on earth.
Although he is not perfect, he is convinced that if he does good, then he is good.
He feels that his participation in church will draw him closer to God and help
make the good man that he is even better. His premise is confirmed weekly by
his give no offense pastor, that tickles the ears of the congregation in order
to keep the collection plate full and ensure his own retirement. He only
understands Christ’s sacrifice on the cross in the vaguest of metaphors. He
rationalizes sin and makes it trivial. He is comfortably ignorant, which makes
him unaware that in his mind he has recreated God in his own image. The real
Lord is a stranger to him. So when he meets Jesus face to face he will be
greeted by, “I never knew you.” and be turned away. He was all for the kingdom of God, but didn’t
really care about the King. What he
didn’t realize was that the King is
the kingdom.
The kingdom of God is in you (Luke 17:21).
The committed are
committed because it’s their new nature. The committed know that heaven is
first a state of being and a physical location second. You don’t go to heaven.
Heaven comes to you through your relationship with Jesus Christ. Your faith in
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins means that you
spiritually died with Him on Good Friday and were spiritually made alive with
Him when He resurrected on Easter Sunday. You are spiritually born again into
citizenship of the kingdom of God. This reality is played out in the physical
world as each of the committed live out their new lives modeled after and
sustained by their King. When Jesus comes again to reign on the earth, it is
only to complete physically what has already been done spiritually. For now,
the Kingdom of God is advancing soul by soul and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. We, the committed born again stand as ambassadors of Jesus
Christ with the good news that you can also become a citizen in the kingdom of
God. Accept by faith the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for your sins and
submit to Him as your King of kings
and Lord of Lords. Today! For the kingdom and the power and the glory is God’s
now and forever. Be part of it.
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