The Kingdom Coming Near

Epiphany 3

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Our annual meeting invites us to reflect on the prior year and look ahead as best we can. I began to think about all of the repairs, renovations and remodeling Good Shepherd has done over the last ten years.

When Meg and I came for my interview, the nursery had been fairly recently remodeled and refurbished, and we loved it. It said a lot to us about the commitment the church had to the babies and toddlers you had, as well as the ones yet to come.

Remembering that, I took a mental walk through all of our buildings and grounds, starting with our reception area and working through the office wing into the parish hall, kitchen, educational wing and into the main church. Then across the street to the Kenney Youth Building, the nursery, the Campbell building, our apartments and then downtown to our Thrift Shop. I made a list. Every building and all of our grounds have been remodeled and/or renovated in significant ways.

That speaks to people. Many of you will remember the Reverends Steve and Pam Easterday, our in-laws who have filled in for me a couple of times. When they filled in for the first time last summer, they remarked, “The church is so well maintained. We didn’t see any deferred maintenance and everything was clean and in order.” Whether or not newcomers specifically notice that, it matters.

Flip that idea around. If you go to the restroom in a restaurant and, even if it is clean, it has dim, gloomy lighting and everything looks old and worn, it could ruin your appetite. You may be wondering how Fr. Tim is going to go from a dingy bathroom to the Gospel. Here we go!

Today’s gospel shares Matthew’s account of how Jesus opened his public ministry and called his first disciples. Jesus proclaims, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven  has come near.” (2x)

What is “the Kingdom of Heaven”? In short, it is the ultimate consummation of God’s will. It is God setting right everything that has ever gone wrong in his creation. It is heaven. Yes, that is spiritual and heaven is also physical. This is wonderfully described in old English as the end of corruption. We tend to think of corruption as being moral, personal sin and often systemic sin. People’s individual and communal intent goes awry. All of that is over. And so is the corruption, the decay, of our bodies. It all works together.

The Kingdom is God’s victory over sin and death itself. All sin is scrubbed away and locked out. Every hurt is healed. Every tear is wiped away. No more pain. No more suffering.

We tend to think of that as being up the road, when we die or when Jesus comes again, whenever either may be, whichever comes first. We hold that as our destination and try to move in that direction, as we should.

But Jesus also said at the outset of his ministry, the kingdom “…has come near.” Near? Where? Should they start fanning out in all directions to find it? Of course not. The Kingdom has come near in the person of Jesus himself. He is “Exhibit A” of God’s Kingdom. He has no sin, and he forgives sin. He personifies God’s victory over sin. He will confront the corruption that sin causes systems. He heals all manner of diseases. He heals the blind, the deaf and the lame. He frees people from the clutches of evil demons. He wipes away every tear. His resurrected body doesn’t age or die. There is no more pain, no more suffering in him.

When Jesus calls his first disciples, he begins a long and deliberate process of preparing them for the biggest, most important task in history, which Matthew quotes at the very end of his gospel.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

They are not only to tell people about Jesus, they are to bring them into fellowship with Christ himself, and thereby, with them, become the Body of Christ in the world, teaching what he said and doing what he did. They will go, say and do these things not by their own strength or merit. God doesn’t work that way.

Rather, they will be driven, directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. When they heal people from whatever affliction, it is not by their power but always and only by the power of God’s Holy Spirit working through them. The Kingdom of Heaven will continue to break out into the world in and through them. Then it will break out in and through those who come to know Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit through their witness. This will continue across cultures and across time all the way to right here and right now.

Here we are, with our buildings and grounds in very good shape. (There is always more to do!) I hope that everyone who loves this church feels good about that. I hope everyone who participated in planning and enacting and paying for all of those projects feels good about that.

We are a very healthy church in terms of our ministries, both to those within our congregation and to our community, region and mission partners in distant parts of the world. Everyone who participates and supports our ministries should feel good about that.

We are a very healthy church in terms of our membership. We are what churches ought to be. We have many members who are hale and hearty in their 90’s, a lovely group of babies and toddlers, and every age in between. It’s rare in our Episcopal Church, and frankly stunning to find that here in little Lake Wales.

But all of us should recognize that it all comes to pass because God is working through us. And to what purpose? To continue Jesus’s Great Commission. The Kingdom of Heaven is here.

What God has done in and through us gives us a great platform, a great opportunity, to help people – within the church and outside the church – glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven, then experience it. It’s investment and reinvestment to help his Kingdom come near to more and more people. We all have a stake in this, together and forever.

AMEN!