The search for the kingdom of heaven is not difficult. It is surprisingly easy to find and there is not an application process which you must complete and pass in order to be accepted.
This is quite unlike finding a good golf course with well priced green’s fees. I love the laidback nature of golf. I love the peaceful walks on the well manicured lawns. It makes me pretend that I have found the kingdom of heaven.
In the continuing drama of Jira’s search for a place to golf, it has been hard to find this well manicured the kingdom of heaven. The Towanda course is great, but the green’s fees are too much and there is no way I could afford a membership. I searched some more and found a beautiful course in Dallas. It looked peaceful. It looked challenging. It looked like a golfer’s heaven. It looked like I may need to prove through a pay stub that I have a six digit income in order to join. I do not. My green kingdom seemed allusive.
“You can’t afford it. You aren’t of the correct social standing. You aren’t rich enough. You aren’t wearing a collared shirt. I don’t care if it is a nice sweater.”
You do realize that many people see churches in the same way?
“You aren’t rich enough. You aren’t of the right social standing. You don’t have the right clothes. You aren’t one of us.”
Oh, most people do not directly say it, but they know when these words are being spoken through sideways glances and whispers. Being rejected once again in life, many searching people look elsewhere for the kingdom of heaven. It obviously does not reside in the church, they conclude.
Not long ago, my son Aaron bought me a Father’s Day ticket into paradise. With the promise of a $20 Wednesday and unlimited play, we wandered our way up to Waverly. No sooner had we walked up to the club house and the chef greeted us with a smile and a golf cart ready to go. The chef greeted us!
“Play any hole you like for as long as you like,” he said.
The bartender gave us another additional $10 off just for the heck of it and wished us a good game. As we headed out onto the beautifully peaceful fairways, I couldn’t help but think that we were blessed. “Blessed are the golf starving pastors, for they will find a nice, green fairway.”
You did not have to be rich to play on Wednesday night. You did not have to have a high social standing to be greeted and served a cart by the chef. All you needed was a desire to play golf.
Neither do you need to fill out an application and be approved by your good standing to find the kingdom of heaven. The qualifications are easy and the burden is light.
-Is your spirit broken? Do you desire healing? The kingdom is yours.
-Is your heart stabbing with pain from loss? The green, peaceful kingdom is yours.
-Do you find that you are meek? You wish to neither control other people’s lives nor have a drama filled existence yourself? Then there is a spot for you.
-Do you hunger and thirst that things be made right and good? Welcome.
-Have you been accused of having a soft heart because you know you need forgiveness yourself? Have a seat, rest those weary legs, you are forgiven.
-Is your heart open to see God, not as you want God to look like, but as God truly is. Then open your eyes, and God will be right there.
-Are you searching for peace? Do you see peace as the answer to the problems of the world? Welcome to the family of God.
-Do people dismiss you because you don’t want to follow the ways of the world, but the ways of God? You have already stepped into the kingdom of heaven.
“Rejoice and be glad,” for you have found that which you desire. Your desire for more in life has landed you squarely in the green grass of the kingdom. No application filled with references and accomplishments required.
If that is all the kingdom of heaven is, how in the world does the kingdom of heaven start to look like a golf course that requires a six digit income? Why do people find churches to be anything but a place where the head chef pulls up a golf cart and prepares you for a great game?
I think it is because we forget. We simply forget; that is all. We forget that what brought us into the kingdom was not our high standards or good life or great moral fabric. What brought us in was our need for God to rescue us…the need for something better; nothing more. We forget so easily.
We forget that being brought into the kingdom is like the teenager who sits alone on the side of the dance floor who receives an unexpected hand stretched out for a dance. We forget that walking into the kingdom is like a coworker of someone who died, it was a person whom they loved, but they are not close enough to get a seat of honor, who in their loneliness has someone tap them on the shoulder and say, “I see you are going to miss him…I will too.” We forget that joining the kingdom of heaven is like the member of a dysfunctional family, who striving and failing to make things right, who gets an invitation from the neighbor to spend some time next door where they can ba a part of a loving family. We forget.
Living in the kingdom is not complicated.
-Kingdom people remain poor is spirit: trusting in God’s ability to make things right.
-Kingdom people do not forget to mourn life: trusting in God’s comfort.
-Kingdom people do not seek greatness: trusting that God’s greatness is enough.
-Kingdom people desire the world to be made right: watching God make it happen.
-Kingdom people grant mercy to other because they see they need it themselves.
-Kingdom people desire to see God, and they do.
-Kingdom people are peaceful, because God’s family is peaceful.
-Kingdom people find life in God, because that is the only place where it is found.
Blessed are you, for the kingdom of God is yours.
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