Pastor Judy's Blog

Kingdom Come

Several years ago I lived just down the road from a farm that raised cows. It wasn’t a big farm but there were about 35 head of cattle, a fair number of chickens, and the occasional turkey being fattened up for the fall. Early each spring the number of cattle doubled during calving season and each spring I walked down to that farm to see the cute little calves with their big brown eyes all quietly suckling from utters that seemed to contain an endless supply of milk.

Their quiet suckling was part of the farm landscape all through summer and into early fall at which time the farmer would separate the calves from their mothers so that they could be weaned off their mothers’ milk and onto feed. You would not believe the noise a hungry calf can make. And no amount of conversation with the calf can convince them that this weaning is a good and necessary process that has been wisely discerned and ultimately healthy for their development. Those calves just keep on crying for the way it used to be.

Isn’t this how most of us feel when God weans us off a life of blessing and introduces us to the path of maturity? How many of us are whining at the gate wanting to go back to the days when our faith was simple and “Jesus” was the answer to every Sunday School question? How many of us remain unconvinced that learning to chew is going to benefit us in the long run?

Being involved in the work of God’s Kingdom requires that we be weaned from the simple suckling we did as new believers and begin to chew on the stuff that will help us grow into maturity. Those of us who seek the Kingdom need to learn to chew on the realities of injustice and suffering, racial reconciliation and the difficult work of true community, how we’re spending our money and the difficult work of true repentance. This weaning process is not always pleasant but it is necessary if we want to become “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:4).

Today is Ash Wednesday and it marks the beginning of Lent, a church season where we are invited to wean ourselves off of anything that gets in the way of reaching full maturity in our relationship with Jesus Christ and his call to the Kingdom. We will enter into this season of Lent by having ashes placed on our foreheads as a symbol that we are ready to be weaned off of the old patterns that held us back from the full plan of God for our lives. We will hear the words “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." and we will allow ourselves to be marked as those who seek not just blessing but who willingly wean themselves so that they might reach full maturity.

This morning Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi , author of the book Kingdom Come, will open God’s Word to us as we gather around the cross and consider what it looks like to be a mature kingdom people who willingly bearing the marks of the death and resurrection of Jesus and who look forward to the day when Jesus will return and put a final end to death and announce the resurrection of all things. Let me encourage as we worship together this morning to quit wasting your time crying at the gate for how it used to be…it is time to move forward into the kingdom. God is looking for women and men who desire to be fully weaned and mature and during this season of Lent I challenge you to the difficult task of weaning yourself off of anything that would hold you back from full kingdom maturity. Let’s grow up together!

Kingdom Diversity

Twenty years ago I was a student at North Park University (I know I look too young to have been here that long ago J ). At that time there were only a handful of African American students that attended the college. There was a Black Student Association on campus that provided some support and advocacy and a handful of non-white faculty and staff that challenged the homogeneity of our campus, but for the most part we were not ethnically or racially diverse and what diversity existed rarely crossed paths with one another.

That’s why this morning’s chapel service will be a time of great rejoicing. This morning North Park’s Plack Student Association and the campus chapter of the NAACP is partnering with University Ministries and the School of Music to present an opportunity for our campus community to engage the traditions of the African-American (AA) church. We will be ushered into worship by a choir directed by Rollo Dillworth and will hear the word of God preached by Rev. Dr D. Darrell Griffin, pastor of Oakdale Covenant Church, the largest African American Church in the Evangelical Covenant denomination.

Over 100 years ago some Swedish immigrants came to the United States seeking new life and the freedom to worship God. Realizing that they could not do the work of God well if they remained isolated as singular congregations they covenanted together so that they could do mission work. Although they differed on some significant theological issues they made the decision that the Kingdom of God required that the people of God come together to do mission. Is it possible that we as a community are beginning to live into the dream of those that founded the Evangelical Covenant, that we have begun to realize that our diversity need not divide us and that our mission can surely unite us?

Come this morning and rejoice with us that the good work that was begun by Swedish Immigrants is being continued through people that are far more diverse. Come this morning and rejoice with us that good work that God begun on this plot of land so many years ago is being carried on in our classrooms, hallways, ball fields, dormitories, faculty and staff meetings and on paths that are far more likely to cross with one another. Come this morning and rejoice in the fact that you and I are being called into this great work that will one day be complete.