Is our faith just about getting myself to heaven at the end of my life? Is it just about being “good enough” or being a “good person”?

In the Adult Forum on Sunday, we were reviewing chapters 7-11 of The Story and got talking about heaven and salvation. We said that, in Lutheran theology, we speak of the “already and not yet” of the Kingdom of God – this means that God’s Kingdom is already here through Jesus and the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit, but God’s Kingdom is not yet fully present because of sin. So, we can experience God’s salvation and we can experience heaven both now and after we die.

What does this have to do with the nifty picture to the left this week? Everything. When we talk about the Kingdom of God now, we’re talking about how we live our creed … how we live as people of faith.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the downward arrows are where we begin. They represent God taking the first step toward us in grace. In turn, we worship God. The etymology of the word “worship” is about acknowledging the worth of something. When we spend time with God both inside and outside of church, we are saying that God is worthy of our time and worthy to be our God. That may sound presumptuous for us to say God is worthy, but, think about it, we judge all the time what is and is not worthy of our time.

If we only focused on God’s grace and our response in worship, is that really the point of what God wants for our lives of faith? God is also looking for our lives to bear fruit. That fruit comes in many forms, but it is about using our God-given gifts to bring God’s love wherever we go – to all nations and all people. Isn’t this God’s mission … that all people would know His love and His presence?

[For “all people”, consider John 3:16-17, Isaiah 42:6, 49:6; Luke 2:32]
[For “fruit”, consider Galatians 5, especially verses 16-26; Matthew 3:8-10; Luke 3:8-9]
[For the directions of this relationship, see Luke 10:27; Mark 12:29-31; Matthew 22:37-40; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8 among many others] 

In this season of giving and as 2013 draws to a close, how are you in each of these directions: (1) receiving the love of God, (2) worshipping God, and (3) reaching out to the world in Jesus’ name?

God is about relationship. He wants a relationship with you. And through you, the world.

 

Resources

Sermon 12/15/2013 @ 8:00am Advent 4 B

Sermon 12/22/2013 @ 11:00am Advent 4 B