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Forfeiting to win
Proper 18 | OT 23 | Pentecost 15
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New illustrations for 2010
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| Wayne Brouwer |
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Our youngest daughter was born in Nigeria while I was teaching at the Reformed Theological College in Mkar. Because the Nigerian government does not automatically grant citizenship to all who are born on its soil, Kaitlyn was truly a person without a country in her earliest days. Until I could process her existence with the United States consulate in Kaduna she had no official identity, no traveling permissions, and no rights in society outside of our home. We took a picture of her at five days old, sleeping in my hands, and this became the photograph used on her passport for the first ten years of her life. The snapshot may have become outdated quickly as she grew through the stages of childhood, but the passport to which it was affixed declared that she belonged to the United States of America. She had rights. She had privileges. She had protection under the law. When the time came for us to leave Nigeria and travel through three continents to get back to North America, that little passport opened doors and prepared the way for her. She had never lived in the US, but the US knew her by name and kept watch over her.
So it is and more with the kingdom of heaven, according to Jesus. It becomes the badge of identification for us, as well as the symbol of our protection and care. When we choose other allegiances, or dig around for treasures in our own backyards we get from them what we are looking for -- things that we can possess. But when the glory of the Great Kingdom comes our way, or we stumble onto the pearl of great price, we realize that our little hoards are insufficient. It is not enough to own a piece of fading substance; we need to be owned by something that transcends our time. We need God to lay hold on us.
This is why, in many of the earliest liturgical forms for baptism, those who were newly coming into the fellowship of believers were asked if they renounced the devil and all his works. Early on it was recognized that entering the kingdom of God was more than just adding another spiritual talisman to the mix of superstitious hex warders; it was a fundamental commitment of identity that could not be shared. No dual passports in this kingdom! The truly great treasure demands that one sell everything else. It is exclusive. And when it is purchased, it actually purchases you.
Jeremiah knew this the day that God gave him an object lesson at the potter's house. Without submission to the master's hand, the clay could never become a vessel of honor. Paul gave the same instruction in another context to his good friend Philemon, master of an estate and owner of young Philemon. Unless Philemon remembered his own slavery to Jesus, he would never become "useful" in the things that really matter. Of course, Jesus, in our gospel reading for today, makes the point with incisive certainty. In order to win, we need to forfeit. Giving up to God is the first stage of finding ourselves in the way that ultimately matches who we are in the first place -- citizens of the Kingdom of God....
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