reflecting the kingdom

Matt Massey delivered yet another of his "signature" sermons, this one on Reflecting the Kingdom of God. One of the Epicurean philosopher Epictetus's important teachings was that we must become what we do and what we do reflects who we are. As Christians we would disagree. We know that humans are not the sum total of what we do, yet we understand that what we do reflects who we are ... or more precisely, what we do reflects whose we are (Col 3.23).

We are human "beings" not human "doings". But we must do what is true to who we are and if we are Christ's than who we are is a new creation in Christ Jesus. We must contemplate what our lives should look like if we were truly and radically changed by the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Today we considered this in light of story of the woman anointing Jesus at Simon the leper's house. Here we see that love for the poor cannot supersede our love for Jesus. When we love Jesus with all that we are, we will become more like him (Psa 115.4-8; Jer 2.5b; Rom 12.1). Then love for the poor flows from that. All good things flow from that.

Two keys for life in Christ. We are marked by (1) unabashed love and adoration and (2) sacrificial living. In Matthew we saw this woman giving extravagantly to Jesus. Of this one life which was broken at the feet of Jesus, He said she will have her story told forever. As Maximus said, "What we do in life echoes through eternity." Will anyone be telling your story?

I'm not a big Mother Teresa fan but the following anecdote is inspirational.

People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. ... She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery, like a beautiful, wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget - her feet. Her feet were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn't going to ask, of course. "Hey Mother, what's wrong with your feet? " One day a sister said to us, "have you noticed her feet?" We nodded, curious. She said, "Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet." Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet. - Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne, pg. 168

She gave sacrificially. What about you and me? Have we given sacrificially motivated by love for Jesus? Have we brought our "alabaster jars" to Him and poured them out on Him? Our families? Our careers? Our hobbies? Is there anything we hold back? We need to take these jars of what we value and break them open at His feet. And when we do, the aroma that will fill the place will be beautiful.

Jesus said, “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

It's time for us to break open our lives at His feet and be poured out for His use.

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