(texts: 1 Kings 8:41-43, Romans 1:16-17, Matthew 8:5-13)
The kingdom of God has no borders, and
no native inhabitants. We are all immigrants there, but at the same
time, we are also all citizens of that Kingdom.
Now, a text like the end of the gospel
for today has often been used to demean the Jewish people. Christian
theologians of all times have taken great pleasure in explaining how
God has cast the Jewish people aside, and chosen the Christians
instead. Drawn to its conclusion, a statement like that could lead,
and has led, to horrors like the Holocaust.
On Tuesday we observe the international
day of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. Jews, Roma,
people with physical and mental disabilities, Communists, nuns,
Social Democrats, resistance fighters... Many died in the camps of
the Axis powers. But Roma and Jews were especially targeted simply
for being born into an ethnicity that the Nazis and Fascists
considered unclean and undesireable. And it is a source of shame and
great regret for us as Christians that there were people of the
church cheering the murders on, often with Biblical quotes like the
one in our gospel today.
There is nothing Christian in killing
people. Ever.
There is nothing Christian in declaring
the exclusion of certain people.
In the Kingdom of God we are all
immigrants, and all worthy of citizenship.
If we instead shift focus to the first
part of the gospel, a different story emerges. A Roman officer,
someone who is well and truly a stranger and a heathen in the land of
Jesus, comes to him and asks for help for his servant boy.
Not only does one of the occupying
forces ask for help from one of the occupied, he does it for his
servant's sake. The powerful man asks the one without power for help,
for the sake of the powerless. The world turns upside down.
Jesus does not ask for any declaration
of faith. He does not ask for a church membership, nor for tithing or
volunteering. He does not demand baptism. He simply offers to come
with the officer to cure his servant.
Because the foundation of the Kingdom
of God is not our pious statements. It is not our membership rolls or
even the kind acts we do to and for each other.
The Kingdom rests on grace willingly
and lovingly offered by God. To everybody, Jew and gentile, Roman or
Roma, Swedish or Danish or Indian or Greek.
This means that when Christians are
using the Bible to exclude others, they are acting in opposition to
Jesus himself. If a Roman officer from a culture scorned and feared
by righteous Jews of Jesus' time can be used as an example of faith
simply on the grounds of his asking for help, then there is nothing
stopping anyone of us, or anyone else, from being an example. If this
Roman's way of life, background, intentions or family did not matter
to Jesus, why should anyone's matter to us?
God builds no borders or fences. The
Kingdom of God is wide open for anyone who wants to enter in. And for
anyone who would like to leave and then come back. There are no visa
requirements, no limits to how many are allowed to enter. Everyone
that wants to get to be a citizen.
Now, does that mean Jesus was happy
with the occupation of his homeland? Assuredly not. Just as he is not
happy with the state of the world today. But just as true love isn't
earned, but leads to the lovers wanting to be worthy of that love, so
God's love for this world and us who live here is completely
unrequited, but should light in our hearts a desire to be better, to
be worthy of all this love, this life, this grace. Through us this
world can be better.
The Kingdom of God has no borders. It
reaches around the world, encompasses it, lives in the hearts of all
who believe. It touches all, serves all, loves all. It bothers not
with your past. It asks not for eloquent words or declarations of
faith. It only asks ”Do you want me to come with you?”
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