Last Sunday we started our time together with a treasure hunt. We remembered what had been said when we were playing hide and seek, that God seeks us out and finds us. Remembering the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son we set off to find them using the clues we were given. Then we had readings from Matthew 6 : 33 and 13 : 44 and 45 which talk about the Kingdom being like a treasure. The challenge was – do we seek the Kingdom with as much enthusiasm as we had looked for the treasure during the treasure hunt.
We then spent time reflecting on the Kingdom of God.
Seeking The Kingdom.
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33 NLT)
Why is seeking the Kingdom of God so important to us as Christians, and in particular to us in Third Space?
Please reflect on the following:
“The Kingdom is a present dimension of the world we live in, a world where God is actively present and at work, but it is also a coming reality, not here in fullness. Seeing the Kingdom in its present form and not insisting that it take its final form ahead of schedule is a critical balance for the follower of Jesus.
One of Jesus’ most important teachings about the Kingdom is its presence in the last, least, lost, little and obscure. This signals a huge change of perspective for the Christian living in post-evangelical times. We must be sensitive to the presence of the Kingdom in places that our movement treats as unimportant, even “God forsaken.”
We are commanded to actively seek the Kingdom, not just wonder where it might be and talk about possibilities. We are to look for it like a person looks for a lost valuable or a hidden treasure. Wherever Christians are, they are not commanded to wait until the Kingdom comes to them or they are suddenly transformed to the place of seeing the Kingdom. It is in seeking it, in the world as well as in the community of believers, that the Kingdom is discovered.”
Thoughts on seeking the kingdom thanks to internetmonk.com
Grayden found some brilliant liturgy from Jonny Baker which we used as we shared the bread and wine and closed in prayer.
It would not have been God’s table.
On their own the bread and wine are nothing.
To become a foretaste and a promise of love made real,
of the Kingdom in it’s fullness and the world made whole,
they need a story and a people who believe…..
It would not have been God’s table if they hadn’t all been gathered around it:
the betrayer and the friend,
the faithful and the fickle,
the power-hungry and the justice seeker.
When Jesus poured the wine and broke the bread:
when everyone could eat –
the outcast and the beloved,
the arrogant and the gracious,
the wrong doer and the wronged –
the table became a foretaste of love made real,
of the Kingdom in it’s fullness and the world made whole.
And the promise is that when we are together,
when we tell the story, when we break the bread and pour the wine,
we will discover a foretaste of love made real,
of the Kingdom in it’s fullness and the world made whole!
From jonnybaker: worship trick 8.
A BLESSING.
May the extravagant love of God the father
fill our hearts and minds, and his embrace hold us
when we feel unworthy to be called his son or daughter.
May the friendship of Jesus our brother
rid us of any notion that we are nothing
and may we find our home with him in his Kingdom.
May the Spirit of life release us from a world of duty
so that a new joy wells up in our lives.
Let us go and reconfigure the world
in our friendships
in our work places
in our families
in our streets
and in our world.
AMEN.
From jonnybaker: worship trick 87.
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