The Kingdom of God is Near

It was really quite an amazing sight. The first time I remember flying into Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport, it was at night – late afternoon actually but it was in the winter season and the sun had already set. The plane took a wide sweep around the metro region; the air was clear and crisp. Off in the distance I could see the Washington Monument, the Capitol dome. The plane banked just as we crossed the beltway around the city, I-495, and there below us was rush hour, a solid stream of lights, headlights in one direction, red tail lights in the other, creeping along so slowly, barely moving, thousands of cars, with hundreds of thousands of people inside. I thought, “It looks like ants, an anxious horde of insects circling the city.”

Two weeks ago I had the chance to go to my first Washington National’s baseball game at RFK stadium. It was a great game even though we lost. RFK is a huge stadium, and there was a good crowd there, but it still looked half empty. We took the Metro home however, and there we met the crowds. A block away from the entrance to the station, thousands of people fought their way to the escalator. And then once we got onto a train, we were packed together, strangers pressed together so close in ways it would never be tolerated anywhere else. We really were like sardines pressed in a can.

When you see a crowd of people, from a distance or up close, what do you see? When you face the rush of people at the mall or the press of cars passing by us on University Boulevard on Sunday morning, what do you see? Who do you see?

When Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching, preaching, and working wonders and healing, he was pressed in by crowds of people. Curious people, hungry people, desperate people, searching people, hostile people, people who wanted to know who he was, people who wanted to hear his words, people who wanted his touch, people who followed his voice.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he was not irritated or annoyed, he didn’t shout at them or try to disburse them, he didn’t try to get away from them (at least not this time). He had compassion for them. The word in the original Greek language of the New Testament is stronger than our English word. It literally means, “to suffer with,” compassion. But the root of the word refers to the abdomen of the body, the gut. One translator says he was gut-sick. It is a feeling deep down inside. One usage of the word means “love from the womb,” like the love of a mother for her child. Jesus was deeply moved when he saw the crowd.

They were harassed and helpless. “Wounded” says another translator. They were like sheep without a shepherd. Some of you may remember our study of the 23^rd Psalm before Easter where we learned about the life of sheep and how they depend on their shepherd. Without a shepherd they are lost, a body without a head. They are hungry, waiting to be led to green pastures. They are diseased and taunted by insects, needing the soothing oil from the shepherd to heal their wounds and keep away the flies. They are constantly afraid without the protecting rod of the shepherd keeping the wolves at bay.

Jesus saw the crowds in their confusion and their suffering and turned to his disciples and said, “Go to them. Declare that the Kingdom of God is near, cast out unclean spirits, heal the sick, cure diseases.” He gave them the command, “Go and love them, as I love them.” The gospel lesson tells us who those disciples were: fishermen, a tax collector who collaborated with the Romans, a political zealot who fought the Romans, some who we never really know who they were or where they came from, and finally one who would in the end betray Jesus, one who was his enemy. None of them were highly educated, none known for their eloquence, or bravery. Some were liked, some disliked. They were people like you and me, ordinary folks, called to do extraordinary things.

Go and declare the Kingdom of God. Go and love; go and heal; go and help. Go and tell everyone that God is very near, right here with us. Tell them that holiness is here, that healing is here, that love is here. God is not far away in some heaven in the sky, not far away in some time in the future, not locked away in a temple, not hidden in a scroll. God is not in a secret language or bound by a thousand things that must be done. Go tell them: the Kingdom of God is near. Cast out the evil that oppresses them. Heal their sickness. Bring in those who are despised and rejected.

Jesus said to go only to Jews and not to the gentiles and Samaritans, by which he meant for them to not overlook those closest to them. Don’t assume they have no need to seek God’s face. He is telling us not to look out at the world “out there,” to lands across the sea, a world away. Look right next door. Look at your neighbor. Look at your family, your friends. Do you see the suffering? Do you see the loss? Do you see the fear, the hurt? Later in Matthew, Jesus gives us the great commission to tell the whole world in Chapter 28, but not before we attend to the ones who are passing right before us.

When I was at the Pastor’s conference two weeks ago, I heard Tony Campolo for the first time. He is pastor and teacher and a passionate campaigner of telling good news of God in Christ. He told us about the organization he has founded that sponsors youth out of high school to spend a year in service with people in need. Like Americorp or Peace Corp, young people spend time living in a community seeking ways to serve. Eight to ten youth live together in an inner city poor neighborhood like DC or Baltimore.

And the main thing they do is this: each day they go from house to house or apartment, and finding someone home, they ask if they can pray a blessing on their home. They don’t ask about the religious faith of the occupants; they don’t ask to come in; they don’t ask for money or for them to buy anything; they don’t preach about the four spiritual laws. They simply ask to pray a blessing on this house. Some people close the door; some people shout at them. But many say yes. After all, who would not want a blessing?

After the prayer they move on. But often it is not before a conversation is started. People share what’s going on in their lives. Someone is without a job. Someone is getting evicted. Someone is sick and can’t leave their house. Someone has lost their mother. Someone has a son in a gang. Someone is dying.

There are more prayers. But then they talk about the job center down at the Catholic Church and how to get connected there and get help with a job. They talk about the food bank and where people can go to get help with groceries when the check just won’t stretch any farther. They talk about the AIDS clinic where people can go to get the retroviral they need to stay alive. They talk about the center run by the downtown churches that helps pay for prescription drugs, helps with rent payments to stave off evictions. Most of the time, says Campolo, they don’t need to create new programs to help people, just help people connect with what is already there.

The youth come into the community with the good news, the Kingdom of God is near, and then go about freeing, helping and healing, just like Jesus asked them to.

The youth of SSPC are doing the same thing this summer on the youth mission trip to Appalachia. They go to a poor community in a rural part of the USA. They come together for worship and prayer. They pray a blessing on the homes of the families they will help, and then they set about repairing and renewing houses, making homes cleaner, safer, dryer. They are Christian evangelists, declaring, “The Kingdom of God is near!”

On the second Thursday of each month, you members of SSPC go to downtown Silver Spring to serve at Shepherd’s table. A blessing is said and poor and homeless people who were hungry have a warm meal for the night. “The Kingdom of God is near!”

We are Christ’s disciples this day. We look out at the crowds around us, wherever we may be — in school, on the train, the bus, on the beltway, living right next door. And we see not strangers, not a mob, not a hostile crowd. We see people who are hurting, people who are lost and afraid. We see people who are hungry, cold and alone. Go, go, go tell them. “It’s alright. God is here, right here. You are safe. Let healing come into your life. Let wholeness come into your heart. The Kingdom of God has come near.” Amen.