Matthew 18:1-14  |  God’s kingdom is breaking into ours. Through you.

But not because you’re so great.

Nope. In fact, our own greatness gets in the way.

When we rely on our competence, our skills, our effort, we fail to recognize the actual places and ways God wants to use our gifts.

Oh, I know, it often starts with God’s prompting. But then we take it and run. “Thanks, God, I’ll take it from here!”

And if we do succeed because we’re so great, such kingdom breakthrough will be attributed to our power not God’s. And the breakthrough won’t really be as great and lasting as it could be.

In being about what God is about, humility is the name of the game.

Unless you’d rather that people celebrate you instead.

Psalm 29 | Genesis 50 | Matthew 18:1-14

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Isaiah 54:4

When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand
about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time,
for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Mark 13:11

Merciful Father, we thank you for always being with us. We are thankful
for the power to see clearly the task set before us provided by the Holy
Spirit who dwells within our hearts. Amen.

Matthew 17:14-27 | “Do you think I’m always going to be around? Do you think I’m always going to be here to heal people? I won’t.” Jesus was frustrated. It was one more instance of his disciples not getting it.

The crowds wanted healing. They had been experiencing the power of God’s kingdom breaking into ours – the power of grace, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, wholeness, life. Today, the disciples had given it a go, but they were unable to heal a suffering boy.

But Jesus wouldn’t always be here to be the one through whom the kingdom would be poured out. While Jesus would be the only Messiah, Jesus didn’t intend for him to be the only one through whom the glory of God’s kingdom could be experienced.

“That’s why,” Jesus says to the disciples, “I’m pouring my life into you. I’m giving you everything I have. I want you to be able to do what I do. God’s kingdom is here – through you.”

It is their birthright as children on God. It is your birthright, too. You are God’s kids. Therefore, you are heirs (Romans 8:14-17). Everything that belongs to God, our Father, our Abba, Daddy, belongs to you.

But the disciples didn’t have faith in this promise. That is, they weren’t claiming their kingdom authority as God’s kids representing their Daddy in the world. How were they – and how are we – to claim that authority?

“The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)” The Son is about what the Father is about. This is where kingdom authority comes from. Staying alert to where God is and to what God is doing in the world, and then going there and being about what God is about.

And we are only able to do this through humility. We must give up our own agendas and put on God’s agenda. We must surrender our need to be in control in order to recognize that God is in control. We must empty our hands, releasing everything we carry – all that weighs us down, all that holds us back, all the hurdles we put in our own way, all our struggles, all our joys, all our competency, all our skills – we must release everything we carry and allow God to sort through it and then give back to us the tools we need to do the job God is calling us to accomplish.

Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). And we can only receive what God has to give us if our hands are empty.

Psalm 28 | Genesis 49 | Matthew 17:14-27

Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2,12-17; Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Psalm 116:8

Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him. Matthew 14:29-31

Creator of the universe, only you can deliver our souls from death. When we become overwhelmed with the activities of the world, let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Psalm 27:8 | My heart tells me to pray. I am eager to see you face.

We live with a God-shaped hole, that nothing else will fill. We try. Our appetite tells us to consume our way to meaning and satisfaction. Our ambition tells us to compete with others, doing unto them before they do it to you, showing them who’s boss, who has the power, taking all that you can get. We strive for affirmation – please, please, please tell me I’m good enough, I’m popular, celebrate me. (For an excellent unpacking of this, see Mike Breen’s original blog post).

In the beginning, God scooped up the dust and formed us, molded us into his people. God’s fingerprints are all over us. God’s handprint marks us. We were always intended to live with the outstretched presence of God’s hand on our lives. It’s how our Abba, our Daddy, created us.

He gives us our identity. We are his children. Because he says so. It’s all gift. It’s all love. It’s all grace.

And as we live in the power of God’s grace, as we live in the gift of our identity as God’s child, others can’t help but be impacted by it.

Photo attributed to Fergal of Claddagh via flickr and used under Creative Commons.

Matthew 17:1-13 | Up on the mountain the promise of identity is proclaimed once again. God declares about Jesus to the disciples, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says!”

Jesus is what it looks like to live fully in your identity.

In conversation about this Transfiguration event, one of my colleagues offered that the difference between transfiguration and transformation is that transfiguration is a transformation that reveals God’s glory and God’s kingdom here in our midst.

As we live more and more out of our identity as God’s children, your life is not just transformed, it’s transfigured.

God is saying to you, “With you I am well pleased. You are my beloved child.”

Embrace your identity. And as you do, you will see that God’s kingdom is breaking into ours. Through you.