The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
-Galatians 3:26-28
The Great Ends of the Church are 6 statements found in the PC(USA) Book of Order. They are guiding principles for the church. The 6th and final Great End of the Church is “The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World”.
The Church was formed to create a new community. “The Way”, as the early church was called, was a vastly different group of people and way of living than people had experienced previously. From the beginning, the church has been exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. This new community of believers saw its members of every race, nationality, language, slave and free, women and men, as equals. This was unheard of in the ancient world! Nowhere else could this diverse group of people sit down at one table and share the bread and the cup as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Many times in our long history, the church has failed to be a faithful witness to this great end. Conflicts over theology, church governance, sacraments, ordination, slavery, race, foreign missions, etc. have all caused divisions and, at times, even brutal wars between faithful God-fearing people with different ideologies. These have not been helpful in exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.
In recent times, this infighting has caused a good number of people to flee the church. Instead of exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, we have shown cruelty and infighting to the world. The experience of the church during Covid was another example of good, God-loving people tearing one another apart over different desires about masks and social distancing. This created a great shift in membership as well. What did it exhibit to the world? Unfortunately, it bolstered the thinking that, “Christians can’t get along; so why would I want to join them? They are unkind to their own”.
God calls us to a different way of living in community. The high calling of the Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World provides a framework for this different community life. Do we welcome all equally, regardless of nationality, race, language, gender, social and economic status? Or do we show favoritism and preference? Do we exhibit the love and acceptance of everyone as beloved children of God and leave the transformation of their behavior in the hands of the Holy Spirit? Do we see ourselves and everyone else as sinners in desperate need of a savior? That is how we faithfully exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. They will know we are Christians by our love.
God of Hospitality and Wonder, you welcome us to a table that invites those who are different from us. This invitation has made us uncomfortable, unsettled, and defensive. Our discomfort comes from an unwillingness to see other peoples’ perspectives. Our unsettledness comes from a dependence on the status quo. Our defensiveness comes from a belief that our image of you is the only one that matters. Help us to surrender ourselves to the abundance of your invitation. Inspire us to embrace the fact that diversity is strength, not weakness. Gather us to welcome the stranger, care for the oppressed, and feed the hungry. Forgive us for our short-sightedness and open us to your Gospel that we might better embody the Beloved Community you call us to be. In the Wild and Wonderful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen
