Day 35: “Brought into the Kingdom”

DAY 35

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FIVE: SATURDAY 19 APRIL 2020

“Brought into the Kingdom”

We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

- Prayer for Saturday in Easter Week, The Book of Common Prayer

I hold four citizenships, none of them honorary. I am a native-born citizen of the United States of America. Through the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian affairs, I am  a direct bloodline citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, where my mother was born. Through my wife and with the approval of Canton Aargau, I am a naturalized citizen of Switzerland. These are all meaningful to me, but they are all temporary – they will all be nullified at my last breath.

And the fourth? It is a citizenship in a kingdom without boundaries in time or space: “Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul writes in Philippians 3:20. And the way to gain this citizenship? Nicodemus asked that question of Jesus, to which he replied, “’…unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” Whatever term we want to use – the Greek allows for ‘born again,’ ‘born from above,’ ‘born anew’ – it is a very real citizenship in a very real kingdom and it is the only citizenship which will remain intact when we die. In fact, it is the only citizenship that will gain us life after death, and it’s a citizenship a pandemic cannot touch or take away. 

Jesus through His resurrection has ‘brought us into his kingdom’ out of another: “For he has rescued us from the dominion (kingdom) of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14.

Reflective question: What does it mean to you to hold citizenship in God’s kingdom?

Reflective scripture: Ephesians 2:19 – “…you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”

Reflective hymn: Sweet By and By – Sanford Bennett (1836-1898)

There’s a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar;

For the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there.

In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.

In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.