Stepping into Water

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Matthew 3:1-2

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

Dear friends,

I haven’t watched The Crown and really don’t follow the Royal Family like some do, so a kingdom isn’t common language to me, apart from scripture. In the United States we have a democratic republic where kingdom language is rarely used. When I think of a kingdom, or the U.S., there are boundaries, walls, distinctive borders that differentiate one country and land from another. There are check points and barriers and security one has to navigate when crossing from land to land. You need official documentation stating citizenship where countries vouch for and endorse you as theirs. 

Not so with the kingdom of heaven, or God’s reality and way of life. You need no documentation or baptism certificate. There’s no membership dues or religious formula to follow. There are no borders or walls. Jesus even says how the kingdom of God isn’t here or there, revealing we can’t stake a claim and have some cosmic ability to enclose the space or police the area. 

Oftentimes in the Church, well-meaning pastors and leaders have put guardrails and boundaries in place to protect the people. Within these safeguards, lists of “thou shalt not’s” run long in a way that can confine and stifle a person’s experience of God. Instead of overwhelming love and grace being taught, do’s and don’t’s are upheld. Curious Christians began to ask, “How far can I push the boundaries? Where *exactly* does this boundary end?” Instead of encouraging an abiding relationship with Christ, doing one’s best to stay within the boundaries becomes the goal. Instead of a growing friendship within following Christ, you have to manage how you’re following the rules so not to stray.

I once heard this analogy where the kingdom of God was like an open range. Expansive land stretched for miles into unseen places. This land had no electric fence or barbed wire to keep the cattle from straying too far. On this land was a water trough fed through a spring. This spring provided an abundance of clean drinking water for everything. The cattle never strayed too far because the water was the source of their life and without it they knew they would die. 

I believe the only boundary line to God’s way of life is repentance. Repentance simply means that we missed the water, so it’s time to turn around and head back that way.  

There’s great abundance of Living Water in this dry and thirsty land. May you drink and be satisfied even as you prepare room this Advent.

With (love),

Bethany