Pictures Of The Kingdom Series

3. God’s Party

One of my favourites is one Jesus himself often used; he said God’s kingdom is like a party, a banquet, and a feast. Today God is calling people to leave behind the binge drinking and drugs and join the real party. Leave behind the rat race and workaholism and join his party, leave behind divisive and destructive patterns of behaviour. Leave behind oppressive religion based on fear and join the party of God. Let me relate this story from “The Secret Message of Jesus” of Tony Campolo – he was in a different time zone and couldn’t sleep s got up and went to a doughnut shop well after midnight. There were a number of local prostitutes there after a night’s business and overheard a conversation. One named Agnes said that it was her birthday tomorrow (39th). Her friend replied, “What do you want from me? A party, a cake & sing happy birthday?” Agnes said, “I’m just saying it’s my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life.” Campolo got an idea, he asked the owner if they came in regularly – they did. So he got the owner and his wife in on his plans. They arranged a party for Agnes, candles, cake & typical decorations. Next night they cam in again, when she did she was met with “Surprise! Agnes couldn’t believe it, they sang happy birthday, and she began to cry. When it came to cutting the cake she asked if they wouldn’t cut it so she could keep it awhile & she left cradling her cake like treasure. After this Campolo led the guests in a prayer for Agnes. Now the owner said he didn’t realise he was a preacher, & asked what kind of church he was from, his reply “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3.30am!” Owner replied “No you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there was I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that.

That’s the sort of thing Jesus would do. Jesus went around inviting people to God’s party; he himself went to parties all the time. He was saying his Good News was about joy, God’s party that starts now and goes on forever. The church needs to reflect the kingdom of God; let us invite people to God’s party and show them what that means.

Conclusion

You may be able to think of other pictures that reflect the kingdom of God. What I’m trying to do is get us to see the heart of what Jesus was talking about when he came declaring the Kingdom. Next time I want to look at some stuff in John’s gospel and how that fits in with all this Kingdom stuff.

But what I hope is coming across is what Jesus came to do. His Gospel was that this kingdom, God’s dream, revolution and party were at hand. At hand means near, available to all, everyone. All that was needed was to repent, to change, and to follow Jesus. It wasn’t about joining a religion, it was being part of God’s dream, joining a revolutionary new way of living, of coming to a party, a party that would start now and go on forever. It was Good News, how many people would be like that shop owner who said, “I’d join a church like that!” Let’s model Christianity like that.