Sermon preached at St Peter’s Tewin and at Ayot St Peter – November 25 2007; Stephen Fielding

‘For God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves’
(Colossians 1:19)

It has been a rather turbulent week. Northern Rock, 25million child benefit records going missing, an England coach sacked, former defence chiefs lining up in a chorus of criticism at the treatment of our soldiers. But what stood out for many - amid the crisis in the money markets and the fiasco over child benefit data disclosure - was the celebration of the diamond wedding of the Queen and Prince Philip. Many people will have reflected with happiness and gratitude on the years of dedicated service to this country that the Queen has given.

Last year I had the great pleasure of attending a conference in Windsor Castle. Among other things, what really stood out for me was that we were able to attend a service in St George’s chapel. Perhaps you can picture it. It’s a very impressive building, with its symbols of monarchy and majesty.

And at evensong in that atmospheric place, we heard the electrifying story of Daniel in the Lions’ Den - Daniel the man of God thrown to the lions because he refuses to pray to the king but insists instead on praying to the most high God. And incredibly, miraculously, God saves Daniel. The miracle causes the king to adopt Daniel’s God. This is he what he says:

For he is the living God with a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

So the words rang out to say that there is one greater than any earthly king or queen, however great and however admired. The sovereign Lord is King.

That the Lord is King is a recurring theme running right through the whole of the Old Testament. It is written on virtually every page. This theme of the kingdom of God was alive on the lips of Jesus throughout his recorded life. 90 times in the gospels is he heard to speak of the kingdom. He thought and taught and preached about the kingdom of heaven.

Think of all those parables or stories of the kingdom that Jesus told. I remember being struck by the fact that when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven, very often he is speaking about the king of heaven. For example, have you noticed that when Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant, what he means is that the king of heaven, God, is like a merchant who sells everything he has to buy a pearl of great price. And the pearl of great price that God has sold everything to buy is quite simply you and me. He’s given up his only Son so as to buy us back. You and I are the pearl of great price, and the buying back is quite literally our redemption.

Or take another example. The king of heaven is like a farmer who wants a great crop. Or a fisherman who wants a great catch. Whether it’s a highly valuable pearl, a great crop or a great catch, what God wants is you and me. In each case what God, the king of heaven, desires is our salvation – you and me enjoying an abundantly rich life with God forever.

Archbishop William Temple used to say that we are the centre of our own world – and how true that is. You go to a great football or cricket match, or to a Foo Fighters concert, and you feel really alive. But Archbishop Temple was thinking primarily of the risks of being the centre of our own world – the danger of self-centredness. St Paul says this state of being the centre of our own world is a kind of darkness. And from that state of darkness, he says, God has rescued us. ‘God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness’. Paul is in no doubt from his own personal experience that it is a story of divine rescue, achieved in and through the cross. Jesus has given himself utterly for our salvation – and he gives himself still.

Jesus is the centre of his own world, which is heaven itself. And what he asks of us is to move the centre of our world towards the centre of his – to occupy the place where he is, the place to which he welcomes us. Do you see the cross as the bridge over which we can reach the kingdom of heaven? Or the loving outstretched arms of Jesus inviting us to be with him, inhabiting the place he inhabits, breathing the air he breathes? These are good images. And it all means that the kingdom of heaven, so far from being a far off place in a far off time, is available to you and me, here and now, through the person of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus at the heart of heaven is the model calling us to him, then you may agree that it is the model too for our churches, as places of sacred space into which Christians are called and which model the welcoming inviting love which Jesus himself displays. So the model of the good host, of the one who welcomes, is the role for us all within the household of faith. Just imagine how good it feels to be welcomed and acknowledged and loved in the church. More than anything it may tell of a love that welcomes because it is like the gift of God to which it points.

So Jesus is the heart of heaven, within a kingdom and with a kingship which will last for ever. He bids us to move the centre of our world to the centre of his. Come to me, he says, whether you’re weary, frustrated, joyful, depressed, full of gratitude for your life or angry at how it short changes you – however you are, and whoever you are, the one who calls promises the citizens of the kingdom of heaven life in all its fullness. This is the meaning of the ‘kingdom of the Son God loves’. AMEN