Sunday School, July 7, 2019 C proper 9

Sunday School, July 7, 2019                    C proper 9

Theme:  The kingdom of God is near

Imagine being born in the United States and not being aware that one is an American citizen.  What if you went to mom or dad and ask them, “Can I be an American citizen?”  Your parents would say, “Dear, you are already an American citizen.  You have been an American citizen since you were born.  Why don’t you know and believe that you are an American citizen?”

Jesus chose messengers because he knew that many people were living without the knowledge of the most important information of their lives.  Jesus wanted people to know that the kingdom of God was very near.

Since God created the world, it means that the world is God’s kingdom.  And so all people born in God’s kingdom are God’s children and citizens of God’s kingdom.  Jesus found that there were many people who did not know that they were in God kingdom.  Jesus found that many people had been tricked by religious leader to believe that God did not care for them and that God was not their Father.  Jesus gathered his friends and he taught them to go and tell people about God as their Father and about everyone living in the Kingdom of God.  He also sent his friends to tell people the truth about their own lives; to tell all people that they were children of God in God’s kingdom and that no one, not even religious leaders could tell them otherwise.

Today after the 4^th of July  when we remember that we belong in our country as citizens, we also need to remember that we are citizens of God’s kingdom.

Jesus told his friends that even though they did great and important things, that the best thing of all to remember is that “their names were written in heaven.”  This means that being a citizen of God’s kingdom is the greatest thing in life and this is something which we celebrate when we are baptized.

A sermon

Imagine that all of you are princes and princesses and that you live in a castle as your home.  And your mom and dads are kings and queens.

  That would be like living in a Disney Movie, wouldn’t it?

  If your mom and dad were king and queen and you lived in their kingdom, how would you find out that you lived in their kingdom?

  Well they would tell you wouldn’t they?  As soon as you could walk and talk and understand, you would be told about your family kingdom so that you would know.  Wouldn’t it be terrible to be a prince or a princess but not know that you were living in a kingdom?  If you were a prince and princess, wouldn’t you want someone to come and tell you about your kingdom?

  When Jesus came, he found that many people did not know about a great and wonderful kingdom.  So Jesus called and trained disciples and friends to go to as many places as possible and tell people about one thing:  He told them to tell all people that the Kingdom of God has come near to you.  Jesus told everyone that the Kingdom of God belongs to children.  Why did he say this?  Because you don’t have to do anything to be in God’s kingdom.  When you are born as a baby and as a child, you are already in God’s kingdom.  Why?  Because God owns everything and everything and everyone belongs to God.

  When Jesus came, he saw that people had forgotten this.  He saw that people were telling lies.  What kind of lies were they telling?  They were saying that the world belonged to the Roman Emperors.  They were saying that God’s world belonged to the people of one religious belief like the Pharisees or the Sadducees.

  Jesus did not like that the wrong information was being taught so he sent his followers to bring the correct message.  He said to tell everyone that the kingdom of God has come very near to them.

  Jesus came to remind us that even though we have parents; we are also sons and daughters of God and so we live in God’s kingdom from the very day that we are born.

  So why do we come to church?  Why do we baptize?  Why do we have Holy Communion?  We come to church to remember that we live in God’s kingdom as children of God.  We are baptized as a celebration of our membership in God’s family.  We have Holy Communion each Sunday; we eat the bread and drink the wine because we Jesus asked us to do this to remember the kingdom of God.  And we are supposed to do this until everyone understands that they live in God’s kingdom.

  So we too are to remind people that we live in God’s world and God’s kingdom.  When Jesus came, he reminded people that God’s kingdom was very near to them.  We need to remember and remind people today of that same message.  The kingdom of God is very near to us.