Garden City Church

This week, Dennis Allan continued our series by exploring what it means for followers of Jesus and the church to cultivate a prophetic voice in today's culture. In the Hebrerw Scriptures prophets functioned as God's spokespeople, speaking God's words and communicating God's will to God's people. In the Gospels we see Jesus function in a prophetic role by speaking God's words, living as God's Word, communicating God's will, and foretelling the future. And now, in our post-Pentecost world, every person is empowered by the Spirit to call God's people back to covenant faithfulness, remind God's people of their true citizenship in the Kingdom, prompt God's people to return to right relationship with their King, and to declare to God's people, the powers, and the powerful that the Kingdom is at hand. And, Jesus' invitation is to take up this task even if it means sacrificing our reputations, finances, security, safety, or even our very lives. Because our neighbors and the world are searching for Jesus, and we don't find Him inside a politcal party or by electing a particular candidate.

Today, we celebrated as one, extended family dedicated four children and seven people were baptized. Which is why this week's conversation, lead by Dennis Allan, is more a sermonette focused on baptism as the Christian's pledge of allegiance. Baptism is a choice we make where we are naturalized into a new way of living and being, and where we pledge ultimate allegiance to King Jesus. When we're baptized we join into what the apostle Paul refers to as a “new humanity.” According to Paul, in this “new humanity” there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free. These groups of people who had intentionally been separated from one another were now being joined together through Jesus. In baptism everything we are is subordinated to Jesus. Our identity. Our mission. Our way of living and being. Our financial resources. Our loves. Our affections. Our desires. Everything is now submitted to Jesus, because He is our King, and we are His Kingdom people.

We are supposed to be political, just not in the ways we think. We tend to think the primary vehicle for our political expression are political parties and elections. But, if we're citizens of the Kingdom living in America as exiles, then shouldn't the church by our primary vechicle for our political expression? The New Testament authors used the word "ekklesia" to describe the church, a word that carried clear political overtones. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, outlines how to live as Kingdom citizens within an empire. We don't overpower and crush our enemies, but instead love them and sacrifice for them. We don't use our money to acquire more cultural power, but to care for the under-resourced. We don't create stories to gain attention, but instead tell the truth and practice integrity. This is how the church develops and lives out an alternative political ethic that subverts the powers of the empire and proclaims the hope of Jesus to the world.

Benjamin Chua continues our series, "People of the Kingdom." If we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God, then the country we find ourselves in is not our true home. As citizens of the Kingdom we live in America as exiles, not dissimilar from the Israelites who were exiles in Babylon or how the early church identified as exiles within the Roman Empire. We are foreigners and strangers on earth. And yet, as Christians we've sought to make our home in America by adopting a Christianed version of the American Dream and claiming it as God's promise to us. So, if we're exiles, what does that mean? How are we supposed to live here and now if we're active outposts of the Kingdom? If we can live out Jesus' words as Kingdom-minded exiles distinct from American culture we'll get to watch God's rule and reign spread all across our neighborhoods, cities, and country.

This week, we start a new series titled, "People of the Kingdom." Over the next eight weeks we'll explore the idea that the church in America's first political task is to become the church Jesus intended. And that starts by recovering our true citizenship. As the people of God we are citizens of the Kingdom, first and foremost. Only secondarily are we citizens of the country we live in. Our first and primary allegiance is to Jesus and His Kingdom. Our ways of living and being are to be shaped exclusively by the Kingdom, yet many of us have been profoundly formed by the empire we live within. How do we live as citizens of the Kingdom and as an active outpost of the Kingdom in the places we find ourselves today? It all starts in Philippians when Paul reminds the women and men in Philippi that their citizenship has its roots in a heavenly commonwealth.

This week Pastor Shaq Hager introduces us to Junia, an apostle, who helped lead and build the early church. Junia's status as an apostle, however, has been questioned. From approximately the 13th centurty until about 1980 Bible translators added an "s" to Junia's name, making it Junias, which was a male name. Yet, early Christian writers like John Chrysostom make it clear Junia is a woman, and Origen even states that Junia was one of the 70 who were also called apostles. Paul describes Junia as a person who was imprisoned and "in chains" for the Gospel. In Junia, we have an example of a courageous woman who lived into her gifts as an apostle and helped advance the Gospel and build the early church.

This week, Carrie Bucker walks through Priscilla's story. Paul identifies Priscilla as a co-laborer in the ministry of proclaiming and living out the Gospel. He even identifies her and her husband, Aquila, as having protected his life and saving the early church, ensuring it was able to thrive and flourish. There's even a story about Priscilla taking aside a young, charismatic, and gifted teacher named Apollos, and identifying some of his theological weaknesses and teaching him. Priscilla being a woman was not a hindrance for Paul or God. She was living out the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in her leadership and teaching, and she was performing her role in the body of Christ for which God had equipped her.

This week we start a three week series focused on women leaders in the early church, and what their lives and ministries can teach the church today about following Jesus. Phoebe was entrusted by Paul with carrying, arguably, Paul's most theologically substantive letter. Not only was she expected to deliver Paul's letter to the Romans, but she was also expected to teach and discuss it with the church in Rome to ensure they understood it. In a sense, she was a physical representation of Paul's teaching and ministry for the Roman Christians. She was a servant-leader, a protector, and a provider who used her life and resource to advance the Gospel and build the Kingdom.

This week we take a look back across sixty-three sermons and our study of the book of Acts to identify major themes and what they mean for us today. In particular, the conversation focuses on the expansive and inclusive nature of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God breaking into and challenging the kingdom of man, the call to go to our neighbors, what it means to wait on the Spirit, and how everywhere we find ourselves is an opportunity to be a signpost to the hope and love of Jesus.

Every one who taught as part of the series was included in the conversation: Reverend Eleanor Williams, Carrie Buckner, Julia Allan, Benjamin Chua, Pastor Shaq Hager, and Pastor Dennis Allan. Katie Long facilitated.

Luke ends the book of Acts with Paul in Rome, imprisoned, meeting with a group of Jewish people. He shares the Gospel with them, proclaiming the ways the Old Testament foretold Jesus as Israel's true Messiah and prophesied that, through Jesus' death and resurrection, the Kingdom of God had been inaugurated. While some chose to believe the Gospel, most did not. Even the people most committed to following God's laws are capable of missing out on what God's doing. Paul's vision of the Kingdom is a scandal to many. It's a Gospel that's radically inclusive, wildly expansive, and it lifts Jesus high. The invitation Luke extends to all of his readers is this: Jesus' ministry and Paul's ministry are now ours to continue. We are to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom to everyone, everywhere we go. Because God wants all His kids to come home.