Sermon, Metro Baptist Church 11-26-06

Living in New York has been my dream since I was 13 years old and visited here for the first time. But even before that I dreamed about the US. I remember when I was 5, my great grandparents and my grandmother´s sister came visiting from here. I remember I got a New York t-shirt from them and a beautiful pink princess like dress. My great grand parents, who lived in Florida, were suntanned and they told me about that they had a tree with oranges in their garden, something that off course sounded very dream like for someone like me, who only had seen apple trees and raspberry bushes so far. I think that was when the dream about America started to grow. My dream is in no ways unique. All around the world, people dream about United States as the land of freedom and opportunities. Some of them, like me get to live their dreams, other continues to dream but never get the chance to get here, while others again realizes that the freedom and opportunities was not for them, and the dream becomes more of a nightmare. The US is if not the kingdom, so at least the country of dreams for many, where you can dress like a princes and live like a king.

In the Kingdoms, or in the countries, of this world you need documents that prove that you are allowed to be where you are. I realized how important that is when Leighanne and I took a short daytrip to Tihuana, Mexico when we were on a road trip this summer. This is my I-20 (showing it). This is a form what proves that I am legally here as a student. “This is as important as your Visa and your passport”, they told me when I came from Sweden in January. I kind of forgot that when we went to Mexico, and they didn´t ask for it when we entered in to Mexico. After four hours there, we were going back to San Diego. That was the point when I realized the importance of bringing the right papers as a foreigner.

“Where is your I-20”, said the man at the border. “Ehhmm..in New York”, I said immediately knowing that I had forgotten something very important. I had to pull over, park the car behind a building, stand in a line where somebody told me it was very VERY stupid of me to forget my I-20. To make a long story short, I can say that that night was about standing in four different lines, being scolded by four big, border men, who told me that “I had to go back to Mehico” and there call somebody in NY who could Fed Ex my papers to me. Anyway, after being humiliated and laughed at (apparently they found it pretty funny to have this Swedish seminary student there at the border, without her right papers,) and even more obvious was that this was just a play. There was never a real risk for me to not be allowed back into the country -I think. They just wanted me to feel ashamed for a while. Then they told me I needed to pay 6 dollars and then I could come back to the US (which I wasn´t sure if I had, since I had done a lot of shopping in Tijuana). I know that if I hadn´t been Swedish, if I had been from Afganistan or Iraq or Guatemala? even from the neighbor country, Mexico the story most probably would have ended very differently.

Anyway, I didn´t have the right papers, so I paid the 6 dollars, which I must say is a ridiculously small amount compared to what a lot of people pay to come to USA. Some people don´t have to pay, but they have to prove in many ways that they are worthy or good enough to get here. For instance, I have a friend who won her green card in a lottery. To get it, she had to prove that she didn´t have any disgusting diseases and that she was that kind of person that the country of United States could be proud to have.

In the countries of this world, we need the right documents which prove that we belong. Some of us have to pay (some more, some less), some have to prove that they are healthy while some simply are born with the “right citizenship”.

“My kingdom is not of this world”, Jesus said when he was standing, humiliated and alone in front of Pilate. The kingdom of God is not like the countries of this world. The kingdom of God is different. You can´t get the“right papers” that proves that you belong to the kingdom of God. None of us possesses the I-20 that proves that we have the right to enter into this kingdom of God. None of us have citizenship documents, so none of us actually belong there. A lot of times I get the impression that what peoples believes about the kingdom of God, or their believes about what the Church teaches about the kingdom of God is, is just like this: We are going to stand in front of the powerful God, humiliated and scolded at, just like you have to do if you don´t bring the right papers to the American border patrol (if you are not American of course), and prove that we belong as well as pay a fine.

But it is not like that because Jesus Christ has already done that for us. The Bible tells us that the Kingdom now is open for us all, because Jesus was humiliated, abandoned and killed as a human, and with his divine power overcame the forces of death and destruction. We aren´t granted a place just because we “belong to the right teaching” that we have confessed with our tongues that “Jesus is lord”. You don´t belong there even if your offerings are 3000 dollars instead of 6. In the same way, you are not more suspiciously met because your name sounds like Ahmad, Mohammad or Rodriguez. You belong because God says that you do. Because Christ is King.

Entering into the kingdom of God is actually free, because the kingdom is for those who can´t afford paying, and none of us can. Entering the kingdom of God, you don´t have to pass a health test, because the kingdom is actually for the sick ones, as all of us are. Entering the Kingdom of God you don´t have to prove that you can be a strong and appropriate citizen of the Kingdom, because the kingdom of God is actually for the weak and inappropriate ones, and all of us are inappropriate in the Kingdom of God. The kingdom is for the sick and poor, the humiliated and for the unseen, the discriminated and the oppressed, for those who seem to be ridiculous and strange to us. None of us belong in the Kingdom of God, but all of us are welcomed. That is the paradox of the kingdom of God, because our King is a king of the weak ones, and a king of sinners. He is the king of those who don´t belong at all, of those who appear crazy and weird or stupid sometimes. The strange ones! The voiceless ones! For them, for us is Christ the King.

So who is this king? All this talk about being weak. Is he only some kind of compassionate liberal who actually just want people to stay in their weakness and feel good there, so that he can gather people to his “kingdom of sickness” and so that he can seem to be much more powerful himself? And how about us who live our good lives, us who have all the money that we need, seldom sad, never confessing weakness or humiliation. Is not the kingdom for us?

First of all, I don´t think that any of us can claim to be happy or strong all the time. So that opens the kingdom to all of us. Second, Jesus is the King of all creation, who loves his whole creation just like we are. But he hates the forces that push his people down. Jesus Christ hates oppression, discrimination and falseness, whether it comes from the world outside of us or from inside ourselves. Before Pilate, Jesus´ followers weren´t there when he most had needed them. He knows what it means to be abandoned by his own people and he doesn´t want us to experience the same thing. So when we feel a little bit stronger, when we feel all right and are in a position of what the kingdom of this world would call “superior”, we need to open our eyes and reach out to our fellow citizens. The world itself consists of a broken community. Our king tells us that it is ridiculous and stupid to claim that “alone is strong” and that strong is good, because what the story about Jesus tells us is that it was in the greatest of weakness, (tortured and dying upon a cross), Jesus did the greatest of all actions. Our king knows that life is hard sometimes, our king knows that life is fragile, and that we can feel weak. We can feel just as weak as he was himself in front of this powerful Pilate, just as broken as he was upon the cross. And that is why we have to reach out to each other. We need to trust each other, and help as well as being helped.

That is what Christ requires from his citizens, from us, that we work against oppression and discrimination in this world. But how? By joining a peace organization? That is good. By working for a socially councious church? That is excellent. By minister to people? That’s great, by having the correct opinions, being aware of what is going on in the world, reacting against violence, walking a march? Fine. Good. Do all those things. But just remember that they are not going to help you pay your way into the kingdom of God because Jesus has already paid for us all. All these kind of things are great, and they make a big difference in the kingdom of this world where we actually are living as well, but what distinguishes us as a citizen of the Kingdom of God is that we live lives of love and compassion for your neighbor and for ourselves.

Don´t forget to love your neighbor! Do not forget to see your neighbor! Turn around and look at the person beside you this morning. He or she is your neighbor. The one that is closest to us. It is a great thing to help with things around the world, but also remember that beside us, where we are, we might have one of our brothers or sisters, friends and church members or maybe even ourselves that actually is in the need of our love NOW. That means that we have to be personal. Nothing for a New Yorker? Right. That is scary. It might be easier to help people in the street, or give money to a peace organization. In many ways, being personal means making yourself vulnerable. And vulnerable we are. It is only as vulnerable ones, that we can give and receive help.

Listen to them, talk to them, see them, love them! Let us also see and listen to you. Let us also help you! No, it might not give you any credits on the “super savior of the world” scale, but like I said, those Credits do not mean anything in the kingdom of God anyway. And we have to have our own wounds healed, the wounds within our own family, within ourselves, if we are going to be able to reach out to the world outside of our church. We need to encourage each other, so that we can work strong together for the kingdom of God.

In the kingdom of this world the strongest is the best. In the kingdom of this world you can rank people who belong and who do not. Here you can always buy yourself a better spot. In the Kingdom of God, you can´t because, like I said, Christ has already done that for us. In the Kingdom of God it is all about love. In fact I believe that the Kingdom of God actually is where the love exists among people. Love that is given but also received.