Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar UCC
January 13, 2008
Matthew 3:13-17
Fire
- Last Wednesday night at about 9 o’clock I packed my suitcase and drove south till 4 in the morning to see my mother who was in the hospital. We were in her room, chatting, and my aunt and uncle called. My uncle said: “Put George on the phone.” He asked about Janet and Maria and Annie, then said, “I was going to call you the other day to say how much I enjoy reading your Dome reports. But after the last one, I’m glad I didn’t!”
- I said, “I bet your didn’t like the part where I compared the Sodomites raping angels to Americans torturing Arabs.” He said, “You can’t say those things. These people we fight -- they’re not human beings -- it doesn’t matter what you do to them. Don’t forget that you’re an American and your country is never wrong!”
- I might agree that except for one thing -- when I was six months old, my parents took me to church and asked the priest to baptize me. On that day, I became a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. That became my first country, and the United States was my second. And if you were baptized, that’s also the promise that you or your parents made. Your first country is the kingdom of heaven.
- We need to understand that this Jew that we’re following was extreme. He broke the laws of his country that told him who he could sit with. Jesus loved prostitutes, thieves and other criminals. He said, “People who are well don’t need me.” He didn’t care if the people he healed were friends or enemies. He was kind to the soldiers who occupied his country and killed his people. If you were a Jew or a Roman, it didn’t matter to him -- because his first country was the kingdom of heaven, where there aren’t borders.
- The kingdom of heaven doesn’t have a flag -- only a cross. We ask God to put us on that cross and change us. Nail our violence and rage and bitterness to that cross. John baptized with water -- but he said Jesus baptizes with fire that will change us. If we walk with him long enough, eventually we’ll lose our country. We’ll open our eyes one day, and no matter where look, it’s all heaven, and everyone is our family.