Better Together - The Greatest Commandment

When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, He would almost always use a parable. A parable is a made-up story from the real-world Jesus often used to illustrate life in the Kingdom of God. I would like to tell you a true story to illustrate relationships in the Kingdom of God. And, borrowing from Jesus’ approach to how He introduced parables, I will begin like this: The Kingdom of God is like a five-year-old little girl whose parents signed her up for swim team, and she absolutely loved it. In fact, at her pool, she was known as the friendly swimmer because she would swim with her head out of the water and grin the entire time. However, she lost every race, which was so odd because she was taller than most of the kids. She was strong and lean, but she still lost every time. And at the end of the season, her parents said, “Do you want to do that again?” She said “yes!” So season two comes along and now she's six years old and once again, same outcome. She smiled, waved, and lost every race. And then about halfway through season two, her mother was talking with her daughter about the swim meet that evening, and she looked at her daughter and she said, “Okay, honey, get out there and win this race.” Startled, the little girl looked at her mother and said, “Wait, it's a race? I thought we were here to meet people!” Of course she did. What else would you do at a swim MEET? She was competing, but she was competing in a different race for a different prize, and nobody knew. So they judged her on her performance based on a set of rules that she never even subscribed to in the first place. And they said she lost, but in the competition she was engaged in, she won. She won every time she met someone new. In the Kingdom of God, it’s not about competing or winning or dominating. If it’s a competition, we certainly compete for a different prize. The Kingdom of God is about relationships where people serve one another and give themselves away for one another. It’s about meeting people right where they are. The Kingdom of God is a place where love is the ultimate value, and we are invited to participate in it every single day. Join us this weekend as we discuss our mission as a church and why it is so important that we live it out.