I
learn a lot when I travel. This past spring, for example, when I traveled to
Scandinavia, I learned a lot about Vikings. I was especially interested to
learn about Viking women. It turns out that they had a lot of power in their society,
especially within the home; because they were responsible for making sure the
family had enough to eat. The women were the ones who doled out the food during
each long, hard winter so that it would last until the next year’s harvest; so
they kept the keys to the food pantry. (You see one of those keys on the screen
right now.) They wore their keys on a necklace as a symbol of their status: the
more keys a woman wore, the higher her status. No one was allowed to get into
the food without her permission. In fact, if a man got the munchies and raided
the pantry in search of a midnight snack, it was legal for his wife to throw
him out into the snow and lock the door behind him!
That’s
what keys are for, aren’t they? They lock some things in, and they lock other
things out. They keep the deed to the house and the title to the car safely in a bank box, and they keep thieves
who might want to steal our big-screen TV out of our home. We have all kinds of
keys! We have keys to the house, the garage, the car, the church, and sometimes
even a storage unit; and we have passwords – electronic keys – on our computers
and our smart phones to keep people from poking into our personal business.
We
even have keys that Jesus gave us! You heard him give those keys to Peter in
the first text from Matthew that I read just a few minutes ago (Matthew
16:13-19). They’re very important keys, too – they’re keys to God’s kingdom.
Now, we Protestants believe that when Jesus gave those keys to Peter, he was
actually giving them to all Christians. It’s not just the clergy who have the
keys to the kingdom of heaven; we all have a set of them. But that raises a
crucial question: are we supposed to use those keys to unlock God’s kingdom so
that people can go in; or are we supposed to lock the door to keep them out?
That
question has been debated since Jesus himself was alive. The Pharisees back in
Jesus’ time were pretty sure that their job was to lock people out; but you
heard what Jesus had to say about that in the second text that I read (Matthew 23:1-7,
13). “You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces!” he said. “You
don’t go in yourselves; but you don’t let anybody else in, either. What good
are you, anyway?” Jesus knew why they behaved the way they did. They liked their
status as religious professionals. When they put on their fancy robes and
marched through the Temple, people called them “Rabbi,” and got out of their
way. They even sat at the head table at fancy dinners. Those keys put them on
the A-list! Whey, if the keys to God’s kingdom had been physical keys made of
metal, they would have worn them around their necks to flaunt their status just
like the Viking women did! They weren’t about to unlock the door to God’s
kingdom and let other people in, because they wanted to be the most important
folks around!
I’m
sorry to say that some Christians behave just like the Pharisees did, because
they think that God likes them best. So they don’t want to let just anybody into God’s kingdom! Before they
unlock that door, they want to make darn sure that someone deserves to be
there. They think that they’re entitled to ask questions like “What church to
you belong to?” “What do you believe?” and “Have you lived a good life?” and
they are all too happy to shut the door to the Kingdom in people’s faces if
they don’t like the answers that they hear. But that’s not at all what Jesus
had in mind at all! Jesus gave us those keys so that we could unlock the door
to God’s kingdom to everyone we meet.
But
how do we do that? We begin by showing folks that the Bible’s story of
salvation isn’t just something that happened to people long ago and far away. It’s
our story, too; and it can be theirs! We need to forget about rules and
regulations, and concentrate on showing people where they belong in the story
of God’s people! Here’s what I mean. Do you know somebody who doesn’t know
where he’s headed in life? Tell him the story of Abraham. God called him out of
his comfort zone and told him, “Just take one step at a time, and I’ll show you
which direction to take.” We can all relate to that. Maybe you know someone who
has really messed up big time, and wants to make a new start; but she’s not
really sure that she can ever leave the past behind her. Tell her the story of
Peter. When Jesus was on trial for his life, Peter denied that he knew Jesus
three times to save his own skin; and he became one of the leaders of the early
Christian church. And, of course, the most powerful story is the story of Jesus
himself. Do you know someone who has really been dumped on in life? (Maybe that
someone is you!) Tell them that life dumped on Jesus, too. He was killed not
because he had done anything wrong, but because he stepped on the toes of the
politicians and religious leaders; and God raised him from the dead to prove that
the powers of the world don’t get the last word! It’s those stories that are
the keys to unlock the door of the kingdom of heaven – the miraculous,
inspiring, life-changing stores of the Bible.
So go
out and get ready to use the keys that Jesus gave us. If they’re a little tarnished
from not being used, clean them up. Get out the polish by reading the stories
again; and let them speak to you! As you do, I predict that an amazing thing
will happen. As you get ready to encourage others through the stories, those
stories will encourage you right back. By using your keys to unlock God’s
kingdom for other people, the door will swing open even wider for you. Those
keys are too important to keep tucked away in your back pocket! Let’s all use
them a little more.
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