“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

In the Gospel this week we hear Jesus tell us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. At the end of the text he tells the "teacher of the Law" that he in his wisdom, "is not far from the kingdom of God." Being close to the kingdom of God is comforting, not being close to the kingdom of God can be, uncomfortable.

What follows is an example of both.

I heard a story this past week that is very disturbing. Bishop Bill of the Eastern North Dakota Synod was visiting a Lutheran Church in a small town in the northeast corner of North Dakota. Like many ELCA congregations, this church is struggling with the ELCA's decision to ordain openly gay individuals, who are in a lifelong, publicly accountable relationship into the ministry. During the conversation, Bishop Bill explained that Jesus never encountered a gay person in such a relationship, "That's because Jesus killed 'em all!" came a voice from the congregation. My goodness, how much further can you be from God's kingdom than this? Regardless of where you are in this debate, the idea of Jesus killing anyone is unthinkable. Jesus tells us to "love our neighbor as ourselves." How can a person sitting in God's house get it so very, very wrong?

On the other hand, Saturday night the folks of Recovery Worship got together to celebrate our ministry. Our second annual gala was held at the Moorhead Armory. What a display of love and support. I have never had so much fun, with such a large group of people than I do when I party with people in recovery. Not a drunk among us, all sober, happy, and alive with life! A local pastor wrote in the Fargo Forum yesterday that "true Christians" don't celebrate Halloween. Well, let me tell you, we had witches, ghosts, pirates and their ladies, you name it, they were there, and that was as close to the kingdom of God as you can get!

Before the dancing started we celebrated recovery by asking how long people had been in recovery, with the loudest applause going for those with the shortest amount of time. A young mother, with one week of recovery, received a copy of the AA Big Book and the Life Recovery Bible. Smiles, tears and dancing, all from folks who have been to the edge, and now live a life of recovery!

Thanks be to God!