Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Luke 11:14-23 NRSV)

We have a mess this morning, don’t we?
Mute Demons
Exorcisms
Beelzebul
Satan
Magic, supernatural powers

We have a cauldron of ancient images
ancient concepts of evil
to deal with this morning.
Where is there some degree of sanity??

“If it is by the finger of God that I cast out Demons,
Then the Kingdom of God has come to you.”

The Kingdom of God.
It’s a phrase we don’t hear a lot of in the Church these days.
It’s almost as if we’re embarrassed to talk about
The Kingdom of God.

So embarrassed, in fact, that we are
prone to forget about it.
prone to ignore it,
prone to deny it.

But we cannot forget about it!
We cannot ignore it!
And we DARE not deny it!

The Kingdom of God .... What is it?

Jesus indicated that it was and is present
because
HE had brought it with him, into the world.
If so, then where is it?

Look around you.
Go ahead ... look around you,
right now,
where you’re sitting.

I’m convinced that you’re looking at just a small part
of the Kingdom of God.

Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

The Church of Jesus Christ is a foretaste--
even though an imperfect foretaste--
of the Kingdom of God.

Not only is the Church a glimpse,
a hint,
a preview,
an imperfect embodiment
of the Kingdom of God,
It is also a fully realized experience
of the Kingdom of God.

Now, it may be hard to believe
when we look at the State in which the Church finds itself,
and it can be quite frightening to think that the Church --
of whatever denomination--
is the Kingdom of God in this world,
but it is.

We are the Church,
The Body of Christ,
The Kingdom of God,
and yet,
we are so frequently a divided kingdom.

We are
Baptists,
Lutherans,
Methodists,
Presbyterians,
Roman Catholics,
Episcopalians,
Pentecostals,
Russian Orthodox,
Church of Christ,
and every other denomination you can think of

We are divided along so many social,
cultural,
economic,
and doctrinal lines
that it’s almost impossible to see a thread of commonality among us.

And, yet,
we are all the Church.
We are all part of the Body of Christ.
We are all part of the Kingdom of God.

Few things have hurt me more,
deep down within my soul,
than the divisiveness which separates us
from our brothers and sisters in other denominations.
It’s a scar on the body of Christ,
this evil,
pernicious,
self important insistence
on remaining separate
from other Christian communions.

I have many clergy friends
outside the United Methodist Church.
They,
very often,
have something of a low opinion of us Methodists.
We’re either too conservative
or too liberal
too informal
or too formal
too big
or too small
too democratic
or too authoritarian.

Some of them don’t think our ordinations are real.
Some don’t even consider us to be Church --
part of the Body of Jesus Christ.
One such friend --
let’s name him Robert --
really hurt me when,
in a discussion on who may preside
at the Table of the Lord during Holy Communion,
referred to what goes on in Methodist Churches as being
“make believe.”

According to Robert,
there are no Sacraments outside the Catholic Church.
According to him,
I’m not even ordained.
And what we’re doing here,
today,
is just so much
“make believe.”
That hurt.

Did you ever wonder who Beelzebul was?
He was an evil demon whom the Jewish people identified as Satan--
The adversary.
His name here means “Ruler” or “disturber of the house.”
I couldn’t help but feel as though Robert,
supposedly a friend and fellow Christian,
was causing a disturbance in the House of God,
was making the same claim as the Pharisees were making about Jesus’ ministry.

The United Methodist church is not a real Church.
It’s not of God.
It’s just a game we’re playing
It’s nothing but “make believe.”
...the voice of Beelzebul
...the voice of Satan, trying to divide the body of Christ.

You and I both know that we are not playing games.
This is not a “make believe church.”
It’s the real thing.
It’s a tiny sliver,
a definite portion,
a vital outpost
of the Kingdom of God.

Have you ever thought about the term: “Kingdom of God”?

What’s a Kingdom?
Webster’s defines a Kingdom as:
“a politically organized community
or major territorial unit having a monarchial form of government
headed by a king or queen.”
It also adds, with the qualifier “God” --
“the realm in which God’s will is fulfilled.”

Both are true in the case of the Church.
The Kingdom of God is the place where God
is King
is Sovereign
is Lord and Master.

That is a rather sobering thought,
really,
if you think about it just a little bit.
The Church is part of God’s Kingdom.
That makes us citizens of the Kingdom of God,
each and every one of us is a subject of God, our King.

In the face of this kind of citizenry,
in the face of this identity as a subject of God
how can any of the divisions,
which hold sway over the Church of Jesus Christ,
have any real meaning?

If what it means to be a Christian
is to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom
then what does it matter that I’m a Methodist
and Robert is a Roman Catholic?
Or that some are Baptists,
others are Presbyterians,
and still others are Lutherans?
We are,
all of us,
citizens of the Kingdom of God,
subjects of the Heavenly King
children of the Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The divisions,
therefore,
which have plagued us for centuries
are nothing less than a demonic distraction.
It’s almost as if the Church has been possessed
by the demonic delusion that differences matter.

Sure, there are differences,
but we are all subjects of the same King,
called to make the same proclamation
called to confess our common faith in Jesus Christ
called to spread the Gospel of Christ’s saving Grace.
The Delusion of Division has muted us in this,
our calling.

We, as the Church, must overcome this division.
We, as the body of Christ, must lean to recognize
our Christian brothers and sisters as equally part of the Body of Christ.
We, as members of the Kingdom of God, must break through the barriers of separation
and confess that this,
the House of God,
is not Divided.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen