The Kingdom Grows as Churches-by Linden Malki

 The Kingdom of God is many things, but most importantly, He is Lord and King. Another important thing is that it is comprised of components we call "churches" that gather in His name to worship, pray, teach and learn, and share a memorial re-enactment of His Last Supper. His churches are made up of people, all of whom are, like everything He has made, individual. We share a faith in God, a willingness to renounce and repent of sin, a committment to follow Him, and a calling to love and share with the people that He puts in our lives. When we let Him lead us, miracles happen. When we try to do it all ourselves---no. The problem is that the calling on the church is beyond ordinary human strength.

I grew up at Grace Baptist Church, a good American Baptist church in Spokane, Washington. Like Calvary Baptist Church, it was a large, strong church back then. This is a historically important building, built in about 1905, which seats 500 including balconies. When I visited about 2003, there

were about 65 people there and the pastor was getting ready to retire. There was a group renting part of the space that had started as a Bible study of people from a local Episcopalian cathedral, who studied themselves into a Baptist viewpoint. The last time I was there, this young group had merged with the older congregation, has a new name on the building and appears to be thriving. *

I came to San Bernardino fresh out of college, just married to a man who already attended Calvary Baptist. I also found that Calvary's then associate pastor, Dr Owen Day, was an old friend of my dad's, and been the senior pastor of Grace Church in Spokane before I was born--he had introduced

my parents. So it was very easy for me to become a part of the Calvary family. The current sanctuary was new, and eventually leveled out at about 300 in attendance. By the mid 90's we had built it into the complex we see now, and were using most of the space. We were just working on some major repairs and renovations when the sanctuary was the victim of an arsonist in 1999. It looked at first like we could recover; we had insurance and started to rebuild. and just as they were getting into it, the events of 9/11 left our insurance company holding an empty bag. We didn't qualify for the California insurance guarantee program because we had already gotten a few payments on the build. We did a fundraiser of our own, which helped but not enough, and a building loan from our Credit Union, on which we are still making payments. We did finish the build in 40 months--rededicated the building in February of 2003. But it wasn't good enough. The nursery school became a financial liability that closed in 2009--just as the economy tanked and people lost jobs, houses, and many of our good faithful families had to leave the area for jobs. As a stopgap, we rented the property to The Way World Outreach for five years, while we met at the Elks Lodge, and then a few years ago we moved back.

This church complex was built with dreams of ministry that we haven't fulfilled. There are things we can't afford; things we don't know how to do on the scale that this facility deserves. We have been offered a partnership with a church family that can make a tremendous difference. God kept us alive through all sorts of tough times; He may have been waiting for the appropriate time to move, and shake San Bernardino in amazing ways.

*Christ the Redeemer Church,  Spokane, WA

We are all Branches--by Linden Malki

"Fruit" is another example of how we see God at work, both in His provision for His creation, and in our growth as His children.  The variety of plants His world, and the many of them that provide fruit as food for His creatures, show us God's creative and artistic abundance.  Not only are there thousands of different kinds plants that bear fruit, but within each kind there are different varieties, and even on plants of the same variety the fruits vary in size, sweetness, ripening time, and flavor. For example, experts on wine can identify not only the variety of grapes that it was made of, but the vineyard where they grew, and even the year of the harvest. Another interesting thing about fruit (and other plants as well) is that branches of one plant can be grafted into another plant of a similar type.  When I was a kid, my dad was a tree person (we had 18 trees on a standard city lot), and the folks canned fruit every summer. We had an apple tree with six varieties of apples, and a plum tree with four kinds of plums, as well as the pear and peach and cherry and mulberry trees, as well as non-fruit trees. Trees are amazing!

There are records of grafting grapevines and other plants in Jewish and Greek sources going back to about 400 BC. St Paul, in Romans 11, uses grafting as a metaphor of the complex relationships between Jews and Gentiles, speaking to a community that included both. He builds on the teaching of Jesus that we see in John 15, which speaks of His people as branches on a grapevine, which only bears fruit if it remains solidly attached to the vine; and if it breaks off or doesn't produce, it will be discarded.  And even healthy branches are watched and pruned, so that the maximum amount of water and nutrients go to the growing fruit. Paul carries the metaphor into the question of the relationship between the Jewish community and the growing church with its increasing Gentile component. He reassures the Jews that they have not been rejected by God; that there has always been a faithful remnant that has preserved the chosen people.  However, he does warn them that if they reject reconciliation, they can be broken off, and others be grafted into their place. And then Paul reminds everyone that that we are all  nourished by the original vine and need to be faithful--which still holds true today.

The image of fruit, in all its variations, is a good reminder that while we may be products of different vines, we are all nourished by the same roots. We may be different varieties, different colors, different flavors, but we all need to strengthen the connection, sprout in our own way and produce the best fruit of the variety we have been created to be.  

Love as Meeting Needs-by Linden Malki

Jesus' ministry was spent with people. He said over and over that the most important thing He had to say was that we are called to love God, and love people. Wherever He went, He drew crowds. The first public appearance of Jesus after His baptism, as described in John's Gospel, was at a wedding in Cana, in Galilee, His home territory. It is probable that the family putting on the celebration--a major event usually covering several days--were relatives or friends of Jesus' family. Jesus' mother found out that the host, apparently faced with a larger than expected crowd, was running low on wine. We know the story--she told Jesus, who quietly dealt with the situation. It is worth noting that no fuss or public hullabaloo was made over the miracle; it was simply a case of Jesus knowing of a need that He was capable of filling, did just that. When we do things to help or serve people, we're really not supposed to make a big show of it. In fact, Matthew tells of Jesus being scathingly critical of those who do "good deeds" for their own credit. We see Jesus seeing something that needed to be done, something that He was in a position to do, and He did it.

We see at the very end of Jesus' days with His disciples an unforgettable dramatization of serving: John also tells us that  as they were getting ready to eat their Passover meal, Jesus took a towel and a basin and washed the disciples' feet. And He did this at the very beginning of the evening--when all the disciples were there, including Judas Iscariot! The lesson here was that they were servants, as He had served. Luke goes on to say that the disciples were still fussing about their own positions in the group; Jesus tells them that they should not seek position and authority like the Gentiles who call themselves Benefactors--who used their so-called charitable deeds to gain social and political favors. Jesus is preparing Himself and His disciples for the most major act of sacrifice possible--the ultimate purpose of His time on Earth--telling them that they need to love each other, serve each other, and not seek influence or status for themselves.

One of the major temptations the Church has always faced is that of building empires with power and influence in this world, based on the attraction of the good that can be done, but with an undercoat of authority and fear. The church has grown through  political power, which is usually not Godly; but ideally through God's power. The church can do good things, but the spiritual value is measured by the motives. If we do "good works" for political and social capital and influence, as Jesus pointed out in the Greek and Roman politicians of His day, as well as the religious establishments of the Judaism of the time; the credit received is of this world, and that's all it is. God does not reward this.

The Kingdom of Heaven is intended to show love for others, service to others, for the benefit of the others. We are called to keep our eyes open to what needs to be done and how we can serve, but let the reward go to God. We should be witnesses in our lives, not necessarily our words--which are only as much value as they match our love.

The Expanding Kingdom--by Linden Malki

How do we know Jesus? He often said "Go and tell what you have seen Me do."  We are to know Him by His works, from the smallest attention to a child to the masterwork of His Resurrection. Everything He did was in the context of building the Kingdom of God, not by compulsion but by example.

How do we know God? By His works--from the magnificence of His Universe to the tiniest detail of His creations. I am constantly amazed at the beauty, complexity and variety of what He makes! He didn't tell us everything about it (that would be impossible); He put it out there for us to see and study and learn.  We are still constantly learning, and will probably never know everything about it in out own lifetimes. The more we learn about it, the bigger we realize that it is, and are reminded that it will never be bigger than its Creator.  It's easier for our little human minds to shrink the image down to what we can understand. We need to remember that we cannot understand; we can appreciate and share our wonder and awe.

Everything He makes is is individual, unique in its own way.  We, His people, are amazing. We are made more complex that we understand ourselves; we can only truly be what we were created to be in relationship to Him. We can learn about God from looking at the creatures He made--remembering that there is more there than we know; that He has built us for relationships; with each other and with Him. We are created in families; related and with things in common, but constantly changing. We are related to, but different  from, our parents. Just the developing relationships between the first three persons in the beginning family is a constantly shifting and challenging and growing  thing. Add this to the rest of the world, and learning how to love each other is a project worth a lifetime.

Families expand into tribes, which become communities, nations, kingdoms. What does knowing about God the Creator tell us about the Kingdom of God? First, it has a King;  who is the authority and shaper. It is intended to be a growing organism; God makes things to grow.  Who are the subjects? Intentionally, all of the people He has made. The problem here is that He wants those who wants Him; people who are not willing to accept His offer and recognize His authority have no place.   Where do we fit? First, we become part of the family.   Then as we grow up becoming His people this will show what He has done for us--not things that make us look good as ourselves, but the things that show His love and care for us.  As we grow spiritually, we attract others to the Kingdom, not because we nag, but because we live a true story that expands the knowledge and shape of the Christian life. Yes, that sounds scary; no, we're not doomed if we aren't perfect. In fact, dealing with failure, repentance, forgiveness and restoration is an important part of the story.

The Kingdom has expanded, unevenly, sloppily at times, and with apparent setbacks here and there. We do not know the whole story; it is like leaven, which cannot be seen as it spreads. We do not know when it has been growing underground; who has been touched without our noticing. But we know that it went from 12 to 120 without a lot of public notice, but then to 3000 in a day. One way and another, we are looking at numbers today in the billions. We do not know who is affected by who we are and how we live; but in the long run the only Person we need to worry about is God.

Water of Life--by Linden Malki

 The concept of a new life through water is a very old one in Scripture; during the Exodus when Moses was setting up the Tabernacle as a place of worship, the priests were required to wash with water before they approached the altar, and when the Levites were assigned their duties they washed, and an atonement for sin was made for them.(1)  At the beginning of the message of the prophet Isaiah to God's people includes the instruction to "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil from your deeds, from before My eyes. Cease to do evil...though your sins are as scarlet, they wht be as white as snow."(2) King David's response when he confronted with his sin, is a prayer to God: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from by sin. ..wash me, and I will be whiter than snow."(3)

The relationship between forgiveness and a new life through water comes out in Jesus' words: When Jesus told Nicodemus that "you must be born again", He also told him, "No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit."(4)  John the Baptist's explanation of what he was doing: "The reason I came baptizing with water is that He [Jesus] might be revealed to Israel."(5) Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria that "The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (6)

I see the image of a spring of water bringing new life not only as the rebirth of baptism, but also being a continuous image of  life in the Kingdom. A spring of water is a continuous thing; it not only continues to bubble up water but the water flows out to an everwidening area. Baptism--a literal experience of death and rebirth through water--should make us noticeably different people. People came to Jesus because they saw a different sort of person than they were used to seeing--especially in contrast to the religious authorities who worried more about their position and politics than about God, and who thought any Messiah should have checked in with them first. It is interesting that what Jesus told people to tell about, and what people did tell about on their own, were more likely to be stories of what He did, rather than what He said. Yes, what He said is important--but what He said grew out of what the prophets and followers of God--and God Himself!--had said for two thousand years. What He did was unprecedented and irrepeatable--and changed history.
1. Numbers 8:21  2.Isaiah 1:16,18  3. Psalm 51: 2, 7  4. John 3:5  5. John 1:31 6. John 4:14