Serving the Kingdom

by Larry Sorrells,

Rockville, Trinity UMC

In a century long, long, ago, around the time of King Arthur, a story is told. There lay a large boulder in the middle of a roadway. Traveler after traveler walked past the boulder, veering off the side of the road to get around it. All the while, they were shaking their heads and muttering, “Can you believe that? Someone should get that big thing out of the way. What an inconvenience!”

Finally, a man came along and seeing the boulder, took a branch from a tree and created a lever. He pried the boulder enough to get it rolling and rolled it off to the side of the road. Lying underneath the rock, he found a small bag with a note. The man picked up the note and read the following message:

“Thank you for being a true servant of the kingdom. Many have passed this way and complained because of the state of the problem and spoken of what ought to be done. But you have taken the responsibility upon yourself to serve the kingdom instead. You are the type of citizen we need more of in this kingdom. Please accept this bag of gold that traveler after traveler have walked by simply because they didn’t care enough about the kingdom to serve.”

When Jesus gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” most people interpret the “Go ye therefore” as some great trip of some kind. It is not. Biblical scholars say the better translation could be, “As you are going.”

So, as we are going through our daily lives, I wonder what “bags of gold” we’re missing each day, simply because we don’t bother to get involved in serving our heavenly kingdom, either through sharing Christ personally with others or by getting involved in activities that make life better for everyone. Let us choose to be the type of heavenly citizen our Father can use to serve His kingdom.