Go in through the narrow gate,
the gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow.
A lot of people go through that gate.
But the gate to life is very narrow.
The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.
Matthew 7 : 13-14.
The New Year is a time with a lot of traditions and superstitions associated with it.
In Scotland it is a time where you sit around with family and friends and sing Auld Lang Syne.
In England there is the tradition of the first foot.
Where in New Zealand for some the New Year begins with the race to see the first sun rise.
But apart from all these traditions New Year is also a time to reflect.
A time where we look at the past year and reflect upon our victories with a sense of gladness
and upon our failures with a sense of melancholy and sadness,
but it is a time to reflect.
The scripture we have read this morning also speaks of reflection.
It calls us as the hearers to reflect upon where we are in our journey with Christ,
but more than this it asks us to decide where we will go in the New Year with this same Christ.
The text itself comes from the section in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount,
so in order to set the scene a little we will back track a few Chapters in Matthew’s gospel.
If you can try to imagine we are going back a few hours earlier.
To chapter 4 of Matthew to be exact
Jesus is walking the streets of Galilee Jesus is declaring the Good News,
the Good News that the Kingdom of God is here.
There is a problem though because so far this New Kingdom has only one citizen
and that is Jesus himself.
So Jesus is looking for people.
Looking for a certain type of people.
Jesus is shouting out the Good News
the Kingdom of God is near.
But more than that he is actually proving it too.
Every where he walks he gives people a foretaste of this New Kingdom,
just to show that his message is not all hot air he heals people,
the lame walk and the blind see.
Naturally people are drawn to Jesus,
but he caries on searching,
because Jesus is looking for a special type of person, not just people who gets impressed by a few miraculous healings,
but for people who are truly special.
The people Jesus is looking for are people who get frustrated with the 9 to 5 of life.
He’s looking for people who like to travel.
Jesus is looking for People who know there is more to life than meets the eye.
You might say Jesus is looking for people with potential.
Potential to be migrants to this New Kingdom,
God’s Kingdom.
People who are willing to make the move out of the
9 to 5 world
and to become citizens.
Jesus has a name for these potential migrants
these kingdom citizens
- Disciples he calls them.>
In and around the streets of Galilee he finds them
at play,
and at work
and like the Pied Piper of Galilee,
Jesus leads them up the hill to teach them about how to apply for this Kingdom citizenship.
-The People that followed this pied piper of Galilee that day are a bit like we are.
People who are willing to take part in the Journey
- and so Jesus is calling us to take our seats around him,
He’s calling us to look again at what it means to be Citizen of this new kingdom
Now the Kingdom of God’s a funny place -
you see
when Jesus sits down to tell us all about emigrating to this Kingdom -
-he doesn’t once tell us what shot’s we need
or the state of the education system in this Kingdom.
Infact He doesn’t even tell us about the Visa requirements.
or the point system for acceptance in this immigration scheme.
It seems the only visa requirement that is necessary is His Grace
so there aren’t even any forms to fill in
no health checks or blood samples to give
we don’t even have to queue for hours to get a visa stamp.
Because almost everything has been taken care of we need just two things.
Obedience to the words
"follow me"
- and a willingness to live as a citizen of this Kingdom.
Instead of all the paper work
Jesus sits there on the side of the mountain and tell us about the social customs of this kingdom.
The first thing he tells us is that we are a blessed people.
We are blessed because we are poor in spirit he says. We are blessed because we mourn.
We are blessed because we are humble.
We are blessed because we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We are blessed because we are merciful and pure in heart.
We are blessed because we make peace.
And finally we are blessed because we are also hated.
After this Jesus goes on to tell us what sort of Behavior is expected of us as immigrants
- and some of the Qualities we are to learn as prospective Migrants.
After a while though he changes the subject,
it seems that the rest of what it means to be a citizen we will learn by experience,
Jesus has given us the basics though.
Next Jesus starts to talk about the way to get to this kingdom.
Our visa requirement are filled in -
our passports are in order
- and we even know about some of the social customs.
It seems that all is left is to make the travel
arrangements to this kingdom.
Know I said that this Kingdom was a funny place,
so it’s only to be expected that Jesus should give us two choices of how to travel.
In front of us are two departure gates
one is very wide
the other much narrower
- beyond these two gates are two roads.
The wide gate leads to an easy road,
a triple lane highway, freshly resurfaced and built for speed.
While the narrow gate leads to a hard road,
its rough and ready
and we may need to walk some of the way.
Jesus gives us the option whether we go for the easy road- that triple lane highway.
Or the hard Road.
The difference between the two roads is
the easy road is for tourists
and the hard one for immigrants.
The choice for us then is whether we will go for a tour of this Kingdom.
Or
throw in our lot migrate there,
nail our passports to the flag pole of his Kingdom
and Declare our citizenship
become His citizens,
His full time disciples.
The problem is that this decision is not an easy one to make.
The decision to emigrate to another country never is,
and so the decision to emigrate to God’s Kingdom holds the same problems.
Because the modern age we live in is against this immigration.
Apart from that often our families and friends are against it too,
they believe if we go over to God’s kingdom and become Disciples then they will lose us.
The world we live in doesn’t want us to go either
and so it seeks to blog our way with legal red tape,
if that doesn’t dissuade us then our passports are ceased,
the world we live in will put any obstacles it can in our way to prevent us leaving
to prevent us migrating to God’s Kingdom.
Our attention spans have been polluted.
They have been tuned to 15 second commercial
- flattened by our 30 page readers digest view of reality - and pasturised like the milk we put
in our tea.
So you can see Its not easy to become a Kingdom citizen.
Its no wonder then that so many should choose the Easy road,
this triple lane highway built for speed.
This Tourist Road.
Its no wonder then that so many become
spiritual tourists.
Weekend visitors to God’s Kingdom.
A spiritual tourist is a person who qualified for the immigration visa
but fall to that pressure against full blown citizen ship,
the worlds legal red tape held them back,
and they just wouldn’t fight hard enough to win their passports
Instead of citizenship
they just go for a package tour of the Kingdom.
Jesus the master
becomes
Jesus the air conditioned bus driver,
HE drives them to the latest tourist sites
in the hope of wetting their appetites,
in the hope that they may see enough of the Kingdom to really want to come on board
For some spiritual tourists it’s the weekly tour of the local church.
They will gladly go for a day excursion to God’s kingdom,
Just as long as it’s not to challenging,
after all the tourist wouldn’t want to get to uncomfortable would they.
- Others visit the Kingdom in search of an adrenaline fix,
there the thrill seekers
looking for the latest blessing.
Anything that will give them the realization that they’ve made it-
- well until something new comes along anyway.
These tourist mentality Christians want instant credit in
eternity - and so grow impatient looking for results -
They want it all
but time is always an issue when you only have a day pass to God’s Kingdom.
When the air conditioned bus breaks down
they don’t offer to help out
they don’t offer to push,
no
they get of,
give up the tourist for Jesus mentality
and go back to where they were.
For them the holiday is over and its back to business as
usual. They return home.
There journey incomplete,
the package tour did not live up to it’s promise.
Nothing more to show
than some Holiday snaps of the time they spent as a spiritual tourist,
There the ones who take the wide gate and the easy road.
Yet there are other people.
people who take every obstacle in their stride.
These people are not content with having their attention spans tuned to 15 second commercial
- they don’t like being flattened by the 30 page readers digest view of reality -
-and they hate being pasturised like the milk we put in our tea.
These people believe in the journey.
They want to fight the red tape that the world puts in front of them.
These people take the narrow gate and the hard road,
despite the problems it hold’s.
These people are the immigrants to this new kingdom willing to throw in there lot with Jesus
and become his citizens,
his disciples.
To these people the Kingdom Of God is not a package tour.
But a life long commitment.
and Jesus is no tour guide
but a teacher.
But not one that teaches in a class room
but on a road side,
or on a work site like a true master craftsmen.
Jesus calls his Kingdom citizens,
his disciples to live out their lives here.
Not on a tourist bus to nowhere
but amongst everyday people.
There will be times to stop and admire the sites
but we need to remember the road is just a road
a part of the journey
and not the final destination.
And so Kingdom citizens,
disciples must be willing to give up a little of there comfort for the sake of the road.
The new Kingdom to which disciples now belong
is more precious than the home they left,
and so as citizens they choose to follow there new leader
and be disciples to him.
Go in through the narrow gate,
the gate to destruction is wide,
and the road that leads there is easy to follow.
A lot of people go through that gate.
But the gate to life is very very narrow.
The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.
The road disciples walk is not an easy road,
-it’s a narrow road,
-its a dusty road, full with potholes and road works.
-its a road that often has to be walked on your hands and knees
-A road where we need to be willing to help others out.
-where disappointment is a traffic jam that may slow you down.
But it’s the road that leads to a life that is worth living.
Because its the road that Jesus walked on.
And it’s a road we need to choose to walk on each day.
The rough narrow road is the only road that leads to the Kingdom Of God.
This morning we are standing at a crossroads.
A whole new years of uncharted territory stands before us and non of us no for certain what the future holds.
For a moment though I want you to consider which road you will travel on in the new year.
Before us are the same two gates and beyond them are the same two roads.
We need to decide on which road we will walk,
will it be the road of the spiritual tourist
or the road of the Disciple.
