Under the Influence

 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’--Luke 17:20-21

            It’s been five years ago that I sat on the steps in Miller Church and gave a sermon. A tornado had ripped through the town just south of them, the night before. Under the darkness of night, when it happened, it was only partly obvious what destruction had taken place. It was only in the light of a new day that it would become apparent, all the damage that had been done. I wanted, somehow, to comfort them, but also to impress upon them that something major had happened. Soon, they would drive over and see what had happened. It was probably going to be a shock to them. And it was going to take awhile before things got back to normal.

            Today feels a lot like that day. Only there are a few more miles in between us and Hesston, and Newton, for that matter. We have had a day or two to let the shock sink in. But tragedy has come near, and it is unsettling.

            Amazingly enough, it does fit quite well with the scripture for today. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God. How it is among us, within us. The Kingdom of God came near when Jesus came to earth, a little baby boy, grew up, became a man, worked and served among us. He brought the Kingdom of God near. And when he left, ascended to heaven, he and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to keep being here, with us. Something miraculous happens, when the Holy Spirit becomes a part of us. We take the Kingdom of God and we spread it around. It grows like the mustard seed. It leavens the flour, like yeast.

We get the Kingdom of God inside of us to take out into the world, several ways. We come here, and we hear the scripture proclaimed. Hopefully it doesn’t just bounce off our minds and hearts. Hopefully it goes inside, and stays there. We receive Communion, and the blessed elements of bread and juice physically go inside us. We pray, and the Holy Spirit rises within us. We sing the music that teaches and reminds us of the awesome power and love of our God, and it goes inside our hearts.

            We go home, and hopefully we continue to receive the things of God—things that lift our hearts and encourage us, give us strength. We continue to read the Word, to pray, to listen to music that glorifies God. The Kingdom of God is within us. And we carry that out into the world, and we share it with others in how we love, in how we conduct ourselves, what we say to people… and we become the yeast that leavens the flour and makes it rise. We become the one little mustard seed that ends up growing branches for others to rest in.

But you see, we’ve got to be intentional about placing the Kingdom of God there, inside us, in the first place. You eat peas and carrots, and you’re going to be full of them. You drink pop, and you’re going to be filled with that. Whatever you ingest on a regular basis—whatever crosses the path to your heart and your brain—this is the Kingdom that is within you.

            You could say that whatever you ingest on a regular basis—spiritually, mentally, emotionally, even physically--becomes what you are under the influence of. So the question today is, “What are you under the influence of?” Whatever we regularly feed our hearts and minds can cause us to do things, say things, act in certain ways. 

When they went to the trailer home of the man who decided to go up the highway from Newton to Hesston with a couple of guns this week, they found a few things lying around, that we can guess he was under the influence of, at the time: An empty bottle of liquor. The case for a Special Ops video game, which probably meant he was, in his mind, visually going through rooms or places with guns, and mowing down people indiscriminately, before he actually went out and did that. We also know there was loud music playing, when law enforcement got to the site. I’m going to guess it wasn’t the kind of music that makes you feel soft-hearted and tender. I’m going to guess it had some rather aggressive music and words. I don’t know. I could be wrong. But I know that, at times, I’ve been under the influence of music that made my mind, my mood, go places that weren’t positive and helpful. Music is a powerful, powerful thing. It can be like a mind-altering drug.

            I’ve heard from a number of people that video games don’t cause folks to go out and shoot people. But when you look at what this man was under the influence of—alcohol, violence, aggression anger-- coupled with the trigger of new legal problems, it appears that everything worked together quite negatively, like a toxic cocktail, and provided the fuel for him to drive back to work and do the unthinkable.

Whatever you are under the influence of, will determine your attitude, your mood, even your actions. It will determine how you see things that happen to you, affect your whole perspective on life.  Is it good? Is it bad? Will it get any better??

Jesus says the Kingdom of God is not of this world. That is why we have to receive it, and take it OUT into the world.

            On the other hand… on the other hand, what were some of the people under the influence of, who were victims? Did you see some of the video that was taken, on Friday? A young man shot four times, twice in the chest, who said it was a God thing that he was still alive. One of those bullets could have easily hit his heart. Instead of anger for the man who shot him, he had sadness. It broke his heart, he said, to think that this was the only thing that the shooter thought he could do to make things better. Instead of his heart being pierced by his attacker, it was broken. It’s easy to see how the Kingdom of God was within this young man, who was shot. "God should be in the spotlight."

            Time and time again, I listened to interviews of the people who had been injured. They all attributed their survival to divine intervention. The grace of God. Nothing short of a miracle. And so for the whole world to see--because it did make national, even international news--the Kingdom of God was near, there in Hesston, in the hearts and minds of those who pointed to their God as the reason for their survival. True, a few did not make it. But it could’ve been so many more.

            So it all comes down to this, on this day: we’ve got to decide what we’re going to be under the influence of. We have a choice, what we put into our bodies, our hearts, our minds. We have a choice, what we will live under the influence of. And what we will take out, into the world, to give to others.