This is an embassy. Specifically, this building is an embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven to the nations of this world, and the people of God are Heaven’s foreign service. We are God’s ambassadors to the communities in which he has placed us to carry out his policy in this world.
That policy, the policy of the kingdom of God in this world, is reconciliation. We have been given the job of announcing a peace treaty between the Kingdom of God and the warring kingdoms of this world. That peace treaty was signed by God himself in the city of Jerusalem on a dark Friday in the spring of the year 29 AD, and it is open to anyone willing to sign on. Our job is not to make peace, nor is it to negotiate anything. Our job is simply to declare the peace God has already made with us through Jesus Christ, to proclaim the good news of reconciliation to all those who need to hear it, and to invite them to sign the treaty and join us.
Photo ©2021 Richard Haddeman. Public domain.