Romans 8:12-17

The week I write this, our TV screens have been filled with images of Britain’s Royal Family as they’ve been preparing for the marriage of Prince Harry to the American-born actress Meghan Markle.

Everywhere you looked on every imaginable channel has been every explanation possible of all the events that were to take place leading up to the day of the wedding.

We’ve learned about Dukes and Duchesses, Kings and Queens, and about the histories of castles and palaces. We’ve seen again the history of Harry and have been enlightened with the details of His Bride, Meghan’s, past as we’ve learned about their childhoods and how they grew up differently. We’ve learned about their paths to one another and finally we’ve learned every imaginable detail about the day that was to be the Royal Wedding.

Saturday morning all around the globe, people tuned their TVs to see this unlikely marriage happen. We saw Megan Markle walk in as a mere commoner from across the pond and walk out as the newest member of the Royal Family.

As I sat there watching all of this unfold, the imagery and the words of this week’s passage from Romans came to mind.

I specifically was drawn in the midst of this week’s activities to the imagery found within this passage of the followers of Christ being heirs to God‘s kingdom.

During the Royal Wedding coverage, there appeared a picture of a young Meghan Markle standing outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. The twist was this was not a current picture. No, this picture was a picture of Miss Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, standing in front of Buckingham Palace when she was a teenager and merely visiting Great Britain on a school trip.

Little did she know that she would one day be a member of the family that lived within.

But now here she stood no longer an outsider to the activities within instead she was being so eloquently escorted in to the midst of the life of the Royal Family.

I think this is the same way with us when it comes to God‘s Kingdom as we have a grown in our faith along the way. On our journey we have learned about this great Kingdom of God. We have learned about the saints. We have learned about those that have gone before us, those that have laid down their lives for the Kingdom.

We’ve studied the Scriptures and we’ve seen how the story of God has been woven through the lives of every day ordinary people. We’ve seen two in the garden who were able to spend their afternoons walking around the garden with God himself. We’ve seen a faithful servant called to build a boat to be safe when the waters rushed in and destroyed everything. We’ve seen a small shepherd boy become king. In this Kingdom we’ve seen the outsiders become insiders. We’ve heard that the last shall be first. We’ve even seen a God who wrapped himself in humanity and became our sacrifice which opened the gates and provided a way for us to also be shuffled from a mere outsider standing as a spectator at the gates to a participant and Heir of God’s Kingdom.

What has been presented for us in Romans is not only a picture painted for those citizens and heirs of the kingdom then but also for us today.

Paul paints a reminder that we are joint heirs with Jesus. We are the church. We are the Bride of Christ, the unlikely Royal who has been shuffled down the aisle, past the saints of old, seated at the table and given a room at the Palace.

Our partnership with Jesus invites us into the very courts of the Kingdom we were once denied access to but as we are on our way we are reminded all of this came at a price.

This price was paid for us by Jesus the first and original heir.

And just like him we will endure suffering but hold on for what we’re going through right now is not in vain.

This journey has some painful and awkward moments as we are in the growing pains of who we are to become but one day, when the already but the not yet becomes the now, this part of the story that we are living in will be the part of the story where the commentators reflect on our journey to this moment and we will finally reach that moment where we look back down the aisle and remember that the journey we went through to get here was worth it all.