Thursday was a great day. We FINALLY moved off of our theoretical training wheels and hopped onto a discussion of redeeming the powers. We looked at Jesus and how He interacted with some of the powers of His day. We talked about the idea of restoration. It was magical, really.
Yes, Thursday was a great day…until the other half of my brain interfered (i’ve been trying to get it to stop doing that for years) and began to question everything. I fear this class is only the beginning fo me – the beginning of a very long journey back to the basics of how and why God created this world order. I think only then will i be able to move forward with any resemblance of confidence about my place in the mess.
The good news:
The Church is making progess in returning, perhaps, to its original intent (i guess that would be going backwards?). Where until the early 1950s, the Church considered herself the Kingdom of God, it now seeks to embody it, and we are searching for more concrete criteria to determine what that should look like besides: “…better than what we were doing.” The Church is beginning to call the powers back to the Kingdom of God. Jesus is our guidepost, and the Holy Spirit empowers us. Jesus’ primary task throughout His incarnation was to annouce the Kingdom of God breaking in. And the purpose of the Holy Spirit with us is to continue the mission of Jesus in the world.
The bad news (or, as i like to put it, the complexities that make me question the good news):
This discussion about redemption is wonderful. I think it exists in far too few places and i have craved it for many years now. Deep down, i believe the redemption of Christ extends beyond human persons and into the broken systems of cultural interaction we have developed.
But what does this redemption look like, really? Everything I’ve heard refers to restoring the systems and giving them back up to God in worship. ok….so what does that mean exactly? I feel like those dumb girls on Studio 60 last night who asked Matt what he did for the show. He replied he was the head writer and they responded by asking, “so what does that mean, exactly?”
Maybe the answer is simple and i am trying to make it too difficult. but i am just not fully on board yet (and you would think i would be since this has been my life’s rhetoric and passion for the last few years). We say we will “restore” the powers BACK to God…i don’t know about you, but i don’t recall ever getting much illustration of what they looked like when they were ever HIS. Mere moments after creation Eve and Adam ushered in “life after the fall,” and we have had to deal with the consequences ever since. I know God established an order for His people, but it was precisely that – an order for HIS PEOPLE. I never saw Him running around giving laws to the Babylonians. They were held accountable by the standard of God’s people. And i’d say modern-day America can relate more to Babylon than Israel. As much as the conservative right wants to believe, we are NOT a theocracy. How can we give something BACK to God that never submitted to His authority in the first place?
And then comes this quote in class: “In the Kingdom of God, domination ceases to exist. The rule and reign of God does not lead to political rule, it leads to the cross.”
The reign of God leads to the redemptive work of the cross. OK…now we’re getting somewhere. How can the broken systems of our world both die and raise to new life in this age? they cannot do it apart from Christ, who ushered in “life after the ressurection.” Nothing has new life apart from Him. But i still find myself yearning for concrete illustrations of what that redemption LOOKS like.
I feel so much like a prideful Pharisee or a dumb disciple who probably still wouldn’t have understood what Jesus said even if He used a flannel-graph himself. I am thinking it’s time for me to return to what He said about the Kingdom of God, to the parables He used to describe how it would break through. It wasn’t what the disciples wanted it to look like, and it probably isn’t what i want it to look like either. They wanted military power and earthly triumph, and i too, want something tangible and great for the world to see and say, “if only we’d thought of this all along…this is surely the better way. Let’s all follow Jesus!”
“As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” – Mark 4:10-12
“He was saying, ‘What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.’ And again He said, ‘To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.’” – Luke 13:18-21
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” – Luke 16:16
“Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” – Luke 17:20-21
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