living with fresh imagination...missional

"The Kingdom lies in how we embody what we believe. Our greatest challenge is to live   faith in a world gone mad. And all of creation waits, groans, for a people who will live God’s dream with fresh imagination"...

"Father, why don't they get it ", I imagine Jesus saying under his breath in the above picture. John said Jesus pitched his tent in the midst of humanity, in its chaos, its poverty, in a world that had lost its imagination.” God took on flesh and bones...and into the messiness of life and rubbed elbows with us.

There is an old proverb that goes something like this…

Tell me ... I forget

Show me ... I remember

Involve me ... I understand

Jesus came announcing the Kingdom was near...he came to involve us in the reality of the Kingdom. Jesus revealed the redemptive imagination of the God of all creation. Once again, the Spirit would brood over creation, and the Living Word made flesh would speak an incarnational language of new creation.

Jesus showed up in the Temple, teaching. The Jews were impressed, but puzzled: "How does he know so much without being schooled?" (John 7:15)

"Have you heard the way he talks? We've never heard anyone speak like this man." (John 7:46)

He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee. He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and impressed—his teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not the quibbling and quoting they were used to. (Luke 4:31-32)

These stories, parables about the Kingdom freed the imagination of a world that was held hostage by the empire. Kingdom stories like that of the Good Samaritan broke down the walls of race, class and religion...it revealed a world of profound healing...no barriers, no boundaries...a world where your neighbour really was your brother.

The Kingdom was like a Father who had two sons, where the younger son decided he could do better going it alone. So he collected his inheritance from his Father, walked down the driveway, heading off for distant lands. Frivolously he spent everything he had, wine, women and song...everything was gone. Things got so bad he ended up rummaging for scraps of food in a filthy pigpen. Here where life couldn't have gotten much worse, he wondered if his Father could forgive him enough so he could be a servant. So hungry, filthy and broken he headed home. Little did he know, his Father gazed daily at the horizon, filled with the hope of his son’s return. Then one day down the driveway staggered emaciated son. The Father ran down the driveway dancing like a mad man. Before his son could utter a word his Father kissed him, he could not stop kissing. The Father placed his ring on his son, and draped his robe over him. He called for his servants to get the fattest calf they could find...start the BBQ...we're having a party!

What is this Kingdom, and this Father that is filled with such mercy, and forgiveness...and grace? The Kingdom is filled with so much grace that we can never drain the well from which it gushes out.

The Kingdom was like a King that planned an extravagant feast. He sent his son out into the neighbourhood with invitations. The son returns without the invited guests, but carries a lengthy list of their excuses. The King sends the son out again...this time to the gutters, back alleys, ditches, the country side, run down skid row hotels to bring anyone and everyone he meets to the feast. The King wants his table full.

Again, what is this Kingdom, and this King who will invite anyone...a table filled with the worlds throw aways, misfits, the ugly, the poor, the drunks and druggies, thieves, and liars. How surprised will I be when it won't be just my so called friends at the table?

This was a glimpse of the Kingdom, the world upside down...these stories that left people in awe and wonder. The Kingdom recaptured people's heart, minds and souls with the redemptive imagination of God. But we've philosophized these stories, we've sermonized these stories...we have heard them, and forgotten them. From time to time we may even have been showed them...and remembered.

But that was not what they were about...Jesus lived those stories...he was involved in the reality of the stories...he embodied them. Jesus wants to us to be involved in the stories, so we understand the Kingdom...on earth as in heaven. We need to embody the redemptive imagination of the Kingdom. We need to be living, breathing these stories in our daily lives. I need to live the Good Samaritan, I need to live the radical scandalous unending love and forgiveness of the Father...and I need to be as wild in my invitations as the King. How big is my table?

I can believe in the Kingdom...but, until I embody and live what I believe, I will not reveal or build the Kingdom. Until I learn to live the imagination of Jesus...I will not see the Kingdom.

Comments

[jim]

Great post, Ron. I like the old proverb and point you to some figures over at the Weary Pilgrim: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=37421406&postID=3774923943853579294

I like the old proverb too.

Paige Hughes