Have you ever had the sense of tunnel vision where you become totally oblivious to everything around you? It's seeing a tree, but missing the grandeur, the beauty and diversity of the forest. It's like reading the gospels as saving souls, and missing the incredible profound mystery and redemptive imagination of the Kingdom.
In the opening words of John's gospel he tells us Jesus pitched his tent into the messiness of humanity. Unwed teenage parents, homeless, marginalized by their community. It doesn't get much messier unless you mention the stench of animal dung, and the filth of a stable. But that is where the profound embryonic birth of the Kingdom starts. Later, Jesus would proclaim that very truth, " the Kingdom is near."
Later the religious establishment and ordinary folks would ask Jesus when and where the Kingdom was coming. Someone would ask, " Is it over there?" Or someone else, " Look up there is that it?" " No, is it over here?", Another would ask. " Is it coming on this day ", someone yelled.
And Jesus said, " it is not here, there, or up...look it is among you."
The profound mysterious reality of the Kingdom is among us...it is here right now.
Jesus had the redemptive imagination of the God of all creation. He had the uncanny ability to see the world upside down, seeing the Kingdom. Remember when he prayed those words, " Father, may you Kingdom come, on earth as in heaven."
He calls us to re-imagine the world seeing the Kingdom. But not only to imagine, to fantasize such a place. But to build the Kingdom of God now. This is where we need to move beyond our tunnel vision of seeing the gospel as " saving " mere souls...to the reality of redeeming " All " creation. This the profound reality and truth that Jesus spoke in his radical outrageous scandalous parables, and lived out in his table fellowship, his miracles and everyday living. He lived life as if he was living in the Kingdom now.
So what does this redeeming, and building of the Kingdom look like? Well, the wild Old Testament prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse in the words from God...
Is this not the kind of faithful living I have chosen: to loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? ( homelessness, poverty, racism, addiction ) Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter...when you see him naked to clothe him, and not turn away from your won flesh and blood ( your brothers and sisters, we are all children of God ). Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. If you do away with the yolk of oppression, with the finger pointing ( The judging who's in and who's out ) and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your light will ne like the noonday...you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. ( Isaiah 58:6-12 paraphrased )
The Kingdom will be near...it will be here among us. Father may your Kingdom come, on earth as in heaven.
The Kingdom is near, it can be seen in many places around us. We can catch glimpses of it in art and beauty. I can see it in the generosity and compassion and godly character of people I meet. I can feel it rustling, rumbling, trembling like a powerful motorcycle idling at a red light, like a mustard seed sprouting.
May it burst forth, may justice and mercy flow like a river, may its light shine like dawn spreading over the land.
Posted by: Al | May 21, 2010 at 10:10 AM