“GOD’S KINGDOM: SOME REALLY GOOD POLITICAL NEWS AND OUR RESPONSE”
“Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ (Mark 1:14 NAU).”
Are you ready for some really good political news? I know I could stand some.
Well, here it is: No human being is in control of this world. God is!
Now, I’m not stupid, and I do pay attention to the news a bit. It certainly seems as if human beings are in control of our world. And (also certainly) God does allow humans to have a lot of freedom to mess up our own lives, the lives of others, and even the planet.
However, ultimately, God is the King! I believe that this is objectively true, even though many people aren’t sure there is a God. Even those who do believe that a God (or Gods) exist may have a very difficult time believing that God (or the Gods) actually rule this world in any meaningful sense.
About two-thousand years ago, a man came to this planet proclaiming that, against all appearances, God was in control. That man was Jesus.
There was a problem—a HUGE problem: This was the area where this man appeared (Judea) was at the eastern curve of the Mediterranean, and the Romans thought they were in control of this area.
And, in a sense, the Romans were in control.
But along comes Jesus who says, “No, God is in control.”
Now, at this point in the blog, I need to go all scholarly on you. Scholarship is often very boring. Believe me: I know this, because I am a scholar!
However, there are also times when it is fascinating. More importantly than being fascinating, there are times when it really matters—a lot. So, slog with me through this swamp of boring. I promise you that this slog will bring us onto solid ground, and that the view will be well worth the slog.
Mark 1:14-15 comes right after Jesus’ baptism and the account of Jesus’ temptation. Mark is giving a summary of what Jesus was proclaiming from the beginning of his public ministry. God’s good news, which Jesus proclaims, is that the time is fulfilled, that the kingdom of God has come near, and that Jesus’ hearers. His words includes us, if (as I believe) the Bible is for everyone and for every time.
God is king, and not the Romans! That is both good news and fairly easy to understand.
But even here, in these seemingly simple words, a little knowledge of the Greek is helpful.
For example “[t]he time is fulfilled” is in the perfect tense in Greek. The perfect tense usually signifies action completed in the past with ongoing results. Is it not a wonderful thing that the time for proclaiming the good news (which is what the word “gospel” means) has been completed in the past, but has ongoing results?
The word for “is at hand” regarding the kingdom is also in the perfect tense. The kingdom of God has been made to come near to us in the past, but it also has ongoing results. The kingdom is an accomplished fact, says Jesus, and it continues to be an accomplished fact.
However, the next verbs are in the present tense. The present tense is used for actions that are and must be continually going on. Jesus is saying that his hearers (and we) need to respond to God’s completed-in-the-past-but-with-ongoing-results kingdom with an ongoing, continual, life-style repentance and faith.
What is repentance? It is often said that it is “a change of mind.” This is both true and false. If what we mean by this is merely changing our minds about who God or Jesus is, I would say that this is only part of the equation. Repentance is a deep change in how we think of Jesus and God, ourselves, other people, and the world. Repentance is also about transformed action that is based on transformed thinking.
And faith? The word faith does not mean (as one twelve-year-old was reported to have said it meant) “believing in something that you know isn’t true.” Faith, in both the Old and New Testament, seems to have three meanings:
- Faith is believing certain things about God, humankind, salvation, the church, and the Bible.
- Faith means a personal relationship with God. Most Christians (and I include myself at this point), believe that personal relationship comes about through a commitment (faith) in Jesus Christ.
- Faith also means fidelity in how we live our lives.
So, according to Jesus, the kingdom of God is an accomplished fact with ongoing results.
Of course, there is a catch; there’s always a catch. The catch is that, if we wish to enjoy the good news of Christ’s kingdom, we must commit ourselves to a life-style of repentance—transformed thinking that leads to transformed actions and transforming actions. And we must commit ourselves to a life-style of believing, personal relationship, and fidelity.
That sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it? However, did you notice the word “gospel” at in both of the verses that led off this post? The word “gospel” is an old-fashioned translation of the Greek word that is used in both these verses. Many modern translations use the term “good news.” The truth is that this kingdom is governed by a King who knows us fully, and who truly desires the best for us. And if we live as citizens of this kingdom, it is good news for us, and for all with whom we come into contact.
And that is good news, no matter who are you are, what you’ve done, or who we have elected to lead our very provisional earthly kingdoms.
“Fear vs. Faith”
Perhaps I’m just being lazy today, or perhaps I’m being wise. Maybe I’m being both. In any case, I just read this, and thought it was so good that I would pass it along.
I don’t think that Jon Gordon is a Christ-follower, but he is most certainly a helpful writer. I found his words so true and calming that I decided to simply send you a link to his free (yes, it really is free!) weekly newsletter. You can, of course, subscribe to it yourself, and receive it in your e mail weekly.
Here is the link: www.jongordon.com/newsletter.html, accessed 11-14-2016.
DTEB
“GETTING RID OF BIG BUTS AND MAKING AMENDS”
A good friend of mine reminded me the other day that, if I was really going to make amends to someone I had wronged, I needed not to tell the person what he had done to provoke my wrong.
Ouch! Whoever said that truth hurts was telling the truth. Truth does hurt—a lot. However, there is the pain of falsehood, and there is the pain of truth. Falsehood causes us a pain that quickly makes us numb. Truth is another word for growing pains.
The problem is that I tend to have a lot of big buts. No, the last word in the preceding sentence is not misspelled.
I try to apologize for something wrong I’ve done, BUT I also try to explain my actions as being caused by what the other person did to me. That is not an amends; it’s an explanation.
So, I’ve decided that what I really need to do is to simply say, “I was wrong when I did/said ______________ about you/to you. I am sorry, and will try to do better.”
In other words, I need to have a “butectomy.” You’ve never heard the word before? Me neither! I just made it up.
The suffix “-ectomy” means “excision.” The word “but” means . . ., well, you know what that word means, don’t you?
I have often pointed out that we always put the real things, the things we really believe, on the right side of our but. Now, I need to apply this to my buts.
I was fudging with the title of this post. I spoke of getting rid of big buts. That is not enough when I’m trying to make amends. I need to get rid of all buts if I want to give someone a genuine amend or apology.
“Toward a More Civil Approach to One Another”
I have not been very civil here of late. That is putting it mildly! The other night, I went off verbally on one of my coworkers at the restaurant, and even threw a soggy, dirty cleaning cloth at him.
That is not civil discourse!
Do you ever find it difficult to remain courteous toward those with whom you disagree, or those whom you think are being unkind? I believe that I detect a spike in a lack of civility in our society as a whole. Perhaps I’m mistaken, though. Perhaps it’s just me.
I’m not sure if all the election news in the past year or so has caused, exacerbated, or merely reflected this lack of civility. Perhaps election news (and the election itself) has done all three.
I do know this for sure: I can’t directly affect the civility of other people or the nation , but I can get my own lack of civility under God’s control—and my control.
How do I plan to do that? I’m not sure that I have a plan, but I do have some random thoughts.
First, I need to remember that my worth is not measured by what people say to me or about me. I find that most of my lack of civility is triggered by people who speak rudely to me. The truth is that I am thin-skinned. Perhaps the reason one particular political figure irritates me so much is that I see myself in him—and I don’t like what I see! I say that my worth comes from God. Perhaps I should begin to believe that, and act on that belief.
Second, when I have feelings of being under attack, I need to stop and think. What is the proper response here? Nuclear reactors can be dangerous. So can human reactors. A thoughtful (and gentle) response is always better than a quick come-back.
Third, I can pray the serenity prayer. I have a tendency to pray that prayer when I’m already pretty serene. It is more important to pray the serenity prayer when I’m not in a serene situation.
Well, there it is: my blog for today. I greatly fear that it is more a confessional than a blog post.
“God’s Requirements” (Micah 6, 8)
“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (NAU Micah 6:8)
So, what is required of me? Micah 6:8 is a verse that haunts me. Micah makes it sound straightforward, if not easy. (It may be straightforward, but it is not easy, as Micah no doubt realized.)
The word for “seeks” is dôrēsh. This is a participle, which suggestions ongoing or continual action, flowing from the character of the one who is seeking. In this case, since it refers to God, it is the One who is seeking.
God seeking us! Now, there is a picture! We sometimes speak of seeking God, and the Bible speaks in that way as well. However, Micah 6:8 speaks of God seeking something from us.
It is not enough that the One occasionally sees me doing what is right and fair, or loving mercy, or walking humbly. The question is this: Does God catch me living in that manner at all times? The question answers itself.
Well, what about today? Will God (“my God”, as Micah says) catch me doing what is right each moment of today? Theoretically, this is possible. However, as they say, the devil is in the details. However, God is also in the details. For some reason, we seem to think that the devil is more involved in the details than God is.
And here is the problem, it seems to me: Other parts of the Bible point out that seeking the LORD God is not so easy, and that, therefore, obedience to what God is seeking from us is not easy. It requires the whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13.) And who of us actually seeks God—or anything, for that matter—with a whole heart? Indeed, there are some Bible verses that suggest that no one really seeks God. (See Psalm 53:2-3 and Romans 3:11 for further details.)
The very fact that God so often commands God’s own people, Israel, to seek God suggests that seeking God does not come naturally.
I am comforted by the teaching of Jesus, who said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). Perhaps the bottom line is this: We can only seek the one who has first sought and saved us. Only so, can we begin to fulfill what God spoke through the prophet Micah.
The Long War
I met him in a church basement, a few days into my service in The Long War. He was old and grizzled and his face was scarred from many a wound. He was drinking his coffee black, no sugar.
“Come sit down, young soldier,” he growled, somewhere between an invitation and an order.
I sat.
He looked me up and down. We sat in silence. His eyes came to rest on my eyes, looking not so much at, as through. Finally, his voice cut through the silence.
“So, you are new to The Resistance, I see.”
I nodded.
“No scars yet? Don’t worry, son, you’ll have plenty before they dump you in a grave. Likely as not, it’ll be unmarked, and no one will weep.”
He leaned toward me, but his gaze was fixed on my soul still. “Would you like some advice? Who knows? It might keep you out of the grave for a little while.”
I nodded. I was in way over my head, and I knew it. What was I thinking when I decided to rebel? Or was I thinking? But here I was—cold, and lonely, and scared, wondering how long it would be before I was as old and beat up as this warrior. How old was he? I couldn’t tell.
“I’m only thirty-two,” he said, apparently reading what I had been thinking. What might have passed for a smile faded from his face before it could be positively identified. “Still, I was young not so long ago, like you. And I thought the war would be over by now. I know better now. I know now why they call this “The Long War”.
He sat back, and took a sip of his coffee, and grimaced. “Some fool has let my coffee get cold,” he said. He drank the rest of his coffee in two gulps, and sat the cup down on the table, none too gently.
“And now for the advice,” he said.
“The enemy don’t give a rip about fightin’ fair. The enemy don’t care whether it kills you by night or by day. And the enemy don’t sleep.
“You’ll be alone, and the enemy will stick a knife in your back, or you’ll be with your comrades, and the enemy will pick you out and pick you off.
“Nine times out of ten, you won’t even see the enemy, but rest assured, the enemy is still there.
“You could surrender, you know. You’ll want to do that a thousand times. But remember that the enemy takes no prisoners, except to torture and use for propaganda. And, of course, the enemy will kill you in the end, anyway.
“There will be times when you’ll think it would be best to end it all yourself, choose your own time, your own method. But then you’ll remember that there might be someone who loves you, and that you are part of the Resistance, and you’ll fight on, even when you don’t feel like it, even when you want to die.
“The enemy will turn your family against you, friends will desert you, and you’ll be called a terrorist by people who don’t even want to admit there’s a war. But there’s a war alright. And you’re a soldier now, and you are the battlefield. And remember one thing more.”
Here, he paused to make sure I was with him, and not merely thinking about how to escape from this basement, this man, this reality. When he was sure that I was captured, he said,
“And one thing more, you must never forget: You are also the enemy!”
He pushed his chair back from the table to get another cup of coffee.
I headed for the door, his words echoing, echoing.
“And you are also the enemy!”
“Also the enemy!”
“Also the enemy!”
I stumbled out the door to face the darkness, to face the enemy, to face my addiction.
“The Uncontainable God”
NAS 2 Chronicles 6:18 “But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built.”
This is Solomon’s prayer of dedication at the completion of the temple in Jerusalem. God’s glory falls only after Solomon finishes his prayer, acknowledging that God cannot be contained in any building (2 Chronicles 7:1). In the somewhat parallel telling of story in 1 Kings 8, Solomon only mentions God’s uncontainableness after God’s glory has filled the temple (8:27). As with all profound truths, there are several ways in which the story should and indeed, must, be told in order to convey the truth.
But in both versions of the story, one truth is front and center: God is not containable. The most elaborate, ornate, expensive, well-built building in the world cannot contain the LORD God.
God is uncontainable. No space, no person, no collection of persons, no institution, no doctrine, no political party, can contain God. God is uncontainable. The technical, theological, Latin-based word for this aspect of God is “infinity.” God is infinite—i.e., God has no limits.
And yet, I am forever battling the urge to treat God as if God were nuclear waste. I am always trying to contain God.
Why? The answer is simple: I want to be God. The first step in being God is containing God.
But, of course, the True God is not containable. So . . .
I pretend that God is containable, and that I am God! See how simple it is!
O God—and no, I am not talking to myself—please deliver me from my attempts at containing you. Help me to live in the truth of your uncontainableness today. (According to my spell checker, “uncontainableness” is not a word. My spell checker doesn’t even have a suggestion as to what word would work here. I will add the word to the dictionary.)
There! The red line under the word has been removed. Oh, Uncontainable God, help me not simply to add the word “uncontainable” to my lexicon, but to add it also to the heart’s lexicon of daily obedience. Help me to live in the reality of your uncontainableness, and not only to live in that reality, but to be swept away by that reality.
“On Rooting for Cinderella”
So, it was a good World Series, wasn’t it? It was heart-breaking for the Indians and their fans. It was exhilarating to “the lovable losers” (a.k.a. “the Cubs”).
And me?
Well, I live in Ohio, but my team is not the Indians. (I won’t mention the name of “my” team, but I will tell you that their initials are “The Cincinnati Reds.”)
However, despite living in Ohio now, I lived in the Chicago area for three years, and fell in love with the Cubbies, a love that persists—except, of course, when they play the Reds.
Stir in another factor in order to bake this ambivalence pie: I like to root for whoever is down, whoever is the most “Cinderella-ish.” Going into the World Series, the team that was most like Cinderella was Cleveland.
However, after four games, the Indians were up three to one, and were heading back to Cleveland. “Well,” I said to myself, “my good friend John is from Cleveland, so it is okay if the Indians win.
And, if I were a betting man, then that is precisely the way I would have bet. However, there would be several more HUGE “howevers.”
HOWEVER, the Cubs won the next two games in Cleveland, and in a back-and-forth wrestling match between the two Cinderellas, the Cubs won game seven. It was one of the best baseball games I have never watched. (I went to bed when the Cubs were up three to one, thinking that Chi Town had the matter well in hand. Silly me! Judge me not! I was tired!)
Virtually everything makes me think of God, even cliff-hanger Cinderella baseball wrestling matches.
God loves Cinderellas! This is true in the Old Testament, where God chose Cinderellas such as Abram and Sarah, Hannah, Gideon, and David. Indeed, Israel itself wasn’t much to look at. (See Deuteronomy 7:1-8, for example. Of course, no nation is much to look at. Sometimes, we forget that.)
The New Testament is all about God’s very very HUGE “however.” Jesus showed great love for Cinderella teams and Cinderella individuals. Jesus’ actions as well as his teachings confirm this. According to Luke 14:15-24, the Cinderellas of the world are the ones who get invited to the ball. Others are too busy being busy (and too busy making excuses) to attend.
I had lunch recently with a good friend who feels like a Cinderella. He thinks of all that he could have accomplished if only he had made better decisions in his life. I know this man very well. He has been exceedingly frank about his struggles and failings. Still, he thinks of himself as a Cinderella.
And yet, I think of him as a very successful person. He has accomplished a lot of really good things, including loving me. And I am not the easiest person in the world to love!
I suspect that all of us feel like Cinderella. Some of us feel that way some of the time, some most of the time, and some all of the time. We are all waiting for a handsome prince (or princess) to come and place the right shoe on our foot.
Perhaps God has already put the slipper on our foot. Perhaps the slipper is called “Grace!” And God’s grace is the hugest “however” of them all.
DTEB
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