The Light...The Action...and God the Father or starting to take the nowness of the kingdom of God seriously...

You are now entering the Kingdom of God...population too many to count. Please praise safely!

One of the great things that I love about the wider community of faith that I am in (the Vineyard) is the emphasis on the Kingdom of God - this in-breaking into the world of the will/wish of God and being a people that have a relationship with the King to be his representatives/workers/servants in embodying his kingdom - at it's best it is that we are here not to be rulers and lord it over the world but to be those who get their hands dirty and souls achy in caring, tending, longing, blessing, praying, healing, embracing, restoring, renewing all in the name of Jesus in/through/with the Holy Spirit...

It is not just a personal mission, or a personally empowered one, but one we undertake as part of a community - the missio Dei (the mission of God) is one that is inherently communal, God existing within his own community of three and inviting us to join with him and to extend that invitational embrace... or to put it another way being a people of God who are connected to each other and God who embody the good news narrative...

The now but not yet of the kingdom of God

One of the key teachings of kingdom theology that I have come across is that the kingdom of God is about the now - Jesus saying the kingdom was of the atmosphere, here, material, touchably at hand - but also of the not yet - in other words it is not fulfilled, is it not complete, not everyone who is is sick gets healed when we pray, we still do stupid sinful wrong things etc.  It is to me a dynamic tension and  one that I often am uncomfortable with - in fact I confess one that I often put off as doing things as well 'not yet...'

Yes it's great to talk about helping the least, the lost....but not yet.

Yes fantastic to talk about changing the status quo, about empowering those who are powerless, about giving up rights to wealth, health and a high quality of life just cos I am born within an economic/social power structure...but not yet...

fantastic to talk about equality, about dreaming about peace, harmony, social/political/economic justice which is not skewed only in my favour... but not yet.

of course it is an high calling to tend and care for creation, to look after this planet and its scarce resources but I need to consume a bit more, get a few more things a bit cheaper, make my life a little more comfortable first... so not yet.

yes I love the idea about having a faith that is about talking about taking action, about the right way to engage and the wrongs ways to get involved (how I am not like those who are getting it so wrong and how i am so glad that I am like those whose who know the right ways of phrasing these matters), about the right phrases and structures and influences... but taking action well not yet.

I love these missional phrases of my faith, the thought of all being contextual and relevant but if that means I might have to live counter-culturally, if I have to go against the flow not to be deliberately perverse but because i have chosen a revolutionary way to live which embodies laying down my rights, throwing up my doors, dismantling my 6 ft fences, applying judgement to myself, confessing, being honest, giving up private bubble for a wider community and serving those who it will cost me to serve - well not yet.

One day God I will, one day it will all come to pass as you say -  but right now I'm too busy being rich, powerful, white, western, male, consumer...so not yet!

Why now is not a good time but then there is no good time...

I mean I want too but why should I start, why should I bother going first in loving someone? in being generous? in laying aside my rights when they aren't going to change and lay down theirs, especially when their right of being right involves them telling me how right they are and how wrong I am?  This whole servant gigg sounds glam to begin with but it quickly fades, especially when people start treating me like a servant, taking advantage of me, exploiting me  - being a door mat for God is so not happening ever, the meek can keep the earth thank you very much...

But I am feeling challenged by the now of the kingdom of God... of actually being, or starting, or trying to be... of wondering if Jesus words about faith and the impossible were to help me when I look at the mountain of all the reasons I should wait, of all the reasons of saying heh not yet and doing nothing... what if faith can move that mountain?  what if the impossible of the kingdom happening now can start? what if it is like small  seeds germinating and growing into huge trees, or little yeast spreading through the bread making it rise and grow?

Was Jesus really serious when he said...

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. "

If he was, and I have a growing feeling that he is and that this is just one example of the NOW of the kingdom of God then these are be-attitudes, something to try and do now, not just see as happening at the end of the not yet...

Now to start...but where?

My Q is the how?  Anyone else doing this and can let me know?  Anyone want to start doing this and want to explore doing/being/acting like  the kingdom of God is now?

Comments

[Helen]

Paul wrote: "My Q is the how? Anyone else doing this and can let me know? Anyone want to start doing this and want to explore doing/being/acting like the kingdom of God is now?"

I wrote about the Kingdom of God on my blog the other day:

http://www.mildenhall.net/2007/01/07/the-tree-and-the-birds/

But I don't think what I wrote answers any of your questions. :-)

So is the how any different from New Years Resolutions or is it the same? Is it getting on with what we know we should be doing but could be doing a better job of?

[David]

Great stuff.
Kind of like the U2 song, "We thought we had the answers but it was the questions we had wrong."

Since what you are talking about is being done on such a small para-church scale, it's hard to tell what works and what doesn't, but maybe that's the point - formula won't work. As you know. :-)

One of the things we want to do in being the Kingdom and being Charismissional (see robymacs blog) and hope to do starting in Febuarary, is take pizza to all the Colorado State student organizations that think Christians don't like them; Gays, Environmentalists, Liberals, Agnostics, etc.

We might end up with egg (or pizza) on our face, but we just want to tear down some walls and build relationships...no strings attached.

[Paul]

hi helen, i liked your post, very kingdom of God :)

i think it might be something that is just stirring in me, i feel very restless at the moment and am not sure why - like there are things i have only been part doing, dream walking in and i'm just waking up and thinking heh let's start the dream now...

so i guess i don't really know what it is :)

[Paul]

love the pizza idea David, be cool if you get time just to hang out and chat as well as just buy them pizza, get talking about why they think you might not like em over desert maybe ;)

[molly]

I very much resonate with this...I feel like I have been questioning (with good needful questions) but that it will not be right if I stay here in this place...that there is a time to start making Beauty/Love/Joy/Strength/Peace and that it's not later, when everything falls together, that it's NOT "not yet," just as you were saying...and I'm finding myself preferring this cozy place of sitting on my haunches critiqueing and brainstorming and questioning...yet meanwhile, the old planet keeps on spinning it's song of pain (like it really needs one more armchair philosopher thinking they're in the drivers seat)?

I'm just praying right now for...WHAT. What is it? Is there something specific that I need to head towards, something I am specifically called to? Or is it that I am called to the here and now of normalcy (perhaps even harder than starting an orphanage in Haiti, in that what and how to Love is not quite so spelled out)? I don't know, but either way, I am sensing a growing frustration in my core for this stage I'm in. I think it was *right* at one point, but the cacoon is starting to grow tight and uncomfortable and I'm starting to want to struggle within it.

[Paul]

Thanks Molls, yeah i know what you mean - the sitting on the ol haunches is good for a while but eventually for me the danger is that is it, or it becomes more and more obscure thoughts - splitting hairs when really most christians agree on the big picture and just quibble over details - do i really want to do that? I mean i think that's part of my desire to just not talk about stuff but actually live it/do it/share it - love, justice, grace, mercy, compassion, generousity, mercy -those big bold God primary colours - and i want to paint in them, be painted by him...

as for what - prayer is so important but i also don't want prayer to become another form of haunch resting- which i guess was what i was trying to say in my next post...