what narrative are you living by?

We are in the Memorial Day weekend here in the United States in which we remember the ultimate sacrifice paid by many Americans in service to their country in the military. It is a powerful narrative with a long enough history which has involved a number of great men and women. “War is hell” and many have entered heroically into that scenario, often at great personal cost. America, its founding, and what it stands for is a compelling narrative all by itself, as told and understood by millions here. Though like most everything else in life it is messier than we make it out to be. But such is life. A good case in point is the American Civil War with the greatest American president in most people’s view (including my own) then in office, Abraham Lincoln. That war shows both the greatness of human sacrifice, as well as the devastation war brings. Evidently the narrative of war had a fairly good grip on me as a child, because I remember pretending I was in battles, even though raised in the Mennonite church in which we were taught that it is wrong for a Christian to go to war or to kill another human being.

First I want to say I am thankful to live in a nation in which we are free to worship according to conscience, and live out our faith, even to the extent that those of us who are Christian pacifists can register as “conscientious objectors,” and serve during war time in other ways. Some serve as medics or chaplains.

I have no doubt that some of the best Christians in the world have served and do serve in the military. They are there not only to serve their country, but also to do good in the world. As well as to make a living, which should never be belittled as an important factor, in and of itself.

Back to the question, and main point of this post. What is the narrative we live by? And what is the narrative we are to live by? I don’t intend to give any hard, fast answers to either. Indeed there is always a complexity which can easily be largely missed. In fact I want to be open to such complexity to the extent that I’m willing to seriously consider how the narrative of serving one’s country even in the military might work in the narrative of God’s kingdom come in Jesus. At least I want to listen, and in some ways I’m compelled to, since I live in an area where Christians take for granted that something of the sort indeed does exist.

The narrative, or story we are to be living by is the story of God in Jesus, God’s kingdom come and present in him. It is a narrative which puts all other narratives in their proper place. Another narrative can be taken up into and become part of this narrative only in terms of what the main narrative does, indeed what the gospel or good news of Jesus does. It is a narrative that is larger than life, and yet is meant to impact, and is indeed for life in the here and now.

What narrative are we living by? What story is the one that best explains why we live as we do? I imagine that while we all live under one specific narrative, it is influenced by other narratives, and indeed is perhaps meant to be, understood correctly. Or perhaps it is an amalgamation which is not entirely true to any of the stories in that amalgamation.

At any rate this is an important question to raise and consider. Even as we are thankful for the people of our nation, as well as those around the world, who have sacrificed, fought, and paid the ultimate price out of duty and a sense of doing what is right and good. As we go on according to and in the narrative of God’s kingdom and grace come in Jesus, together for the world.

longing for the fulfillment in Jesus

I am in the habit of listening to scripture being read, something I’ve done, as I recall, most years since I’ve been a Christian. Going over scripture in that way as I do (now through The Bible Experience) there are parts of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible which are just fine to hear over and over again. But there are other parts, and a good number of them in which I do grow weary, and am glad to get through them, even though I believe they’re important for us to read and listen to. The book of Judges comes to mind with all the apostasy of Israel, even the great prophet Elijah in calling down fire from heaven to consume two companies of fighting men, Jeremiah and the long prophecy of doom and gloom but with that, as always, hope in anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s promises (somehow I have really identified with Jeremiah, particularly as read in The Bible Experience). Every book and part of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is important for us, no doubt. That’s why I keep going over it. As N.T. Wright suggests, it’s a part of our breathing as God’s people, to do so.

But the reading, and primarily for me, listening of the Old Testament serves all the more to remind me, and even makes me long for the fulfillment in Jesus, which in reading scripture begins in the gospel according to the evangelist Matthew (in the sequential order of books in our Bibles). It comes as a breath of fresh air, and both braces us for and embraces us into the new life Jesus brings. And the fulfillment of the Old Testament in which Israel was called to be God’s people in and for the world. So that Jesus fulfills that calling, yes in surprising ways as one might well expect from God. But in ways that make complete sense on hindsight, not to say that some parts of that are  not clearer than other parts. And which awakens in us something of anticipation in the completion yet to come.

Of course life itself prepares us and actually produces in us through Jesus a longing for the completion of the fulfillment that is now present in him. We hardly have to go into detail to express why. Just an honest look at ourselves is enough. We must begin there. And then we look around us, and we can only say in the words Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We get glimpses and glimmers of that completion now, even as we live in the beginning of the fulfillment through the new covenant in Jesus.  And we do so not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others, indeed for the entire world, since that is the breadth of King Jesus’ kingdom to at long last be fully realized in the completion of the new creation, renewed earth, and new world to come.

losing one’s moorings

It is perilously easy for one to lose their spiritual moorings. The writer to the Hebrews warns against that. To not lose spiritual moorings in Christ, one needs to hold on to the message as it is proclaimed, of King Jesus and the good news in him. Jesus is indeed the fulfillment of the old covenant. And only in him do we find our way now, he himself being the way, along with the truth and the life.

I think by nature we evangelicals tend to be careless in this sense. I mean we take it for granted, yes- we’ve come to Jesus, we have that part down, and so we can more or less go on living our own lives. But in doing that I believe it is perilously easy to be going on our own way, losing out on the one who is the way.

Life can help us in the trouble it brings, or God through life, to find and hold on to our moorings. Indeed the same book tells us that we have an anchor for the soul which keeps us in Jesus through what Jesus has done. And that keeping is not only for our salvation, but for the fulfillment of what the old covenant was all about in terms of the good news in Jesus, and of King Jesus for the world.

In other words, holding on to one’s spiritual moorings is not simply about getting personal salvation, but it is about following Jesus in reference to the big picture of God’s will being done on earth, as in heaven. It is as big as creation and the world. Worldly in terms of God’s kingdom work in Jesus in this world, which in some ways goes beyond the church, but at heart is what the church is all about in its head, King Jesus.

In fact one can lose their moorings if all that means to them is to remain closely tied to the salvation that is ours in Jesus. If we are not in the world as Jesus was, if we are not fulfilling what Jesus is fulfilling, and in the way he is fulfilling it, then we have missed the boat so to speak.

This is about following Jesus, worked out in terms of that. By the Spirit and in the church. But about following him in God’s kingdom come in him, to the end of seeing God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. Yes, in seeing others come to Jesus, so that they too can find their moorings in him. And in terms of a third way for the world aside from all the final solutions the world poses. A way we won’t have figured out ourselves, since it is in the way himself, who is Jesus. The one we in him follow together for the world.

working through fears

In this life there is cause for fears. Sadly fears tend to paralyze us, and make it more challenging to think rationally. I am thinking now in terms “under the sun”, or in a worldly way, apart from considerations of God and his will and providential care.

It does seem that God leaves humanity to suffer the consequences of humanity’s own devices. We can’t know how much God mitigates that as in moderating or relieving those consequences.

I am a person who wants to consider both. I want to consider the problem itself in human terms. And maybe even have a voice for what is helpful or good in the matter. While knowing that at best my knowledge is second hand and completely dependent on others.

In the end I must remember two basic truths as a follower of Jesus, both to be held in my mind and heart. I am a follower of Jesus having been bought with a price. My life is not my own. And I have a heavenly Father who not only knows all, but who providentially cares for his children. I will add one more important factor, related to mission: when we pray the Lord’s/our Father prayer we’re thinking in terms of the good of this world: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We want to be present for others, in a true sense we’re all in this together.

So there seems to be a balance between concern and precautions where need be, and simply entrusting our lives and the lives of others into the hands of the Father, and going on in life as a follower of Jesus. Somehow all of this can intermix and intermingle, in our thoughts, actions and prayers. But in the end we must listen to hear and heed one source: God himself.

We’re told in scripture to trust in the Lord, and lean not on our own understanding. To submit to him in all our ways, and he will make straight our paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6). And so we go on, wanting to grow in our trust in God, and faith that God has our lives and all things well in hand. With the knowledge by faith that God is great as well as good. That God’s good will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus moving on with this assurance, together in and for the world.

meditation for Holy Monday: Jesus’ kingship, a mystery

Yesterday we celebrated Jesus entrance into Jerusalem as king, sitting on a humble beast of burden in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. Well did the crowd celebrate with palm branches and shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” They knew Jesus was special, some knew it by revelation from God. Others may have indeed sensed it, there were obvious signs and there was something about Jesus which marked him out. Even from others who had taken the messianic title upon themselves.

Likely some of that crowd who chanted praises were among those just a few days later taunting Jesus when telling him to come down from the cross if indeed he was the Messiah, the Son of God (Messiah and Son of God meant one and the same thing then). But others were surely silent and grieving, not knowing what to think. In shock with doubts and fears that all they had witnessed in Jesus was coming to nothing.

And yet we know what happened three days later after the notable events at the cross.

Jesus’ kingship was indeed a mystery. Little did the Jews of Jesus’ day understand the nature of the kingdom of God which he brought. The Jews saw it largely in worldly terms. And while it was for this world, it was not in the way of the world. The way of violence and force, or adhering to a certain code which in the case of the Jews would mean their practice of submitting to the Law of Moses.

No, Jesus’ kingship was something indeed different. It was the way of serving in love, and laying down one’s life for one’s friends. Even loving one’s enemies, and praying for their forgiveness even when dying. Jesus in a sense ruled from the Tree, the cross, and he now rules as the resurrected, ascended one, someday to reappear when heaven and earth become one in him, and all things are united under him and his rule.

Jesus rules as the crucified, resurrected one. From his death comes the life of the new order. In his death the old order comes to an end. The old in us as well. The resurrection being the implementation of what happened through Jesus on that cross.

How that works out in and through us in Jesus now is alive and well, yet mysterious. We can recite what we know is written about it, and confess it in faith. But it remains something in itself which is well beyond us. And yet God in his grace in and through Jesus reveals it to us. We have an understanding that comes by faith. And we end up ruling and reigning with Jesus, under him to be sure, but nevertheless taken up into this kingdom and authority to believe and obey, to serve in love. In the reign of King Jesus, yes a reign tied to that Tree, the cross. Together in Jesus for the world.

N.T. Wright on interpreting Jesus’ death in light of God’s kingdom come in him

…in John’s account, the last words of Jesus are reported as being, “It’s all done” (John 19:30), in other words, “It’s accomplished” or “It’s completed.” The echo is of Genesis: at the end of the sixth day, God completed all the work that he had done. The point was not to rescue people from creation, but to rescue creation itself. With the death of Jesus, that work is complete. Now, and only now, and only in this way can new creation come about.

How then can we interpret Jesus’ death? What models, what metaphors, what constructions can we find to do justice to it? It is, of course, easy to belittle it, to treat it as yet another example of a good man crushed by “the system,” another eager revolutionary who gave his life for the cause. Of course, there is a sense in which that’s true, but if we are to understand Jesus’ own intentions, it is far from the whole truth.

Equally, it is easy to belittle Jesus’ death theologically. This can be done by placing it solely within a framework that speaks of Jesus as the ultimate example of love—although why, without more of a framework, his death would be an act of love it is interestingly difficult to say. Or it can be done by making Jesus the representative model who goes through death to new life and thereby enables us to make the same journey “in him” or “through him.” Or, notoriously, it can be done by imagining a straightforward transaction in which a God who wanted to punish people was content to punish the innocent Jesus instead. This always, of course, leaves unanswered the question of how such a punishment could itself be just, let alone loving.

Each of these models, though, has its point to make. First, as I have argued above, there is undoubtedly a vital sense in which Jesus’ death is exemplary. At every stage in the narrative we see, acted out in the small but vital human details, that sense of healing and forgiveness, that sense of a powerful love going out to rescue and restore, that we saw in the earlier details of Jesus’ public career. He hasn’t, in other words, stopped being the same kingdom-bringing Jesus; on the contrary, what he does on the cross is the culmination and retrospective explanation of all that earlier work.

Likewise, second, there is indeed a sense in which Jesus was “representing” his people, and through them the whole world. He lived in a world of understanding in which it made sense to see the Messiah as standing in for Israel and Israel as standing in for the rest of humankind. But, important though this theme is not only in the gospels but in Paul and elsewhere, it will scarcely carry all the weight required.

There is too, third, a massive sense in which Jesus’ death is penal. Jesus has announced God’s imminent judgment on his rebel people, a judgment that would consist of devastation at the hands of Rome. He then goes ahead of his people to take precisely that judgment literally, physically and historically upon himself. “Not only in theological truth, but in historic fact, the one bore the sins of the many.”* This is both penal and substitutionary, but it is far bigger and less open to objection than some other expressions of that theory. Once you put it together with the previous model (Jesus as Messiah representing Israel and hence the world), you draw the sting of the main objections that have been advanced against it.

But I have become convinced, the more I have read and studied and prayed the story of Jesus, that all these constructions need to be put within a larger one again—the larger one that the gospels themselves are trying to insist on and that seems to me exactly in line with the aims and motivations of Jesus himself. Somehow, Jesus’ death was seen by Jesus himself, and then by those who told and ultimately wrote his story, as the ultimate means by which God’s kingdom was established. The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God’s kingdom would come on earth as in heaven. It was the ultimate Exodus event through which the tyrant was defeated, God’s people were set free and given their fresh vocation, and God’s presence was established in their midst in a completely new way for which the Temple itself was just an advance pointer. That is why, in John’s gospel, the “glory of God”—with all the echoes of the anticipated return of YHWH to Zion—is revealed in and through Jesus, throughout his public career, in the “signs” he performed, but fully and finally as he is “lifted up” on the cross.

__________
*G.B. Caird, Jesus and the Jewish Nation (London: Athlone, 1965), p. 22.

N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, 184-186.

little by little

The growth of God’s kingdom present in Jesus is incremental. It is little by little. It starts small, ultimately to fill the earth. And it increases for the most part in small, often seemingly insignificant, or imperceptible (to us) steps.

This is the way in the working of God’s Spirit. We are changed from glory to glory to be more and more like Christ. We are part of that indeed; we certainly must respond by faith to God’s revelation in Jesus, and we must always be open to change. Of course it all depends on God, who is the the one who changes us. But the change is most likely not noticed by us, at least not daily, as a rule. It is gradual, over time.

Scripture tells the faithful that the day of small things should not be despised. And that true greatness is accompanied with humility. It is often the little things which make the difference, or bring the needed impact. Doing what we can do in faith, hope and love.  I think of the five loaves and two small fish.

And so I seek to console myself in the small amount of time I have to read, and in consideration of what little it seems I can do the rest of my life. Of course the simple prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, as James reminds us. The seed that is planted can bear much fruit.

So let’s not despair, or look in envy at others when we should be thankful for the good we see from God in their work. Let’s keep at it, little by little. Together in Jesus for the world.

Jesus is political

Jesus and God’s kingdom come in him is most certainly political. But never in terms of this world. There can’t be a Christian political party in this world. There is one holy nation, one people of God, and that entity in itself is part and parcel, in fact I would think the whole of God’s kingdom come in Jesus. Not to say God’s kingdom in another sense doesn’t comprehend all, because it does.

King Jesus reigns over all, someday to return to put that into effect, but his reign now is to be seen in the church. It is a different way, not the way of lording it over others, but serving one another in love. It is the way of worshiping God, living in a way that honors the God we worship.

Jesus is political because the gospel is about all of life. Yes, the completion of its fulfillment awaits his return, but it begins now. The church by the Spirit shows what a society ought to be. The church has the beginnings of that even now through Christ by the Spirit.

Much more to say on this, from the gospels, from Paul’s writings. It may be enough to say here that we don’t do well if we fail to see that the gospel pertains to all of life, yes beginning now. Not just through the fruit of conversion, though that is one important, indeed vital element of it.

We in Jesus are in this together, in and for the world.

This prayer certainly frames it well, and it is for this present life, even as its completion awaits Christ’s return:

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one,
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6

inward kingdom? yes and no

I read a good booklet yesterday which generally was helpful, yet fell into what I think is the error of seeing only an inward kingdom in Jesus’ coming, now at work among his followers.

First of all, I think I get the drift. Jesus is Lord, and we are to live according to his lordship and kingship in our hearts. That is important, and essential. Indeed from the heart is how we live.

I get the impression though that in people’s minds theologically, what is present today in Jesus is some kind of inward kingdom. Something akin maybe to the invisible church, which I agree with others does not exist in scripture. The church is visible, and God’s kingdom present in Jesus is as well. Even though who empowers it, and indeed makes it what it is- is not seen.

Yes, Jesus must be king of our hearts. But that rule is present not only inwardly, but outwardly within a community, the community of the redeemed. We live out this new rule in the here and now, in tangible, down to earth ways. One example, not lording it over each other like the rulers of the earth, but being servants to all, even as Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I think this bent plays out in an emphasis again and again on inner piety, which tends to skirt, or underplay outward piety, or good works- which Protestants automatically are suspicious of. Yes, we must work out of a heart of love, but there must indeed be good works. People see our light shine by our good works, and then glorify our Father in heaven.

Our kingdom is not from this world, but it is present in Jesus in and for the world. It is a direct affront to the ways of the world simply by being what it is, by living out that calling from God in Jesus. What we in Jesus are called to, together, in the way of Jesus for the world.

grace brings a society

On Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog there is a series of posts going through the book of another blogging friend who like Scot is a professor and New Testament scholar, Daniel Kirk. This book looks like an excellent read.

Today there is a post on the gospel being inherently social. Yes, amen to that! We need to hear this message in the highly individualistic and privatistic culture in which we live.

There is no doubt that individuals have a relationship with God through Jesus which is personal. God loves each of his children in a special way. We all have a personal identity. This is important and we can’t lose sight of it.

And yet over and over again we find scripture concerned about one’s group identity, or community. The culture of scripture is closer to much more of the world today, than to the United States where I live. It was family oriented not only by design, but by necessity. And it wasn’t much about individual freedom or rights, but responsibility within the family, and from that, living well according to the norms of one’s people. Which in those days meant a union with others which if broken, was gravely serious.

Not so in our day. We break and divide over any number of things. We Protestants are known for our divisions. The political divide in the United States today seems as deep and wide as ever in U.S. history.

But the gospel brings with it a new society oriented in grace, which at its heart is inclusive of all. This becomes the priority, not only this gospel of Jesus, but also the results of it, a kingdom community consisting of all who would follow Jesus from across deep divides. Bringing together people who before were not only at odds, but out and out enemies. And introducing a new dynamic by the Spirit of a body which in love works together from its head, Christ, to care for each other, and be a witness of him to and for the world. Showing a new society in the way of Jesus, indeed a new humanity, bent in love on God and others. Being about “us” in God’s kingdom in Jesus, not about “me.” In the good will of God in Jesus.