The Wounded Body of Christ: A Firsthand Account

This isn't really about the Kingdom of God but in a way it is.  How we behave on Sunday may look Christian, but what are we carrying in our hearts as we enter church?

I serve on my church's worship team.  We have a young man who has been attending for awhile.  He is a lovely young man with a heart to serve.  He comes out of a church that makes God's love conditional...it is a church based on works. Works are just another way of saying, "You are not good enough in God's sight unless you do this, or this, mand this..."  

That's not the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God invites you in with the idea that God loves you the way you are, but He wants the best for you and that means transformation--conforming to the image of His Son.  That takes time, and needs to be under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Think of a church as an ER.  If a person comes in with a head wound, and is bleeding profusely, you wouldn't bar him from entering by saying, "Excuse me.  You cannot come in here until you clean up all that blood.  That is going to upset the people sitting in here."

Or a pregnant woman walks in, obviously in labor, and a nurse says, "Wait a minute.  Where's your husband?  What?  You are not married?  I am sorry.  That goes against everything we stand for here.  I must ask you to leave."

Yet, that is what we do in church.  We expect people to act, look and behave as we do.  Yet, in the ER,  the doctors are there to direct the person back to health. It may takes years for the person to recover, but they must start somewhere, and there will be many visits to subsequent doctors, therapists and the person making good choices to effect that change to a healthier self.

See my point?

Once we start barring people, or putting pre-qualifications on them to enter our fellowship, why would they stay?

This young man plays on the worship team with me and several other people.  He was wearing a baseball cap.  I briefly thought of asking him to remove it, but the Holy Spirit said, "No.  Don't make him think he has to do certain things to be here, like his previous church."  Wow.  I let it go, knowing that him being here is the most important thing.  His family history is one of severe trauma, and he is with us because the Shepherd left us ninety-nine sheep and found this lost lamb.

Right after the first song, an older man stood up and yelled at us that the young man was being disrespectful to God by wearing that hat.  Another woman chimed in.

We were stunned.  Our worship leader/pastor responded with truth spoken in love: All are welcomed in our church and we are blessed by everyone being here. 

The older man was so angry, he got up and left.

The other pastor, in tears, shared with us his sorrow.  He was truly hurting for this young man, who was now shaking.  

Both pastors expressed their love for all of us and how some of our people are holding on to anger, judgment and this was not acceptable.  Our church is filled with older folks, and several of them have resisted change and are none too subtle in expressing it.  It has dragged down the hearts of our pastors; they have tried to minister to everyone equally and yet there are those who expect the pastors to bend to their demands.

Our pastors exhorted the people to stop being, in effect, impediments to the Body of Christ with their attitudes.  It was a powerful and much needed word from the Lord.  

If you view wearing a hat in church disrespectful, then so is anger, judgement, lashing out and condemning someone.  But those are hidden sins.  We saw them in full force yesterday, but more often than not, they lurk below the surface, unseen yet undealt with. 

They come out as the pastors listen once again to complaints about the music, or how they disapprove of x, y and z being done.  

The Kingdom of God is the opposite.  We pray for those we are angry at; we don't lash out; we don't come with our gift to the altar bearing anger or grudges and expect God to ignore all of that, because after all, those people deserve it!  Right?

Wrong.  

My prayer that this wounding of the Body yesterday will result in some introspection.  Several people yesterday did seek reconciliation and were deeply concerned about what happened; once everyone left, and the Holy Spirit got to work, I pray all of us would listen and follow His instructions.  He's the Great Physician, and wants us spiritually healthy.  Sometimes He guides us subtly and other times, He lances the sin boil and it hurts.  But healing usually cannot come any other way.

What kind of doctor would allow you to keep bleeding?  But it hurts when the doctor intervenes, but out of that pain comes restoration to health, so the short-term pain is worth the long-term gain.

One more thing.  Was that young man being disrespectful by wearing a hat in church?

Maybe in the 1950's.  But then women were expected to wear hats and gloves. In synagogues, you always cover your head as a sign of respect.  Men were expected to wear suits and ties.  Women wore  dresses.  Sunday best, right?

But does Jesus expect us to wear your Sunday best? What if you don't have a Sunday best?  Does that mean you are disappointing Jesus?

Or us?

Are people coming to church to honor us and our expectations?  Or are they coming to seek Jesus, sit at His feet, and learn from Him?

Do we get in the way, wanting the people to look, sound and act like we do?  If they don't, do we feel the right to correct them, not trusting the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives?

You may be thinking, "Hey!  Wait a minute!  Paul was very strict in his letters about behavior!"

Yes, true.  But he made a distinction between principles and practices.

Principles are not tied into culture--they transcend culture.  The Ten Commandments are an excellent example of principles:  Honoring God, honoring your family, and honoring your community is essential for a stable community that allows its members to flourish.

But covering your head? Not covering your head?  Paul addressed practices that some of his churches were engaged in and recommended against them in order to maintain the harmony within those churches.  Love is the ultimate principle, and it guides our practices  

So, yes, the practice of wearing hats in church showed respect at one time, but it is not a principle in Scripture.  Our Christian culture is not tantamount to the Bible, no matter how fiercely we may see it as so.  

The young man did witness one very important principle yesterday.  Conflict can be resolved in a loving way. Sadly, the elderly man missed out on that.  Despite our pastors' efforts to reconcile later in the day, and his rejection of their efforts, the older man missed out on what Christ's love can do with conflict. The young man, however, was surrounded with love.  He watched our pastors speak lovingly and truthfully about people's attitudes that are not harmonious with the Body of Christ.  So, that was a powerful lesson, despite its rather unpleasing beginning. 

The Kingdom of God is just that:  It requires we respect God and His Word, allow love to drive everything we do, and trust the Holy Spirit to work in us and to work in others, no matter how long it takes.  

The Kingdom of Man speaks death, traditions and alienation to those who dwell there.  The Kingdom of God speaks life, principles and community to those who dwell there. 

The door is open to both kingdoms.  We chose everyday which one we enter. 

Lord, help us to choose Yours.  But if we don't, help us to reconcile and seek forgiveness as soon as we can.  

The world is watching and wondering:  Are we a hospital or a prison? 

The Kingdom of God's Citizens at the Grassroots

Sometimes, given America's Judeo-Christian heritage, it's easy to equate America with a kind of "Israel model": We were, at our inception, chosen by God to do His work in the world and are still commanded to do so. 

The patriotic songs I sang as a child in the 60's combined faith in God with a love of our country. In school, we sang "God of Our Fathers," "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful." 

Our country put a man on the moon.  Our government fought poverty with housing projects and it was no longer acceptable to pollute the skies, rivers and lakes.  Racism was no longer funny or acceptable. Women demanded an equal seat at the table and largely got it.

Growing up when I did, it looked like America cared about progress--trying to right the wrongs of the past, and doing so in a timely and just way. We also were in a war in a country I had never heard of, and it was becoming more and more obvious that we needed to remove our troops. It divided us and made us angry with each other, while body bag after body bag was delivered stateside and devastated families had to cope with their loss. 

A perfect country?  No.  

But to quote Ayatollah Khomeini, a leader in Iran, we weren't the "great Satan" either.

I have no desire to go back to some golden era in America history.  The 1950's are often invoked as a model, but if you were an African-American in the South, that decade was problematic, to say the least.  You need only to read the story of Emmett Till to see how racism lead to great evil in parts of our country. 

In other words, which America would we return to? America is a complicated mixture of many places and many people, and while some people have done well here, others have struggled and continue to do so.

So, if we see ourselves as modelled on Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures, then Josiah, the last good king of Judah before the Babylonian exile, has a valuable lesson for us. If, as I do, believe God saves people, not nations, then these passages of Scripture hold valuable lessons for us.  

God expects His people, in whatever nation they are in, to act like citizens of the Kingdom of God. 

Josiah was only eight years old when he assumed the throne of "his father David." He is the last "godly king of the Davidic line prior to the exile." [1]  Unlike many of his royal predecessors, "he did right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning to the right or to the left." (2 Kings 22:2) 

No compromise.  He followed God.  

When Josiah was twenty-six, the high priest, Hilkiah, at the Temple in Jerusalem, told Josiah's secretary that he found the "Book of the Law in the Temple of the LORD." (22:8). The secretary took the scrolls to the King and read them aloud. 

Before we get to the reaction of the King, it is important to note that he had already done some reforms by getting rid of the idolatrous practices in the southern kingdom of Judah. (Israel, the northern kingdom, had already been destroyed by the Assyrians.) 

Josiah's reaction, upon hearing the word of the Lord was profound: "he tore his robes." (22:11) Why?  The covenant of God was clear about blessings (obedience to the Law) and curses (disobedience to the Law).  Exile was a real possibility.  Thus, Josiah was understandably upset and disturbed at what had been practiced in Judah as compared to what the Law said.  

Josiah commanded the high priest and his court officials:  “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” (22:14)

Notice that Josiah is not making excuses for Judah's behavior, or trying to minimize it.  The Word of the Lord is the standard.  Period.  Not political expediency nor religious compromise in a polytheistic world; he heard the Word and knew that his country had a lot to answer for. The Word was explicit about what obedience/disobedience looked like and Josiah, whose heart was tender toward the things of God, was deeply troubled and afraid for his country.  

If you haven't already, please note the parallel to America. God's Word is still the standard, and it points to how far we have fallen away from what God expects out of those who call upon His name.

But we have to read it.  Understand it.  Apply it.  

The scrolls appear to have been stashed away, during the time the Temple had been filled up with idols and altars, as well as the land.  Had the Word of the Lord become inconvenient to the people because it interfered with the pagan practices that were so seductive and hard to ignore?  After all, the land of Canaan was a fertile place and is it possible that their gods were as powerful as the God of Israel?  

Look around you!  Abundance everywhere!  Surely those Canaanites couldn't have gotten it wrong!  We're supposed to be a blessing to all the nations. Surely we can't be so narrow-minded as to think we have got all the answers!  Perhaps those scrolls were stashed because they were in the way of us getting along with the local inhabitants. Those scrolls are certainly incompatible with a pluralistic society. 

Ask. Seek. Knock.  Josiah wanted to know not only what was in the book but also the consequences for not having followed it.  

He then "called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant." (23:1-3) 

He cleaned house.  He didn't just decry the practices, but got rid of all the things that allowed those practices to go on and he removed all the people who supervised the practices. 

 

The prophetess Huldah told Josiah that he would die before the terrible day of judgment would fall on Judah. God spared Josiah the pain of watching his country destroyed. God honored Josiah's attempt to redirect his country back to the covenant and serving Him alone. 

If we are like Josiah, and we really seek God and obey what is in His Word, will God's judgment be stayed?  God judges nations if they flagrantly disobey His moral order.  It's not that the nation is somehow special or chosen, but He will eventually judge sin in individuals and in nations.  But He also will renew, revive and restore His people when they seek His face and repent.  

Even though Josiah was sincere and obedient, God did judge Judah, because after him, several kings "did evil in the eyes of the LORD."  

In other words, the presence of a godly king was not enough to affect long lasting reform.  The people swore to uphold the covenant, but then, with the advent of other kings, the moral rot resurfaced.  How deep did the reform go in the hearts of the people?  It's one thing to make a commitment to doing right, it's another to be doing right, no matter who is in charge.  It's a grassroots-up-from-the-people kind of reform.  Because the-from-the-top-down can change at any time--but the people, committed to the Word of God will carry on, irrespective of who is in charge.

How deep is our commitment to moral change?  Or are we just excited about having someone in charge to lead us, and we can just catch his wake and be carried along without too much effort on our part?

In other words, are we members of the Kingdom of God, living in the nation we call home, but holding on to set of values ordained by the Son of God?  

We don't look to a leader but to the King who reforms and empowers us to live in a way that reflects Him.

We don't look at others as opponents, but as people who need Jesus.  But we must show them that yes, being a Christian really does make a difference, for we evince change and transformation in our lives. 

We don't allow anger to drive us, but a love that prays for our enemies and seeks to break down walls. 

The Kingdom of God isn't an easy place to live, but what else do we have?  The Kingdom of Man leads to nightmares; the Kingdom of God leads to peace.

[1] Kenneth Barker, Gen. Ed., The NIV Study Bible, New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985), 566. 

 

Our Nation's Descent Into Darkness

If you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland, you will remember when she went into the rabbit hole, she fell slowly enough to look at the shelves, and read the label of a jar of marmalade, which she placed back on the shelf, lest she drop it and it hit someone below.

I feel the analogy holds here as I watch my country free-falling into more and more darkness.  It's been a slow fall, but it is one that leads straight down. 

As we have looked at the Kingdom of God, we see its radical nature more and more as we compare it to our country today.

There has always been darkness in the world.  History teaches us that. But darkness has gradations--not all darkness is created equal. The darkness in a cave is not the same as turning off a light in your bedroom. 

Darkness can start out as a dimming of the light.  Think of sunset. There is a enough light in the sky to keep the darkness at bay; you can still walk at twilight.  But as the light fades, the darkness becomes more absolute.  Soon, the light is all but gone, and darkness, not light, is the dominant feature.  Darkness makes us lose our way; paths are not clear, roads are not obvious and cardinal directions are not easily discerned.  Yes, you can use the stars to navigate, but what if it is a cloudy night? 

I am disturbed that darkness is becoming more and more the dominant feature of our country.  We no longer have the Bible as a moral compass, and we think what we believe is good enough to discern  right and wrong.  Standards are mocked, upholding biblical definitions are scorned and hating your enemy is standard operating procedure.

Jesus' day had darkness in it as well.  The Romans were a vicious and violent people, and the Jewish leadership was more interested in following rules than following God. So, it is no wonder when Jesus spoke His sermon, He was out of touch with the surrounding culture.  

The Kingdom of God always is. 

The Kingdom of God is where the poor, the sad, the meek, the seeking, the merciful, the sincere, the peacemakers and the persecuted have a place.

Our salt flavors the world, and our light drives out the darkness. 

We don't take our anger out on others. 

Our gifts are sweetest to God when we are at peace with those around us. 

We settle disputes quickly with those who think that a court of law is the only place to go.

We think kindly of others, not lustfully or selfishly. 

Our marriages seek to bring out the best in each other. 

Where our word is good enough. 

We could punish the other person, but we forgive. 

We forgive those who are hostile to us, knowing God pursues them as well as us to come to His table. 

We love the unlovable. 

We serve the poor for their sake, not for ours. 

We pray to the One whom we love and respect, knowing He hears us. 

We forgive the unforgivable. 

We deny ourselves, so we open up more of ourselves to Him. 

Our heart is filled with His beauty, not our greed. 

We do not worry, for we serve a loving and caring Father. 

We do not judge others, for we know we all fail in one way or another.

We are active in our faith, pursuing God with wild abandon. 

We know following Jesus isn't easy, but we do it knowing that it is worth it. 

We listen to Jesus, not to others who want to deceive us, or who just get it wrong. 

We want to do His will alone, in His name alone, and in His love alone. 

We live in a house that sits on a rock and is weather-proof. 

Wow. The Sermon is a way of thinking, acting and living in a matter that pushes back on the darkness and allows His light to shine in and heal the brokenness that led to the darkness in the first place.

I don't know where our country is going, but the Sermon the Mount is an excellent way to get our moral bearings and try to reach out in Jesus' name to encourage and touch those around us. 

We need to pray without ceasing.  

 

What the Kingdom of God is NOT

So, if the Sermon on the Mount is the Kingdom of God's constitution, what does the Kingdom really look like?

First, you have to look in the right places. Jesus addresses this very issue in Luke 17:20-37: 

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

“Where, Lord?” they asked.

He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” (17:20-37 NIV) [emphasis mine]

Remember that many of Jesus' followers, including the disciples, were still enamoured of the idea that the Messiah would be an invading Warrior of God, intent on conquering Israel's enemies, thereby allowing Israel to once more be free of oppression and to worship Yahweh unimpeded, with joy and thanksgiving.

Jesus is trying to disavow His listeners of the notion that the Kingdom of God is a place--somewhere you go and experience its reign and its visible presence.  

A place where Romans don't walk down the street with scorn on their faces and harbor subterranean violence just waiting to erupt.  Right?

A place where emperors are not worshipped and puppet kings aren't allowed to do whatever they want.  Right? 

A place where religious leaders are not more concerned about control and power and do not scorn those who do not look like them or act like them, or see the Scriptures the way they do. Right?

A place where poverty is gone and those in charge are genuinely concerned for the welfare of others. Right?

A place where Yahweh is honored and revered and all pagan temples with their abhorrent practices are nowhere to be found. Right? 

Who wouldn't want such a place to be brought forth by Jesus, right here, right now?  Perhaps the disciples thought that with all the power Jesus possessed, as evinced by miracle after miracle and powerful teaching after powerful teaching, why wouldn't He just go and make this Kingdom of God a reality?  

It's interesting that the Pharisees asked Him the question.  Were they testing Him (they periodically did so with loaded questions, trying to trap Him in a response they could use against Him) by asking about this Kingdom of God thing, seeing if He was planning this Warrior-Messiah thing and stirring up His followers to join His enterprise? 

Jesus cuts quickly to the chase: The Kingdom of God is HERE...It's ME and those who believe in Me.  It's a belief, with a humble and seeking heart, that places you in the Kingdom, because it places you beside Me. 

In other words, Jesus is telling the Pharisees, 

I am not setting anything up.  The Kingdom of God is where you reside in the Messiah and He resides in you.  Kingdoms can be invaded, destroyed or reorganized beyond recognition. This kingdom will go everywhere because My disciples will go everywhere.  It's not tethered to a location--it's tethered to My followers' hearts and they will be messengers, ambassadors, of this Kingdom.  You don't go to the Kingdom--it comes to you on the wings of a whispered prayer to the One who will soon prove His love for you by hanging on a cross. 

Then you notice, Jesus starts teaching His disciples, because they were probably stumped by Jesus' remark to the Pharisees.  

If the Kingdom of God is in us, what does it look like?

The Sermon on the Mount is what people who dwell in the Kingdom, and it dwells in them, looks like. But they seem to have forgotten He's already laid out Kingdom life.  Because the idea of a restoration of Israel had probably grown in their hearts and in the hearts of others as He gained more popularity,  did more miracles and confronted the authorities, He needs to clarify what the Kingdom is not, having already laid out what it is in His sermon and His teachings.

First of all, it won't be place where the Messiah just shows up.  The Messiah will come as lightning in the sky:  unmistakable and seen by all. 

But.

First, He must suffer.  That statement right there lays to rest the notion of Him as the Messiah coming and vanquishing His foes.  That day will come, but other more important things must happen first.

The restoration of Israel must come after the restoration of the people's hearts, and not just the Jewish people's.  Their original mission was to be a blessing to the nations (Gen.12:3) and this is coming in the near future, when the upcoming sacrifice of Jesus will be for all people. 

And just as in days passed, people will be going on in their daily lives, not concerned about spiritual matters of obedience and serving Yahweh with a full heart. Why?  Because the timetable the people have set for the Messiah to come and conquer will not happen the way they want it.  After awhile, people will lose their joyful sense of expectation and go back to everyday life and perhaps become even more resistant to spiritual matters, because they perceive that God is in no hurry to bring forth His righteousness.  The people will think they have plenty of time to do what they want and then shape up when the time grows near.

Jesus is prophetically mapping out the future.  In 40 years or so, many Jewish people, fed up with God's (perceived) delay, decide to take matters into their own hands and bring the Kingdom of God to earth, by leading what became known as The Great Revolt.  It started in Galilee in AD 66 and culminated with the destruction of the Temple and a million plus Jews losing their lives in AD 70, when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. 

Did some of them argue, several decades hence, 

Hey!  Nothing happened with that Jesus of yours!  How could He let the Romans kill him? Where's that Kingdom He talked so much about?   Oh, that Sermon on the Mount--wasn't that just metaphors and adages?

The Kingdom of God the people imagined turned into rubble, death and dispersion.  Those not killed or driven out were enslaved.  In fact, the Roman Coliseum was built from Jewish slave labor after the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus is speaking to that counterfeit day, when some will say the Messiah has arrived and He's going to war. Jesus is warning that on that day, you will be on the rooftop, in the field, or in your room and you will hear of the Kingdom coming!  

No. People will be arrested or just dragged off and those who remain will be tempted to join in and clean the clocks of the Romans once and for all. Don't.  

Please don't.

The vultures will gather because they know death is coming.  They will soon feast on Romans, Zealots, bystanders, supporters and believers.  No winners will emerge from this fight. This will not be the Kingdom of God in any way, shape or form, despite what its leaders will want you to believe.  

God's kingdom is not brought about by violence, but by reclamation and restoration of fallen human hearts.

God's kingdom is not brought about with swords, sieges and slogans, but by humility.

God's kingdom is not brought about by killing Romans, but by praying for them, walking an extra mile with them and modelling Kingdom values, not retailory ones borrowed from the world. 

Jesus is not only warning His disciples, but He is also educating them so they can teach others and so avoid, in the future, being seduced by a counterfeit kingdom.  

The Great Revolt was catastrophic for the Jewish people, during the siege and after.  Couple that with Bar-Kokhba's rather messianically-cloaked rebellion in AD 135, the Jewish people, cast from Israel once and for all by the Romans, would not see their homeland restored to them until 1948. 

Jesus wanted to spare His people this future. 

By the Kingdom of God being in the hearts of those who loved and served Him, there would be no expedient overthrow or seismic change of rule in the future.  

But there would light coming to a world of darkness.

There would be a salt's flavor and preservation coming rescue the decay of hope.

There would be an encounced Kingdom that no one could destroy.  

In fact, the ultimate "Roman,"--the enemy of all of mankind--would not be able to prevail against it. 

Not then.

Not now.