The Kingdom Of God is like.......a kingdom

In staff meeting this past week, my pastor asked us as a staff to answer the question "What is the Gospel?" So we broke into groups and began to really wrestle with that question. In wrestling with that question, I came to a stunning realization about the Kingdom of God. It is like..... a kingdom. I know that that is unbelievably profound and completely original....yeah. But what I realized is that maybe we have really over spiritualized a concept that I don't think Jesus ever meant to be overspiritualized. I think that may be part of the reason that Western Christianity can look really anemic especially when it comes to answering the question "What is the gospel?".

In many ways, the gospel has become a set of beliefs that we acknowledge and agree with and we might even say a specific prayer that states those beliefs. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here, that prayer and those beliefs are a crucial beginning for many and I don't want to make light of them but also, for many, that's where the journey has stopped and that has led to lives that look nothing like what Jesus said a disciple would looks. So it brings me back to the whole concept of a Kingdom. If we take a more literal look at the concept of Kingdom then it might also give a more wholistic view of the Gospel.

The starting point would be citizenship. In becoming a citizen of a new nation or kingdom, there is a cost to be counted. For instance, in becoming a citizen of the U.S. you would need to agree to not only recieve the inherent rights and freedoms of being a citizen but you would also need to be willing to agree to adhere to the laws and responsibilities that come with citizenship. You are not obeying the laws in order to earn your citizenship, you obey them because when you became a citizen, you knew that it was well worth those responsibilities in order to recieve the freedoms and rights held by a U.S. citizen. That is as far as I'll take that metaphor because there is so much more to the Kingdom of God.

Because of what Christ has done for us on the cross and through His resurrection, the high price for our citizenship has been paid. Christ literally took on the cost of our attrocities and war crimes against Him and His creation when we were citizens of the enemy kingdom and paid for them so that we could enter into a new Kingdom. Not just as citizens but as sons and daughters of the King, literally jumping from the status of enemy of the state to member of the royal family. To recive this citizenship, there is only one narrow door that we must pass through and that is the door of Christ.

Once we pass through that door, the journey has only begun. As sons and daughters of God, we are called to simply look like our Father as we look like His firstborn Son. We have a beautiful responsibility to carry with us the Kingdom of God. We counted the cost and died to our citizenship and our loyalties to the old kingdom because we knew that anything that we let go of there could not even pale in comparison to all that we gained as citizens of the new Kingdom. We don't bear our responsibility to pay for our citizenship. It was far too high a price to pay and only Christ could pay if for us. We bear our responsibilities because we knew that that is what it means to be a citizen of God's Kingdom recieving all of the rights, freedom, and inheritance that is given to a son or daughter of God. We become like Christ because that's just who you are once you enter His Kingdom.

And yet, somehow Christianity often times doesn't look any different than so many of the religious systems of belief that have become the "opiate of the masses" in the fallen kingdom. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's all bad because there are definitely times where I see sparks and glimpses of moments whether its in my own life or through the lives and stories of others where a radiant Kingdom reveals itself and these people show up who act alienly divine (if I can use alienly). Their actions seem to rise above the rhythm of hopelessness and their lives whisper or shout "Its not a fairy tale! There is a place and it is within arms reach where there will be a happy ending because the King is good and you can join His family."

There is a Kingdom that has come and is coming. Maybe we as a church need to reevaluate our naturalization process into this new citizenship so that we can fully know not only the responsibilities and calling to become like the firstborn Son who is just like the Father but also to know all of the incredible freedoms, rights, and inheritance that will be given to all who become sons and daughters of the Most High God and the King of the Great Kingdom..

God's Price of Gas

In our present context of paying ridiculous amounts of money to fill up our gas tanks, the question comes to mind, "who determines how much a gallon of gas is worth?" Honestly, I don't know the answer to that question but I do know that now that I am paying well over four dollars a gallon, I am treating gasoline quite differently. I find myself counting the cost of every mile that I may have to drive. I also find myself making only necessary trips and trying to combine several errands into one trip when possible. So for me, gas has become valuable not because of what I think it's worth. It's become valuable because of what I've had to pay to get it.

This way of valuing things showed up today in a passage of scripture that I was reading. In Chronicles 11:18-19, a canteen of water goes from being a very ordinary commodity (much like gas) to having a value beyond measure. In the story, King David is encamped in a cave and between He and the closest source of water is the Phillistine army. David makes the statement "Oh, that someone would get me a drink from the well near the gate of Bethlehem". Immediately, three of his men take off, break through the Phillistine lines, get the water and bring it back to David. I'm sure there is much more to the story but the passage does not give the details of this very dangerous errand. I would imagine that the men did experience a violent encounter both when they broke through the Phillistine line and in returning through that line to get back. I would also think that that encounter did not come without some injury. All that we know comes from David's response when he recieves the water.....he pours it on the ground. Yep, that's right, he poured it on the ground. And the amazing thing is, none of the three mighty men punch him in the face. How could these men not be totally offended?
The question is answered when David tells why he refused to drink the water. "God forbid that I should do this! (drink the water)". "Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their own lives?". The Bible says that when David poured the water out, he poured it out before the Lord.
Basically, what David was saying was this, "Because of the risk and the sacrifice that you spent to get this water, it has become something so precious that only God is worthy of it!". The men then knew that their valiant act of humble service had just become a precious offering before the God of the universe.

What I love about this passage is that we have the same opportunity with all of the common things in our lives. We have the same opportunity to take the common tasks that we've been given and by pouring ourselves wholeheartedly into them whether that be to teach children in sunday school, lead songs in church, feed the poor, look after an elderly neighbor or whatever your specific task is, we can make those common things a precious offering before God. Or if we wanted to carry out this passage in a more literal way, you could go to the gas station, put the same amount that you would to fill up your car into several gas containers and then go out into a field and pour them out as an offering before the Lord....my guess, though, would be that God would prefer that you pour yourself into whatever God has called you to because that's worth far more than $4.20 a gallon.

Worship

During our staff meeting today, my pastor introduced a thought based on some things that he had been chewing on and things he had been reading that sent me down one of my Attention Deficit Disorder DayDream Adventures (A.D.D.D.D.A.). He was sharing from Revelation 4-5 and he was specifically talking about worship and why it's relevant (as a worship guy, you always love to see your pastor place a high priority on worship). He was talking about the scene in Revelation and how in seeing God, we will not need to be ordered or obligated to worship but instead, we will not be able to help ourselves. He gave the illustration of attending the Johnny Lang concert (that my wife and I attended with him) and how we found ourselves slapping and hitting each other in total disbelief of the total carnage that Lang was laying down during a seven minute unbelievably gratuitous guitar solo. You couldn't help but shout or just stand there making uncomprehendable utterances because there were no words to explain what you were seeing and feeling. As I thought about this, I had another image come it my mind. I remembered back to one of the past olympic games where the long distance runner from England (I think) was coming to the end of the race and during the last quarter mile, the cramping in his legs over came him and his body shut down and he was driven to his hands and knees. It was a tragic sight to see a lifetime of dreaming and training seem to become all for naught as he was not going to be able finish his race. But then his dad came running out on to the track and picked his son up and helped (carried) his boy finish the race. I remember watching that moment and being overwhelmed with tearfilled joy. There was something about that moment that resonated with the deepest part of my soul because everything about it was right and good. I wanted to shout and jump around my den (to my loss, I didn't) because my soul had witnessed something that was eternally right.
I really think that that is how it is going to be when we see God. We will be coming from a world where we have seen parents bury their children and unbelievable cruelty carried out against the innocent. We will have come from a place where we are used to dissappointment and deceit. We will have come from a land where finding goodness and truth were like mining for gold in caves and tunnels that have long been mined barren.
And then we will walk in to the throne room and we'll see God. Our souls will feel the sense and security of being home in a way that is familiar but so deep and profound that the intensity of that feeling will be unfamiliar. Our hearts will explode inside of us because for the first time in our lives we will see what (or who) perfect justice looks like. We will weep as we see the Son sitting by the Father and we remember the saga of their seperation but we now get to experience the ecstacy of their reunion. And at seeing that, we'll realize that we are now in a place where fathers are not seperated from their children and parents will never again have to bury their children and the callouses on our hearts that have come from living with the constancy of death will fall away as our minds are re-alligned to living in a reality where death is no longer...
I suspect that wave upon wave of emotions will surge through us. Emotions of unrestrained gratitude, levels of joy that were never known on earth will errupt from within us, and shouts will pour out of us as we experience a reality of freedom never before experienced on earth (though longed for in the deepest recesses of our souls). That gnawing sense on earth that told us that things were not as they should be will finally be confirmed and fulfilled as we finally see all made right. And our response will be worship. All of our focus will be on the One who made it all possible and with every expression that comes out of us, we will worship.