The Gospel–Whole or Partial?

Do we want the whole gospel?  Or will we pick and choose gospel-elements that seem most helpful or pertinent to us?  Will we settle for less than the Messiah Jesus intended in his life, death and resurrection?  Or will we, by grace, pursue and expect a new way of living as human beings that requires the radical language the Bible uses to describe it.  Language like: a new creation, being born all over again, becoming the Body of Christ, or communities of citizens under or within the Government of God?

While most of us truly want the whole gospel, many of us settle for less.  Much less.  The gospel we trust assures us that our sins are forgiven (and always will be so long as we are sorry, we repent, and we ask) and that our future is secure.  We—that is, you and I and any other person who trusts this gospel—will be with the Lord forever.

But is that the gospel?  All of it?

No, that is a partial gospel.  We can be sure it is partial because in the Gospels themselves Jesus does not  declare or offered good news (gospel) in this way; because it suggests that the individual takes center stage over the community; because it prioritizes what happens after we die, after we have lived in this world, instead of how and why we live in this world in anticipation of the next world, the new heavens and earth; and because … well, there is much more that could be said!

One of the central features of the partial gospel that most “conservative” “Bible-believing” Christians hold (at least in our part of the world) is that the gospel has to do with a “spiritual” relationship with God.  Receiving and trusting the gospel allows us to experience a personal relationship with God, by dealing with the damage and effects of our sin which before had separated us from God.  Evangelism is sharing with people so as to win them to such a relationship.  Discipleship is teaching and developing such believers in a way of life consistent with this relationship.  Key point: the gospel itself, along with evangelism” and “discipleship” are all “spiritual” in nature.  That is, they have primarily to do with God and relating to God, as opposed to the so-called secular or worldly realities of our everyday lives.

One of the (unintended?) consequences of this partial understanding of the gospel is to question whether the gospel speaks to issues such as racism or tribalism, or any number of other social, cultural, and political matters we encounter in the world.  In our part of the world, it is common among many Christians to distinguish between the gospel itself and efforts to address the evils of wicked people, groups and systems.  The former is “spiritual” while the latter is “social.”  The former is critically and eternally important, while the latter is temporal and of lesser importance.  And, perhaps a corollary of this view, the gospel-way to address and change worldly evils is through evangelistic and discipleship ministry—get people “saved” and this automatically or eventually will address the evils and transform the world.

I would commend a better approach: the whole gospel.  In the remainder of this post let me spell out several of the most important reasons the partial gospel is just that, partial.  Which means, among other things, that the division of reality into “spiritual” and “secular,” which includes the “social,” represents possibly a distortion and certainly a down-sizing of what has correctly been called “our great salvation.”

Let’s start with Jesus.  When he begins public ministry, he announces: “The time has arrived, the Kingdom of God now approaches, so turn around and trust in this gospel (or good news),” (Mark 1:15, my translation).  He made this announcement in the wide-open public spaces, rather than a synagogue or the Temple in Jerusalem.  All within earshot heard the announcement and had opportunity to learn more and consider what it would mean for them to “turn around and trust in this gospel.”  And, all within earshot included people considered in that day to be outsiders as well as insiders.  More, in Mark’s continuing story, this kingdom Jesus announced and identified as “gospel” addressed all the ways in which the evils of the world affected people—their bodies, minds, and souls. Further, this gospel challenged, called out, and offered correction to what ailed both individuals and groups.  As we read on, we encounter families, social and economic classes or segments of society, different ethnic groups and their traditions, religious and spiritual parties and factions, civil and governmental leaders and functionaries.

This full orbed, holistic good news about the kingdom that Jesus declared and then demonstrated does not distinguish “spiritual” from “secular” the way we commonly do.  Jesus was concerned about the soul of the people but also their bodies, their families, and their communities as God’s people.  Likewise, also, the demands and responsibilities of interacting with oppressive demons, religious leaders, and Roman authorities.

The infancy narratives (Christmas stories) of Matthew and Luke, reflect a similar holistic understanding of the good news, the gospel, of Jesus the Messiah.  Matthew reports the Angel assuring Joseph that the child is from the Holy Spirit and Joseph should name him “Jesus,” because he will do what the name means—save the people from their sins.  Matthew then notes that this was to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy that a virgin will bear a son who will be called “Emmanuel,” which means God with us (see Matthew 1:18-23).

Lest we misunderstand what Matthew reports, the next chapter tells us that wise men, traditionally understood as royalty, come from the east to worship the one born to be King of Israel.  The story is familiar.  Often missed, however, is the implication that this gospel applies to the whole world. That’s clearly what the Magi thought as they come and worship the infant Jesus.  That is also what King Herod thought.  When the Magi asked about the Christ child, no one understood this as only, or even primarily, a “spiritual” Kingdom.  Herod, the current King, and all of Jerusalem were alarmed to hear about the birth of a new king (see Matt. 2:3).  Obviously, the Messiah threatened the current political status quo even as his birth promised to fulfill the age-long yearnings of wise leaders from distant lands.  When King Herod asked the Bible scholars of the day about the Messiah, they do not tell him not to worry because the Messiah’s Kingdom only relates to spiritual (other-worldly) matters.  Instead, they report that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, the city of King David, where Scripture promised the ultimate King was to be born.

In Luke’s Christmas stories, the birth of Jesus brings great joy to all people precisely because his coming puts the world on notice: God is making right what has gone wrong with the world and its peoples, all that has gone wrong.  His coming has to do with righteousness and justice, as well as grace and truth.  His government will hold the high and mighty accountable for their treatment of the low and weak and will bring justice to the oppressed and their perpetrators (see especially Luke 1—2).  Jesus and his kingdom enter this world as it is; challenges what is wrong, unjust, and evil; and calls whoever is willing to follow him into another, counter kingdom that will eventually prevail over all creation.

The ministry of Jesus, as all the gospel writers portray it, reflects this huge, holistic understanding of the good news of the kingdom of God.  Jesus’ preaching and teaching, healing and serving, forgiving and welcoming of sinners, along with Jesus’ rebuke of the religious leaders of the day, his cleansing of the Temple, and his insistence that God’s Kingdom was manifest in his fellowship—led to his arrest, indictment, condemnation and execution as a Messianic Pretender.  To the Jewish leaders this was blasphemy against God and for the Roman authorities this was rebellion against the Empire.  On the third day after his crucifixion Jesus rose from the dead demonstrating the reality and the victory of his Kingdom.  Then, as Jesus’ Spirit-filled disciples brought their witness to the ends of the earth, the gospel they embraced and shared challenged and threatened, upended and disturbed, the individual, familial, social, religious, cultural and political realities of their day.

Of course, this makes perfect sense if you back up a bit to take in the larger story of Israel and the world.  From the beginning there has never been a legitimate division of reality into sacred/secular or spiritual/ natural.  From the beginning, as the Psalmist exclaims, the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it (24:1).  Sin and evil brought ruin to the world, in all its dimensionality, organic and inorganic, human and nonhuman, seen and unseen, ruin that has continued and compounded through the millennia.  If earth was once very good under the governance of the creator God, only then to be ruined through rebellion against God’s realm, then the good news of the great saving work of God’s Messiah addresses the whole of God’s realm.

Therefore, as we embrace the whole gospel of Jesus’ ministry—culminating in dying and rising and reigning over all—we celebrate the full remedy he has brought to us and our world and will long for the whole world to benefit.  We will long for the entire here-and-now-world to consider the good news that the King of heaven and earth has come to seek and save the lost, to ransom slaves and grant them a place, to heal and restore the broken and ruined, and re-inhabit the world with persons renewed in the loving likeness of Jesus.  In the meantime, Jesus himself is the peace of heaven that moves into the middle of every hell on earth and breathes, “Shalom!”

Therefore, the whole gospel makes us right with God and with one another, but also with our neighbors, near and far.  The gospel aligns our hearts with the heart of Abba-Father so we too hear the cries of those who suffer, for whatever the reason, and cannot help but move toward them seeking their well-being.  The gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus is like (even the smallest) seed planted in our hearts and in our relationships, but also in our neighborhoods, communities, towns and cities and beyond.  Like seeds scattered wherever there are people and wherever there are organizations or systems designed to coordinate important things, like schools, businesses, and governments to name a few.  The gospel seeks soil in every one of these arenas, and will bear fruit within their processes, protocols, patrons, and partisans.

The first to hear and embrace this gospel were mostly minority groups living in social, cultural and political spheres over which they had no control or direct influence.  Even so, their life together, centered in Jesus as King and Lord of all, created networks of Kingdom communities that brought life and light to their world.  To their world!  They had no way to change their world per se other than to inhabit it as serious and devoted followers of Jesus’ way.  They were not perfect, but they were profoundly intent on living the Jesus-way.  And, the impact of their lives made a telling difference.

The whole gospel sees Jesus as God’s way of bringing a full remedy (or “redemption”) to the world God made and loves.  The whole gospel saves souls to the uttermost, for time and eternity, and then equips them to serve their world in all of its spheres and dimensions, demonstrating and facilitating the amazing grace and steadfast love that changes the world.  It is not either spiritual or temporal/earthly/worldly.  It is not either the souls of people or their situational circumstances in life.  It is not either-or in this way. It is both-and.

We must not settle for the gospel in part.  We must embrace, or be embraced by, the whole gospel.  The whole gospel—turning toward and trusting King Jesus and all he has done for us and works in us and through us—makes us ready for the world to come precisely by enlivening us “ahead of time” to live by the wisdom of King Jesus in the power of his love within every arena and sphere of this present age.  We ourselves cannot bring the Kingdom or build the Kingdom on earth, but we can contribute to Kingdom-come by living the life of the Kingdom in the midst of whatever governmental realities there may be.  We can respond to our social, cultural and governmental circumstances as advocates and ambassadors of the mind-set, the character, the purposes, and the methods of our Lord and King.  And, we can do such things together, knowing that it may lead to a cross but then to the overcoming of evil with good in the Jesus-way.

 

 

 

A Kairos-Moment for a Cross and Resurrection Narrative

Most of us were prepared to hunker down and endure what we expected to be the most rancorous electoral season of our lifetime, amped up on the steroids of impeachment and conspiratorial speculation.  Then, the COVID19 pandemic invaded and sent us all to our rooms for an extended stay, only now in more recent weeks once again to spike and surge here and there.  And, finally, video from nearly all directions has surfaced to shine light on the other viral pandemic threatening our world—racism fueled by the presumption of white supremacy documenting clearly and lethally that Black Lives do NOT matter nearly enough.

Some say a perfect storm now rages across the land.  Others think we have come to a tipping point in our part of the world—we’ve seen enough and felt enough that something simply must change.  I am convinced as followers of Jesus we must recognize and seize the gift of a Kairos-Moment from the Lord of history, creating space for breakthroughs in cherishing one another, and especially persons of color, as never before.  Then, for cultivating a culture and systems that more truly reflect God’s plan for all the special beings that bear God’s image.

“Kairos” is a Greek term for a special moment or season of “time.”   It’s not like the more frequent “chronos,” denoting time in the sense of duration or measurement.  “Kairos” is time in the sense of occasion or opportunity.  Chronos time conditions us constantly—seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and so on.  Kairos time gathers to a point and then presents itself.  If there’s a perfect storm, I suggest, the Kairos is the eye of the storm, providing calm and context for recalibrating our bearings and redirecting our course.  If there’s a tipping point, the Kairos comes in the moments just before, during and after, when we may position ourselves for the change that will come.

Sadly, however, in this current Kairos-moment followers of Jesus in the U.S. are themselves conflicted and compromised.  We are conflicted in the same ways most others are.  We have accepted the narratives woven together by partisan ideologues on the right and on the left: In general, either, “Once upon a time God founded our nation” … or “… the devil did!” In turn, these narratives offer and drive alternate responses: Either we must rebuild the nation as it was and return its lost glory … or dismantle it and build another the right way.

Both narratives, however, are wrong, especially in the simple and stark way I put them.  God did not found the nation, nor did the devil.  Human beings did, and some of what they did reflected heaven and some hell.  For example, we are glad they insisted all humans are created equal (Heaven) … but sad to acknowledge this didn’t include the slaves among them, or the women (Hell).  But most of the competing narratives also include features that are right.  What reflected heaven’s rule should be identified, examined and embraced, while whatever mirrors hell’s distortion and destruction should be exposed, confessed, and banished.  But who and where are the people who could even begin to do such things?

Of course, I want to answer, followers of Jesus living here and there salting and illumining their part of the world!  But if the salt has lost its savor and the light no longer shines …  what then?

What indeed!  According to Jesus, though, this is the plan: that his followers would salt and illumine their world. Again, according to Jesus, this is the plan that will have impact, especially in terms of embodying a Kingdom narrative enacting a Kingdom way of living that does not derive its origins, values, and methods from the world as it is but from Another—from the realm of the King.  Yes, according to Jesus, such salting and illumining tells a different story, a cross and resurrection narrative where serving and sacrificing out of love for one another, and the others of our world, bring a healing to the personal and communal failings and brokenness that plague the human story as it has come to be.  A cross and resurrection narrative that cultivates and curates thinking, feeling, willing, and acting like we see in the life of Jesus, supported by the Spirit of Jesus breathing Jesus-love into and through our daily lives.  A cross and resurrection narrative where every human being experiences the favor of the God who regards her or him as of inestimable value.  And, a cross and resurrection narrative where from the dust of one world arises a new world with a new humanity beloved and loving, bearing the likeness of Jesus in multifaceted ways.

So, here we are in the Kairos-moment, in the eye of the perfect storm, in the intervals before, during and after changes come.  Our responses must rise out of that alternate, Kingdom narrative, giving a better expression of what the other narratives get right (more or less), and repudiating clearly what the other narratives get so dreadfully wrong.

In the present Kairos-moment we must face the evils of racism based on white-supremacy and seize the opportunity to respond to evil in ways compatible with a cross and resurrection Kingdom narrative.  Here are some trajectories from that narrative that seem helpful for Jesus’ followers today. They come from the Apostle Paul’s instructions to the churches in Rome where persons of different cultures were becoming communities of Jesus together.  They had been accepted and forgiven through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, given new life through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and were empowered by Jesus’ Spirit to learn a new way to live—as individuals and communities that relate to one another the way Jesus relates to them.

Now, on the basis of these awesome expressions of God’s mercy toward them, really us all, they/we are not to be defined and driven by the traditions, habits and patterns of the cultures of this world, but by the love God shares with us in Jesus (Rom. 12:2).  This fleshes itself out in a variety of ways.  Here are some of them.

The cross and resurrection narrative leads us to end one life and begin another—so, “present your whole selves, literally your (bodies), as living sacrifices,” (Rom. 12:1).  We must come to terms with the old life as fallen, sinful, enslaved to the powers of darkness, captivated by perverse and deceptive desires that lead only to death.  And, this goes for Jews as well as for gentiles.  This goes for church folk as well as all the other folk.

The cross and resurrection narrative will lead us to a new mind that is set on the Spirit of Jesus, follows the path of Jesus, and develops the qualities of character and reflexive responses of Jesus.  A new mind that reflects life and peace, freedom and joy, hope and love.

And, thus, the cross and resurrection narrative will demand practices and responses to one another that Paul spells out.

  • We will not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Which means not more highly than we do anyone  Jews are not superior to gentiles in the cross and resurrection story. Nor can white people claim any supremacy over persons of color.  Part of thinking appropriately about self is aspiring and practicing the preference of others ahead of self.  More, it is to use your gifts—which are all of grace, not our genes, education or accomplishments—for the well-being of others.  Seriously, it is to plan and then to activate one’s grace-abilities for building others up, whether you are a prophet or a mercy-giver.  Further, thinking rightly about self will include befriending and sharing with other persons considered low, unimportant, and even contemptible by the world.  Once you would never have associated with them; now they are friends.  More tellingly, you are their friends.

 

  • We will love genuinely, sincerely, and authentically. The measure of such authenticity is rejecting evil and clinging to good, as the Spirit helps us assess the evil and good by the life and ministry of Jesus.  Authentic love reaches deeply within to share the joys, sorrows and hopes of the Family of God and reaches outwardly to the world of others who are strange, hostile, threatening, and even violent toward us.  Indeed, love blesses those who curse, pursue and would harm us; and love seeks the well-being and flourishing of all people in the way God does.  Love will not retaliate, for that would be the evil they reject.  Rather, love will feed and refresh the enemy, clinging to the good revealed in Jesus.  Thus, love will overcome the evil with good.

In the present Kairos-moment God has in place communities of Jesus-followers in the world who will salt and illumine the world in these ways.   The question for us is whether we and our communities will be among them.

Here are two final observations.  First, a cross and resurrection Kingdom narrative for our time has a passive sense.  That is, as salt does, we may form communities, embedded in our neighborhoods, that enact the new humanity God is creating through Jesus.  And, as salt does, our neighborhoods can sense and taste how it is when all are precious and privileged alike because of the amazing grace of God, and the world can see what happens when we do not think more highly of ourselves but honor and give place to others, especially others who have suffered the sinful assaults of racism by those who regard themselves to be superior.  As the salt works there will be change.

But, second, a cross and resurrection Kingdom narrative for our time must have an active sense.   As light shines it goes where before there was only darkness and the darkness leaves.  So we must go to the places of darkness and to those who love the darkness and let the light that is in us banish the darkness.  This is metaphor, of course, and so “darkness” signals only part of the reality (even as “light’ does).  Even so, as we let light shine, expressing the crucified and risen Kingdom Truth about God and people, we expect to demonstrate the difference such Truth makes, and we expect darkness to flee.

Unlike most of God’s people for most of history, we have opportunities to shape the governance over us and to help hold it accountable.  We can protest and demonstrate for what is right.  We can vote for leaders and legislators who are responsible for that governance.  And we can enter the spheres of governance themselves in order from within to salt and illumine them in keeping with the unfolding cross and resurrection Kingdom narrative.

If our part of the world is weathering a perfect storm and reaching a tipping point, we must recognize the present Kairos-moment.  A Person of Color has shown us the way, the truth and the life.  He did not think himself superior to others (though he was) but placed himself at the service of all others, loved them and served them, poured out his life for them until he breathed his last as he hung on a tree.  Then God vindicated this One and his way, exalted and enthroned him, and will put everything under his feet in the end.  His followers know that the future belongs to this One and his way of ordering human life and community.  They salt and illumine their world by walking in his footsteps; they treat one another, their neighbors and potentially all persons in the way he treats them; and they take his light to the places and lovers of darkness.  In the Kairos-moment, we must play our part as agents of such a cross and resurrection Kingdom narrative.

RACISM’S UGLY UNDERBELLY

In these days of recovery from the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the resurgence of the global spiritual pandemic of racism—perhaps a series of spikes in outbreaks—we are right to look first to see whether we have a board stuck in our eye before we note the dust we think may obscure the vision of others.  We are also wise to view the convergence of these pandemic outbreaks as an opportunity to examine ourselves to see if indeed we are all-the-way in “the faith,” and to watch over ourselves lest in our pride we fall.

As a follower of Jesus, I repudiate racism.  This is a matter of commitment to Jesus as Lord.  It strikes me as unthinkable that any trace of racism should lodge in my heart, mind, spirit, sentiments, tendencies, actions or reactions.  Truly.  As soon as I say/write this, though, I recall other attitudes, feelings, tendencies, responses that once lingered within me for some time before I even knew it and then remained for some additional time as I dealt with them and put them aside.  I’m talking about things that are unworthy and contrary to the way of Jesus, such as anger, envy, bitterness and unforgiveness. Likewise, there are things I once put off by the grace of God only later to resurface, sometimes worse than before.  So, I do repudiate racism, and yet I am asking what lingers in my heart that I never knew was there?  Could there be anything within me or about me that allows or aides and abets the racism poisoning our world and threatening, harming and killing people of color?   This has led me to more helpful reflection.

Some would identify “racism” as America’s original sin.  But I would suggest it was more likely white supremacy which then gave birth to the racism that has pervaded our historical and social landscape.  Most instances of the racism we’ve seen (literally) played before our very eyes in recent years has an ideology of white supremacy as its ugly underbelly.

Consider what the signatories of the Declaration of Independence expressed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,”  (my emphasis).  Most of us read this today and assume its accuracy, legitimacy and validity.  Most of us believe implicitly what they declared.  Most of us also assume that they meant what we understand their words to mean.  And, we believe that they actually sought to form a nation on these principles as we understand them.

“Most of us” assume and believe these things.  Many of our sisters and brothers of color, however, know better.  Because, in fact, many of the composers, approvers and signers of the Declaration owned slaves, and those who didn’t saw no problem with the Declaration as it was written.  At least, they did not find the enslaving of Africans incompatible with their Declaration.  So, what were they really saying when they wrote of “all men … endowed by their Creator … inalienable rights … life, liberty, pursuit of happiness?”

Another way to ask the question is this: to whom did “all men” refer?   Clearly it did not include persons of color who were then enslaved.   It also did not include women, white or of color.  The exclusion of women, in turn, confirms that their use of “men” was not a reference to all human beings.  They were excluding women and black people, and they were not declaring the equality and rights of either women or black people.

They were declaring the rights of white people, but especially of white men.  That they did not include persons of color suggests one of two things about how they regarded persons of color.  Persons of color are either not truly/fully human or have not been granted the God-given rights offered to the white men declaring their independence.  Whichever it was, they assumed the supremacy of white people.  They didn’t argue for it, they assumed it.  Then, on this basis, they fought to gain their independence and to form what they described in the Constitution as “a more perfect union.”

At its inception, our nation arose with the presumption of white supremacy, and “the more perfect union” they formed embraced (or enshrined?) the ideology that white people are superior to black people.  Sadly, the white church in America supported this either actively or passively, even within evangelical, revivalist, born-again, Pentecostal, Holiness churches.  Even in denominations which were abolitionist—it is possible to advocate for the freedom of slaves without pursuing their full equality, dignity, and opportunity as the Declaration champions.  It is possible to reject the evil of slavery while continuing to view yourself or group as superior.  Indeed, the presumed white supremacy of enslavers did not have to be renounced in order to emancipate slaves.  One racist practice and system was dismantled—the institution of slavery, but the demolition left its ideological foundation of supremacy largely undisturbed.  Racism’s ugly underbelly is this presumed superiority.  As with racism itself just a smidgen of such superiority corrupts everything it touches.

Therefore, it is not enough for followers of Jesus to repudiate racism (however they understand it).  Followers of Jesus must turn from, and repudiate, any and all forms of white-supremacy.

The reasons they must are legion.  Here are some of the most important.  To begin, in Genesis God did not create races, but one kind of being—the human-being.  What distinguished the humankind from all other creatures is this: humankind was made in God’s image and likeness.  The image was not superficial, only skin deep, but soul-deep.  At the core, to be human was to bear this image.  Different families, clans, tribes and nations would come to be, and they would inhabit different places throughout the world.  But they would not and could not become something other than image bearers.  All humans are distinguished from all other creatures by the image they bear.  All.

But, of course, humans rebelled.  All of them have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All have effaced but not erased that image in which God made them.  Since all are in the same desperate condition, there could be no basis for any of them to claim essential superiority over any other of them. Ever.

The two great commands, which fulfill all the other laws, likewise reveal how wrong it would be for any person or group ever to claim superiority over others.  To love God and love others, as we do ourselves, make it impossible to consider our own selves better than others.  In fact, the love commands provide the ultimate guard against white-supremacy.  White followers of Jesus who love others as they do themselves, would by God’s grace love persons of color to the same degree and with the same expressions of love as they do themselves.  Thus, by definition, it becomes impossible to view self knowingly as superior to others.

While there are many reasons why followers of Jesus simply must repudiate white-supremacy, here is the one which in our current moment I find most powerfully and beautifully compelling.  In John’s gospel we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God … .“ (Jn. 1:1). Then, John declares, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” (1:14).  As we marvel over this Word-become-flesh, let’s not miss this:  the incarnation of the eternal Word was as a person of color.  He loved the world, served the world, suffered for the world, died for the world, and conquered death through resurrection for the world—all as a Person of color.   He began with his own people, who were all persons of color, and then sent his followers, again all persons of color, to the ends of the world for all other persons.

In fact, early on, in a sense the first church had to decide whether they would remain a fellowship of persons of color only or would permit persons of other or no color to receive the good news.   The Spirit of Jesus led them into the full truth of Jesus—they were sent to all.  No false sense of superiority could hinder their mission to the ends of the earth.  Indeed, the early decades of mission were to persons of color in the Middle East, in Egypt, Africa, and India to name a few of the regions.  Eventually their movement and mission turned them west toward people of different and other colors and hues.  By and by they came to the places we would call home.

And, if we can believe the Bible, when the mission is complete the assembly around God’s throne—the citizenry of God’s Kingdom—will include persons of all colors from every people group, place, language and culture.  But that will happen because Jesus, a Person of color, loves us all and made sure we all got the message, and did so in the beginning exclusively through His brothers and sisters of color.

Around the throne of God the vast majority of the Kingdom’s citizens will be persons of color, but no one will think too much about it because the singular focus of all will be the One who sits on the throne.  But white people like me, should ponder this fact often in these days, and be forever grateful for the Person of Color and his initial follower-friends who insisted that Jesus meant it when he said “all!”

Until that great day, we must follow their lead in seeking to bring all of reality, and all its systems—here and there and everywhere—into alignment with this good news!

TO STAND UP TO STAND WITH

Followers of Messiah Jesus know that the world is often upside down and inside out relative to the Kingdom of God. We expect therefore to encounter hatred not love; selfishness not sacrifice; violence not gentleness; and bearing of crosses not crowns. We expect this because we are followers of Jesus.  In recent days, followers of King Jesus should not be surprised.  All of us, but supremely our brothers and sisters of color!

What is so challenging for many of us, on the other side of Jesus’ cross, resurrection, ascension and then gift of the Holy Spirit, is we’d like to think that receiving the Kingdom, living as citizens of the Kingdom, and seeing the Kingdom of God expressed and advanced in our world should now be automatic and achievable by different means than Jesus used.

But to think this way is to be deaf and blind to the way of Jesus.  Jesus’ cross bearing, loving self-sacrifice on Calvary and resurrection were not simply “one-offs.” That is, they were not his to do so that we can now do something else.  No, indeed.  Jesus’ entire life, his teachings, his vision of God’s Kingdom, his healings, exorcisms, serving, suffering, dying on the cross and his victory over death on Easter morning—all this is how Jesus achieved victory over the powers of the evil one and guaranteed Kingdom-come.  Now, with minds clear of confusion and distortion, with hearts cleansed of sin and filled with love, and with the indwelling and empowering Spirit of Jesus compelling us onward, we can walk with Jesus in our still upside down and inside out world, confident that walking with Jesus is the way of his Kingdom and its expression in our world.

So what shall we do and how shall we live in a world still under the viral presence of racial bigotry, bitterness and vengeance?  We must stand up to stand with those who have been and are targeted.  And, in doing so, we must follow Jesus in the way of Jesus’ cross.  Therefore, I suggest we:

  • Listen and learn in silence from those whose voices can no longer be silenced for the pain and hurt of it all.

 

  • Weep with those who weep; lament as they lament; yearn with them for the relief Jesus proclaimed as a blessing in his Kingdom for those who mourn.

 

  • Pray in the Spirit—groaning with the anguish of families who have lost loved ones, who live in fear for the safety and well-being of their children, especially their young men.

 

  • Pray in the Spirit for perpetrators to see their sin, and turn from their evil ways, and for the systems that support or benefit from the evils of racism to be exposed and changed;

 

  • Pray in the Spirit for leaders to see the handwriting on the wall, and turn from defending what is, casting blame in defense of one’s self and group, to defending the hurting, whoever and wherever they hurt, and pursuing relief for all.

Then, we must also:

  • Stand up in respect for the human beings, made in God’s image and beloved by their Maker, who are now most vulnerable, or whose insecure and unsafe environs are now mobbed with demonstrators demanding change.

 

  • Stand up to speak words of blessing and not curse—not to win arguments or score points but to express Jesus’ first word to would-be citizens of his Kingdom. Speak words of blessing knowing that words of blessing in response to cursing often makes things worse before anything can get better.  Speak words of blessing toward those who have been targeted by curse, who are regularly demeaned, diminished, damned and dismissed.  Speak words of blessing upon them because you have been called to be agents of blessing, because in the Kingdom blessing is not the final word but the initial word that enlivens Kingdom hope and life for those who receive them.

 

  • Stand up to stand with those who feel the brunt of bigotry in whatever its forms. Because even a little bigotry betrays the Kingdom of God.   Yes, truly, to say that God does not love another (any other, certainly including those obviously different from you) as you believe God loves you is to doubt that God is love, especially the love we see displayed in the tortured, bloodied and dying Jesus on the cross.  Not to love the other as you would have God love you is to violate the clear command of Jesus.  And, to doubt that this is even possible for you, and therefore is excusable because “no one is perfect,” is to deny the victory of Easter and the power of the Spirit Jesus gives his followers.   After all, we died and were buried with Jesus so that we might walk in an entirely new way by the power of the resurrection!  And, after all, Jesus has given us clear instructions—if there could be the log of bigotry in our eyes we must avail ourselves of every Kingdom power to extract it before acting on any other thing we might see.

 

  • Stand up to stand with those who have been made to wonder if their lives matter as much as my color-less life matters. Because their lives do matter supremely!  God says so in creation.  God’s Son says so by becoming a person of color and yet still loving and dying for people like me.  And God’s Spirit says so by filling and forming us into the likeness of Jesus.

 

  • Stand up to stand with those who have had enough of the hate, the fear and all that goes with it. They have had enough and to stand with them means that we have had enough!  Yet, that means we may now be in danger of adopting the strategies and ways of the haters.  This will not help anyone because hate is hate, and always eventually only kills and destroys.  What is needed are friends of Jesus who will say what Jesus has said: “Enough is enough, no more!”  Friends of Jesus who will say it and then insist on what is right even if sacrificing self—preferences, rights, opportunities, privileges??—is the cost of freedom for all whose voice and presence have not been heard or seen.

 

  • Stand up to stand with those targeted by racial profile, ingrained habit and careless mindsets in the places we live, in all of these ways, trusting that Jesus’ Kingdom will be like he said it would be—seeds planted, leaven kneaded, and lamps lit in dark places. Yes,

 

  • Stand up to stand with them calling on leaders at all levels, in the church and the world, to assure that the law is enacted and enforced for the sake of people (not people for the sake of the law), especially those otherwise without protection and help, that the most basic rights of human dignity and respect are protected and enhanced, and that officers of the law are valued and supported for fulfilling their duty to serve and protect everyone’s rights.

 

  • Stand up to stand with our brothers and sisters in the African American Church, in the unity of the Spirit, and speak with them and for them in pursuit of the King’s righteousness, peace and joy. And, as we

 

  • Stand up to stand with we brace ourselves for cross-bearing, sacrificing, suffering, and perhaps dying as we walk together with Jesus as agents of his Kingdom in a world still upside down and inside out.

 

 

Living the Resurrection-Story

The Jesus story declares that the human story does not end with death!  To be sure, death looms largely the_empty_tomb__Medium_[1]within the story.  Along the way we read of people dying, and as the story moves forward Jesus begins to make ominous predictions of his own death.  The simple, sad, and undeniable fact of life appears to be that death trumps all.

Our world today apparently offers substantial confirmation.  Terror groups wreak havoc, kill, and conquer!    In the months before Easter and the weeks since the whole world has been shrouded with the prospects of a lethal virus determining the course of our lives, if not ending them.  Apparently the most common of activities and experiences have now become hazardous to our health.  Literally, in any given place, in the air we breathe and the surfaces we touch, we face the inevitable outcome.  This is the way the story ends—whether mundane or macabre, definitely death!

But then there is Jesus.  In his story, a beloved friend Lazarus dies four days before Jesus’ arrival (John 11).  That means death and decay have set in, Lazarus’ body had begun to de-compose, pull apart, breakdown at the cellular level, separating out the varied elements, to become a rotting mess host to organisms that breed and feed on the “death’s unmakings.”  For confirmation there was the smell proving the inevitable fact of un-life.  Lazarus was dead.

But Jesus calls him back.  With a commanding, “Come forth!” the decomposing recomposes, constituent parts come together, dying reverses,  and remains return ready for reanimation, a resumption of sensation—hearing, feeling, willing, and acting.  The dead returns.

But this is not a resurrection.  This is a return.  At that moment, for Lazarus, it is as though the reverse button is hit on his human story, a reversal to the story that had been, and then a resumption to the story.  It is not quite the same and yet the subject is the same and it remains his same story that will once again lead to a dying.

But this one time reversal of the irreversible with Lazarus is also a sign, the ultimate sign of what Jesus will do.  He will die just as surely as Lazarus died.  But Jesus will not suffer the ravages of decomposition, elemental breakdown, and the inevitable conclusion of the Human story that he had lived.  Rather, on the third day–there is re-creation, glorification, indeed, there is resurrection.  It is the same Jesus, but not quite the same.  Jesus but different, changed, transformed by indestructible life that is more alive than humans can now know, that can no longer be touched by death, terrified by grave, or threatened by mortality.

This resurrection signals a re-creation of Jesus’ body, now alive forevermore.  This resurrection becomes a revelation: Jesus’ story is how the human story rightly proceeds.

In the case of resurrection, it is as though the fast forward button is hit on the human story, so that who and how we shall be becomes radiantly evident in Jesus.   In fact, in Jesus we find out about an alternate ending to the human story we didn’t know anything about, an alternate ending which turns out to be like the long-forgotten original.  In resurrection Fast Forward is hit to this “original ending” and then brilliantly that ending begins to draw us forward, even before it’s time, into the right ending that is not so much a conclusion as a consummation—the arrival of the very good finale of one story that quickly transposes into the overture of the next grand Opus of God.

So, what?

Death does not end the human story.

So, what?

The threat and perils of our world cannot stand and prevail.

So, what?

We are not foolish in face of danger, but also we are not fooled by the fact of danger.  We fear more the one who can protect our physical, here and now though still dying, mortal bodies, AND who can protect and preserve our ways toward the original and proper ending of our human story.

 So, what?

We begin now to live into the proper ending which is now ours, guaranteed!  That means a holiness that is radiant with Jesus-light, a holiness that receives and reflects Jesus-love, that is indeed subject to lingering deadly dangers and that may suffer and even “die.”   In fact, this means a Spirit-empowered holiness that would rather die than to compromise the character and mission of Jesus.  A holiness that demonstrates the purity of the person’s interior life by the purity—that is the singularity of godly focus and right-living—of one’s way of relating and responding to the world around us.

 So, what?

We begin now to reclaim the whole world and the whole of creation as the proper and full arena for God’s redeeming and recreating mission.  All authority has been granted to the One who was dead but is now alive forever, and it is on his authority that we live and make disciples; it is with confidence that it is in the Presence of this ultimate authority that we participate in what he is doing and will surely accomplish.

 So, what?

We weather the threats, persevere in playing our part, and anticipate sharing in Jesus’ final victory no matter what we see, how it may feel, and how others may forecast outcomes.

For we know the One on whom we have believed and we are confident that this One is able to keep what we have entrusted to him—the whole of our being, all of our future, all of our hopes, all of our loved ones, all of our highest aspirations for good—until that day comes in fullness, because we already see and live in its light now.

No hand wringing, no pretending that our part is the whole, no wailing over what seems or feels like losses or reversals.  We have seen the alternate ending, we are joined to the one who has already gone there and is bringing “there” here within us and among us and through us “before the time.”

A loss or set-back in “the culture wars” or “an election” or “the courts” does not deter us; this is not an experience of suffering—it is simply a welcome to the mission!  The persection and martyrdom of some of us are forms of suffering for us and our friends, but this cannot cause us to rethink the basic mission and our willingness to accept threat and peril as signs not of our defeat but of the evil one’s final twitching in the course of dying the second death.

Jesus promised his disciples they would receive power when the Holy Spirit filled their lives and their communities.  Then, they would bear witness to him and tell his story among the nations of the world.  We join them by receiving the promised Spirit of resurrection, and offering empowered witness to the Jesus way of life—deny self as the center of the universe, commit self to the way of the cross and its consequences, and follow Jesus fully, come what may, until we and all reach resurrection morn.