Friends,

I’d like to direct your attention to yet another Advance Sign.

This Advance Sign is part of the work of the musical group, Jars of Clay. This band has been around for a while and I have long appreciated their deep lyrics and wonderful music. Their music gets better with each album they release. Several years ago, they founded a work they call Blood:Water Mission to help combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. From the website:

Blood:Water Mission is a non-profit organization founded by the members of the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning band, Jars of Clay, to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.

Blood:Water Mission exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both here in America and in Africa.

We recognize that numbers and statistics are hard to grasp, and that sometimes a step back is necessary to conceptualize the enormity of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Yet we also know that simply standing from a distance with arms thrown in the air is not a solution. We believe in pressing inward, in building relationships and bridges with communities in Africa. We believe in hearing personal stories and walking alongside brothers and sisters who have demonstrated strength and faith in the midst of desperate and tragic situations.

We hold fast to the conviction that we are all responsible for being good stewards of our time, our resources and our compassion in a broken world.

Every person has something to give in return for what has been received.

Please join us on this journey.

A large part of what they are doing, is to drill wells and provide ’suitable’ blood supplies for the people in Africa.

Blood:Water Mission is partnering with groups and individuals to empower Africans to build healthier communities through sustainable clean blood and clean water solutions, while developing social responsibility in the U.S. through initiatives that provoke personal engagement and ownership.

I confess that I don’t know what sort of ‘initiatives’ JOC have been involved in here in the US. It could be simply that they talk about the work at concerts and the like or even testify at congressional hearings, but I just do not know.

You can follow their work at the BWM blog. You can also sign up to receive their newsletter via email. There is also a myspace page for BWM.

Here is a short video from youtube about Blood:Water Mission.

Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to explore Advanced Signs to learn about other important missions going on in the world and how you can be involved.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Friends,

I want to share a ministry with you that has really touched my heart and given me great encouragement over the last month or so. The ministry is called Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

I have been participating in this group since the middle of September when our local chapter hosted “See You at the Pole,” a morning, before School, prayer and worship time. I was privileged to be asked to lead a few song for the gathered students. After that, the director invited me to the weekly meetings where I participate in the conversation, lead in prayer, and lead the students in singing a couple of songs.

Today was especially wonderful as I was able to lead the kids in singing a couple of hymns: I Need Thee Every Hour and There’s Room at the Cross. How thrilling to lead these ‘modern’ kids in singing of ‘ancient’ hymns that are so often neglected as irrelevant and outdated.

In our local group, we have upwards of twenty kids per week–at times we have been over thirty. It is remarkable that in the middle of a public school, before the day begins, once per week, kids between the ages of 11-13 are gathering to worship Jesus. FCA has become, for me, an extension of my own ministry here in Madison. I am able to get to know the kids on a personal level and pray for them during the day and throughout the week. Since I also work at the Middle School during the lunch period five days per week, I am also able to hold the kids accountable for their behavior and character.

Still, the main idea is that Christ is being worshiped in the public school. What a joy to hear the sounds of worship echoing throughout the halls and the Name of Jesus being exalted by these kids. There’s not a lot that middle school aged children are doing at 8 AM, but here’s an example of kids who are getting up a little earlier, coming to school a little sooner, all for the purpose of fellowship and worship in Christ. It must be true that the Lord works in strange ways and in strange places. Kids who may never darken the threshold of the church building are learning about Christ in a public school, praying together, and singing songs. Praise God.

Finally, I have found that this is a great way for me to give another hour to one of my sons each week. We go to FCA together and there witness together our faith in Christ. It is a joy to be so blessed. Do your best to check out and support this Advance Sign of the kingdom at work in a community or neighborhood near you.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Friends,

I finished reading Just Courage this week. This book was written by Gary A Haugen, whose work with the International Justice Mission I have written of here at Advance Signs. This is a short review of the short book (150 pages, hardback, two appendices, study guide) published by IVP this year.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if at times it seemed like little more than an advertisement for IJM. That’s OK. I think the work being done through IJM and its worldwide affiliates and offices is important enough to warrant an overlooking of the literary value of this book. I don’t think Haugen is going to win a Pulitzer any time soon, but to be honest with you, I am confident that is not event remotely on his mind. The book should be read by anyone interested in the work of IJM in particular and the work for justice in this world in general.

Some are going to be turned off by Haugen’s quotation and association with Dallas Willard. I’m not And I don’t think anyone should be for that matter. I mention it simply because Willard frequently comes under fire from certain bloggers who know more than enough about who we should and should not follow.

Haugen draws on his personal life to illustrate points at times, but even more impressive are his anecdotes from the work of IJM around the world. He tells of the violence often faced by those who are working for justice and compassion. Haugen also takes time to exegete several passages of Scripture in the course of making his case. He handles Scripture faithfully and at times makes rather brilliant applications such as this comment on Matthew 16:18:

Moreover, in the work of building his kingdom, Jesus promises that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 KJV). In other words, God, not the forces of evil, is on the offensive. And according to Jesus, hell is decisively on the losing side. Listening to some Christians, though, we would think that hell is the aggressor and that we need to defend ourselves. But of course, gates are never on the offensive. Gates don’t move out–they keep out. (107)

This is an excellent point and one, I suspect, that motivates Haugen day after day as he and his associates brave the darkness of the sex trade, slavery, and other disturbing injustices that comfortable suburbanite American Christians would rather not think about–at all. Haugen’s stories are shocking, but he sufficiently makes his point: There is a dark world around us that needs to be dealt with by Christians. This will take courage. This Haugen also brings out pointedly:

In one of the most starkly sad moments recorded in Scripture, the earnest young man, presented with the chance to truly follow the Maker and Redeemer of the world, finds he has too much to lose. He walks away grieving. Why? Because he wants to follow Jesus. But he can’t because he is afraid of what it will cost him. (128)

I suspect this is a large part of the problem with the church in this world: Most Christians never counted the cost before becoming disciples; the rest refuse to pay it once they are. I like this book for a couple of reasons. First, it is a relatively easy read. This is for readers of all levels–I think a sophisticated junior higher could read it with no problem. Second, Haugen really opens the eyes of the reader to the realities of darkness. It makes one wonder, at times, who are the people who perpetuate sex-trade houses where children are being abused and raped? Worse, it makes me confront myself and say: What am I doing to bring these people to justice and, following Jesus, ’set these captives free’?

Finally, I appreciated that Haugen writes from a solid, orthodox Christian point of view. He makes no bones about the fact that Christians have, by and large, not done enough. There is much to be done and each day is a day to get it done. Courage is required. Christians need to move out of the safety of safety and into the world where they might get dirty, or hurt, or run out of town. Christians must not be content to sit around and wait for government agencies to do anything. Christians must be advocates for the weak and oppressed.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen.
       Your hands are full of blood;

 16 wash and make yourselves clean.
       Take your evil deeds
       out of my sight!
       Stop doing wrong,

 17 learn to do right!
       Seek justice,
       encourage the oppressed. 
       Defend the cause of the fatherless,
       plead the case of the widow.

At the end of the book, Haugen has listed on-line resources where one can pursue further the courage he has written of. I am providing those links here for any who might wish to pursue this courageous work.

• Amnesty International
• Anti-Slavery International (UK)
• Freedom House
• HumanTrafficking.org
• Human Rights First
• Human Rights Watch
• International Labour Organization
• UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)
• UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women)
• US Department of Justice
• US Department of Health & Human Services (The Campaign to Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking)
• US Department of State (Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons)
• World Health Organization
• International Justice Mission

I am thankful this book has been written. I believe it is a good place for anyone to begin–to get their feet wet, to take their first step of courage that might just see a life set free.

jerry

Friends,

A while back at Life Under the Blue Sky, I did a short post on a worthy project headed up by the band Audio Adrenaline. Sadly, my post didn’t seem to generate much response. Well, I’m going to try again here at Advance Signs.  Here’s a video clip from the band concerning the Hands and Feet Project in Haiti.

You can access the Hands and Feet Project online here. Here’s what they say about the project:

The Hands and Feet Project , a 501c3 non-profit organization, is a children’s village in Jacmel, Haiti that was started by the band Audio Adrenaline in 2004. Our mission is to care for orphans and to use pop culture to introduce the 1st world to the orphans of the world. The land was purchased in late 2004, and construction began in early 2005. Our first little girl arrived in the spring of 2005, and we now care for 34 children ranging in age from 2 months – 9 years old.

We are currently building more houses in order to be able to help more children who have been abandoned and will probably have 40 children by the end of this year. We are hoping to replicate the model that brings artists/bands and orphans together, with our next project starting soon in Nicaragua with T-Bone.

This mission will be accomplished under the leadership of Drex and Jo Stuart, parents of co-founder Mark Stuart, and lifetime missionaries who have previously served in Haiti. The outworking of the children’s village will be to provide for the family nurturing of a loving home, a viable Christian witness, attention to the medical needs of the children, and the proper education of each child. Children accepted in the home will all be orphans.

You can also check out the Hands and Feet Projecton Myspace.

This is a group of people who are living the resurrection driven life to bring hope and salvation to the children of Haiti. What I see is that they are raising a generation of children who will some day be the movers and shakers of that land. As Mark Stuart says on his myspace page, the goal is that someday the orphanages will not need to exist.

God Bless this work!

jerry

Friends,

Sadly, I have been so busy I have not been updating this blog as often as I would like to be. I offer no excuses or apologies, it is what it is right now. Still, I have been thinking and praying about this new direction, trying to understand what it means to be a Jesus follower.

I have just finished, recently, reading my third consecutive NT Wright book. This one, Simply Christian, was most helpful in understanding how to put into practice my faith in Christ, that is, how to live the Resurrection Life. Wright, commenting on why Christians read the Bible, wrote:

 …the Bible isn’t there simply to be an accurate reference point for people who want to look things up and be sure they’ve got them right. It is there to equip God’s people to carry forward his purposes of new covenant and new creation. It is there to enable people to work for justice, to sustain their spirituality as they do so, to create and enhance relationships at every level, and to produce that new creation which will have about it something of the beauty of God himself.”–(181-182)

What’s more, he doesn’t end there. He takes this further:

The resurrection of Jesus enables us to see how it is that living as a Christian isn’t simply a matter of discovering the inner truth of the way the world currently is, or simply a matter of learning a way of life that is in tune with a different world and thus completely out of tune with the present one. It is a matter of glimpsing that in God’s new creation, of which Jesus’ resurrection is the start, all that was good in the original creation is reaffirmed. All that has corrupted and defaced it–including many things which are woven so tightly into the fabric of the world as we know it that we can’t imagine being without them–will be done away. Learning to live as a Christian is learning to live as a renewed human being, anticipating the eventual new creation in and with a world which is still longing and groaning for final redemption.”–(223)

So the purpose of this blog is to explore the ways in which we, Christians, are advance signs of what God is doing. I have been jotting down ministries that I have heard about in order to write about them here. I have to say that I am beginning to see a lot of these ministries in a new light. I think the problem that I have experienced, in large part due to my conviction as a social and fiscal conservative, is that I had the mistaken notion that the policies of the (‘kingdom of America’) government necessarily coincided with the advance of the Kingdom of God. What I mean is, too often Christians in America, and here I am thinking specifically of myself, pictured the interests of the Government as the interests of God. This means, again sadly, that I have paid far more attention to the policies of conservative commentators than I have to the Word of God. I confess this is a serious deficiency in much of American Evangelical Christianity.

I have listened to them as they point out the flaws of people like Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu or Martin Luther King jr. or Bono or some other such person and then discarded anything these men may have done as irrelevant or simply a disguise for a socialist agenda. I’m not saying these men are flawless; who is? What I am saying is that much of what these men have done has been motivated by the person of Christ. That should not have been overlooked.

_______________________

I have been getting up by 6 AM every day for the last two weeks and devoting myself to prayers and the Word of God. I was led to read the book of Isaiah the prophet. This has been remarkably rewarding as the Lord has really opened my eyes to a great deal that I have all too willingly overlooked in the past. Now things are becoming clearer, much clearer. Isaiah 1:1-9:

1The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth!
       For the LORD has spoken:
       “I reared children and brought them up,
       but they have rebelled against me.

 3 The ox knows his master,
       the donkey his owner’s manger,
       but Israel does not know,
       my people do not understand.”

 4 Ah, sinful nation,
       a people loaded with guilt,
       a brood of evildoers,
       children given to corruption!
       They have forsaken the LORD;
       they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
       and turned their backs on him.

 5 Why should you be beaten anymore?
       Why do you persist in rebellion?
       Your whole head is injured,
       your whole heart afflicted.

 6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
       there is no soundness—
       only wounds and welts
       and open sores,
       not cleansed or bandaged
       or soothed with oil.

 7 Your country is desolate,
       your cities burned with fire;
       your fields are being stripped by foreigners
       right before you,
       laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

 8 The Daughter of Zion is left
       like a shelter in a vineyard,
       like a hut in a field of melons,
       like a city under siege.

 9 Unless the LORD Almighty
       had left us some survivors,
       we would have become like Sodom,
       we would have been like Gomorrah.

I’ll note a couple of thoughts about this chapter, of which these 9 verses are merely representative. What first caught my eye is this: Isaiah prophesied these words during the reign of kings. Isaiah saw these things, and said these things, during the reign of four different kings. This means that the things he saw were not isolated events. They were not anachronistic. These things he saw, these actions of the people, were not anomalies. They were the prevailing culture of the nation during the reign of four very different kings.

I looked back at the book of 2 Kings where highlights from the reigns of these kings are recorded. Here’s what is said of Jotham and Uzziah: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done” (2 Kings 15:34). Here’s what it says of Hezekiah: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3). The only one who didn’t do right was Ahaz. The point is, even during the reigns of the best kings, the Israel (Judah) was a place of severe corruption, sin, injustice, and unrighteousness. Here’s what the author said of Hezekiah:

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory” (2 Kings 18:5-8, NIV)

You can see, from this sampling, that Hezekiah was an ‘OK sort of guy.’ Nevertheless, Isaiah was not kind concerning the way things were in the culture of Judah during his reign.

What this demonstrates to me, at the purely political level, is that the leaders of man cannot be trusted. Or, better, if these people represent government, then government cannot be trusted to do what is right or lead people correctly or properly administer the justice of God. So the Lord says:

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen.
       Your hands are full of blood;

 16 wash and make yourselves clean.
       Take your evil deeds
       out of my sight!
       Stop doing wrong,

 17 learn to do right!
       Seek justice,
       encourage the oppressed. 
       Defend the cause of the fatherless,
       plead the case of the widow.

You might say that the Lord bypassed the leaders and went directly to the people, pleading as it were, for them to do what was right: To be people of justice, compassion, and mercy. Something about their failure to do so was so offensive to the Lord that he refused to accept their worship as a delight; it was offensive to Him! Will our worship be acceptable to God when we have neglected such things? Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 23:

23“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

I am inclined to believe that apart from doing the right things–justice, mercy, righteousness–saying the right things is rather meaningless.

Why do earthly rulers fail to bring about these things? Here’s what Isaiah said:

21 See how the faithful city
       has become a harlot!
       She once was full of justice;
       righteousness used to dwell in her—
       but now murderers!

 22 Your silver has become dross,
       your choice wine is diluted with water.

 23 Your rulers are rebels,
       companions of thieves;
       they all love bribes
       and chase after gifts.
       They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
       the widow’s case does not come before them.

And the people were suffering. The people had become so self-centered, so self-focused, so self-absorbed that they had neglected God. When they neglected God, or removed him from the center, others no longer mattered; others became an obstacle to ‘getting what I want.’ The Lord would intervene and begin to fix all that they had broken:

 24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
       the Mighty One of Israel, declares:
       “Ah, I will get relief from my foes
       and avenge myself on my enemies.

 25 I will turn my hand against you;
       I will thoroughly purge away your dross
       and remove all your impurities.

 26 I will restore your judges as in days of old,
       your counselors as at the beginning.
       Afterward you will be called
       the City of Righteousness,
       the Faithful City.”

 27 Zion will be redeemed with justice,
       her penitent ones with righteousness.

_________________________

What I have been thinking about is along these Isaiah lines. If the Lord declared he would do such things, and if Jesus’ resurrection is the first-fruits of such things, and if Jesus is ‘making all things new’ even as we breathe, then how are we a part of what is going on? How are we helping? What are we doing? Clearly the Lord is interested in Justice and purity and righteousness and faithfulness and the people had failed: From the top to the bottom they had failed. As Isaiah wrote at the end of chapter 2:

Stop trusting in man,
       who has but a breath in his nostrils.
       Of what account is he?

How can we play a part in what God is doing? How can we be advance signs of what God is doing to restore justice and righteousness as the prevailing norm, the only norm, around which this world revolves? I think this is the point: The people of God should not be sitting around waiting on even the best governments to be doing the work that he has called all of his peopleto do. The government is going to fail; the people of God must be moving about doing justice, being merciful as the Father is merciful, loving even as we are loved. It is not the responsibility of the government to be the primary advocates of what is right and just. The people of God must be the first line of offense against injustice, inhumanity, un-mercy, un-grace, un-love, violence, hatred, abuse, and the entire litany of self-destructive behaviors that we humans like to inflict upon one another.

What are we doing then? Well, allow me to preface my next statements by saying that this is in no way an endorsement of everything that Rick Warren says or even does or believes and teaches theologically. However, what I am demonstrating here is that at minimum Warren is taking seriously what Isaiah said and what was repeated by Micah and others not least of whom was Jesus.

In his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, a plan panned by many theologians and Christians and secularists alike, Warren proposes to dream big and attack those things which stand in direct opposition to the work Jesus is doing to ‘make all things new.’ He proposes to undo the following 5 Global Giants. And why not?

Spiritual Emptiness

Self-Serving Leadership (Isaiah 1!)

Extreme Poverty

Pandemic Diseases

Rampant Illiteracy

Here’s another look:

I’m troubled as to how anyone could find fault with what he has said, what he is proposing, what the content of this plan is.

A lot of people are critical of the plan, but from what I have seen of this plan, Warren is proposing to attack these 5 Global Giants on the basis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What he is proposing to do, and is in fact doing, is to accomplish what our current governments–regardless of the religious affiliation of the government in question, Christian, Islamic, Atheist, Buddhist, etc–are decidedly not accomplishing. They talk a big talk, but in the end their best solutions are all rife with the violence of war and corruption. If the governments in Isaiah’s day were failing, and those kings did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, then how more are the governments in our day and our kings, who do not do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, failing?

I think people get angry with Warren because he is daring to call out these monsters. Too many Christians are content to elect politicians to solve the problems of this world. Too many Christians are content to listen to their own commentators saying insipid things like, “If only this bill passes,” or “if only this person is elected,” then all will be well. Isaiah’s commentary is that human leadership, governments of all stripes and shapes, cannot solve the problems of our world, will not do so.

This is all very preliminary as I am only just working this stuff out in my head and I shall have more to say about it later as I learn. I wonder what would happen if people, Christians, instead of raging against Warren’s perceived theological illiteracy, actually acknowledged that these are serious issues that need to be addressed by Jesus minded people. I wonder what would happen if we took seriously the call to justice and mercy and righteousness? I wonder what would happen if the Church started loving people and stopped relying on governments to do so and then complaining when those same governments want to stifle us, strip us of rights, and remove all vestiges of the church’s influence from the culture? I wonder what would happen if the Church took seriously the called to Love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving God is easy. Loving our neighbor is not. I wonder why?

Soli Deo Gloria!

PS–I have done a follow up post to this one, or perhaps a companion post, at my other blog: Life Under the Blue Sky

Friends,

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Chicago Tribune, by Evan Osnos:

“We have nothing to hide,” said Jin, a former Communist Party member who broke away from the state church last year to found his Zion Church.

Jin embodies a historic change: After centuries of foreign efforts to implant Christianity in China, today’s Christian ascension is led not by missionaries but by evangelical citizens at home. Where Christianity once was confined largely to poor villages, it is now spreading into urban power centers with often tacit approval from the regime.

It reaches into the most influential corners of Chinese life: Intellectuals disillusioned by the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square are placing their loyalty in faith, not politics; tycoons fed up with corruption are seeking an ethical code; and Communist Party members are daring to argue that their faith does not put them at odds with the government.

What I see is that the Kingdom of God cannot be stopped, cannot be silenced. Seeds planted by early missionaries like Hudson Taylor have been waiting, growing, and reproducing. God be praised! People are working for the Kingdom of God–advancing his Kingdom, His plans, and giving people new hope for new life now.

There is something to be said about this that I’m not going to get into fully here, but it has something to do with the Kingdom advancing in the midst of heavy handed opposition. Think of the Israelites in Egypt and the Acts Church under the Roman Empire. Yet in America, every indication seems to be that the church is not growing or keeping pace with the church in such places as China, Africa, and other places. I wonder why? Could it have something to do with the lack  of opposition to the church in America? Look what happened to the church in Europe. It enjoyed a high place in that culture with little opposition. Now it is nearly dead.

Well, this is off the top of my head, but I wonder if there is anything to it? I shall keep my eyes and ears open for more signs of the Advancing Kingdom of God.

Stop back later this week. I have planned a post on Isaiah 1.

HT: Tim Reed

Soli Deo Gloria!

PS–Great post Tim!

Friends,

I want to share a couple of thoughts with you in this post. First, a personal reflection on Mark 6:14-29and some comments I made the other day at the blog of a friend of mine. Second, I want to share a preliminary report on a mission that I did not even know existed until I read about it in a new book by Art Lindsley Love: The Ultimate Apologetic.

First, Mark 6:14-29:

14King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” 16But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

17For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. 18For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, 20because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.

21Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” 23And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

24She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”  ”The head of John the Baptist,” she answered. 25At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

26The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, 28and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. 29On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

I sort of became interested in the ‘topic’  the other day when I engaged in a conversation with a friend at his blog. We were discussing and essay by NT Wright Kingdom come: The public meaning of the Gospels.

Wright makes this comment in his essay:

This witness comes into sharp focus in John 16:8-11. The Spirit, declares Jesus, will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment-about judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. How is the Spirit to do that? Clearly, within Johannine theology, through the witness of the church, in and through which the Spirit is at work. The church will do to the rulers of the world what Jesus did to Pilate in John 18 and 19, confronting him with the news of the kingdom and of truth, deeply unwelcome and indeed incomprehensible though both of them were. Part of the way in which the church will do this is by getting on with, and setting forward, those works of justice and mercy, of beauty and relationship, that the rulers know ought to be flourishing but which they seem powerless to bring about. But the church, even when faced with overtly pagan and hostile rulers, must continue to believe that Jesus is the Lord before whom they will bow and whose final sovereign judgment they are called to anticipate. Thus the church, in its biblical commitment to “doing God in public,” is called to learn how to collaborate without compromise (hence the vital importance of common-good theory) and to critique without dualism.

In particular, as one sharp focus for all this, it is vital that the church learn to critique the present workings of democracy itself. I don’t simply mean that we should scrutinize voting methods, campaign tactics or the use of big money within the electoral process. I mean that we should take seriously the fact that our present glorification of democracy emerged precisely from Enlightenment dualism-the banishing of God from the public square and the elevation of vox populi to fill the vacuum, which we have seen to be profoundly inadequate when faced with the publicness of the kingdom of God. And we should take very seriously the fact that the early Jews and Christians were not terribly interested in the process by which rulers came to power, but were extremely interested in what rulers did once they had obtained power. The greatest democracies of the ancient world, those of Greece and Rome, had well-developed procedures for assessing their rulers once their term of office was over if not before, and if necessary for putting them on trial. Simply not being reelected (the main threat to politicians in today’s democracies) was nowhere near good enough. When Kofi Annan retired as general secretary of the United Nations, one of the key points he made was that we urgently need to develop ways of holding governments to account. That is a central part of the church’s vocation, which we should never have lost and desperately need to recapture.

Well, some of this ruffled my feathers a bit. I wrote back to my friend:

From my conservative American point of view, Annan had very little to offer in the way of valid criticism of the US. His politics smack of socialism and, perhaps to an extent, criminality. I don’t think he is one that can be trusted. Be that as it may, I don’t think it is the church’s vocation to hold governments to account. Governments exist for ALL the people, not just the church folk. Thus it is the responsibility of ALL those who elect government officials to rebuke government officials. Thus, I think it is naive, a bit, for Wright to assume that ‘being voted out of office’ is the ‘only danger posed to politicians’ in Republics such as the US. When your entire life is geared for only that profession, and you lose it, what else do you have left (generally speaking of course)? I’m not entirely sure what other course of action Wright would have us pursue.

Then today I read this passage from Mark 6 and I sort of started to understand. Here is John the Baptizer, prophet, forerunner of Messiah, Elijah, called to preach a baptism of repentance and why does he lose his head? Because he criticized the injustice of the local government. That may be an oversimplification, but it is close enough to make the point. Perhaps the Church does have something to say to the leaders of this world as Wright is suggesting. To be sure, I’m not certain what course of action this requires nor do I know if this is a specific mission of the church as Wright seems to be suggesting. However, I do think it is a part of the work we are called to do in order to bring justice and righteousness to bear on the communities in which we live. That’s what John was doing because in some way or another he saw Herod’s unrighteous activity in government and leadership and his personal life and gathered, through his prophetic eye, that this unrighteousness was somehow having a negative impact on the community in general, and the advance of the Kingdom of God in particular.

I need to think a little more on this, but I can make a small advance by noting that John the Baptizer, Messianic prophet that he was, said something about the current affairs (no pun) of the local government and what he said got him in trouble. That deserves some more thought. Now on to point two.

The funny thing about the book (Love: The Ultimate Apologetic) is that I was not supposed to get it. I am a member of the InterVarsity Press book club and I accidentally forgot to mail back the card declining last month’s selection. So this book, Love: The Ultimate Apologetic, came to me ‘on accident.’ I only just started reading it and I don’t even know yet how I actually ‘feel’ about it. What it has done at the start is awaken my mind to this work of what people in some segments of the church call justice. The author made a comment on page 34 about this man named Gary Haugen who is president of International Justice Mission. Below is an introductory youtube video, very well produced, and to the point:

I think a large part of my problem is that for me Christianity has been a very private thing. It’s about my salvation, my work, my ministry, and so on and so forth. This doesn’t mean I haven’t done things for the Kingdom, it just means that I have often thought of them merely as personal advances; things that encouraged my own private sanctification and holiness. This brings me back to Wright’s essay which is primarily about taking the Gospel public. Thus Wright can say:

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all in their various ways about God in public, about the kingdom of God coming on earth as in heaven through the public career and the death and resurrection of Jesus. The massive concentration on source and form criticism, the industrial-scale development of criteria for authenticity (or, more often, inauthenticity), and the extraordinary inverted snobbery of preferring gnostic sayings-sources to the canonical documents all stem from, and in turn reinforce, the determination of the Western world and church to make sure that the four Gospels will not be able to say what they want to say, but will be patronized, muzzled, dismembered and eventually eliminated altogether as a force to be reckoned with.

The central message of all four canonical Gospels is that the Creator God, Israel’s God, is at last reclaiming the whole world as his own, in and through Jesus of Nazareth. That, to offer a riskily broad generalization, is the message of the kingdom of God, which is Jesus’ answer to the question, What would it look like if God were running this show?

This is part of our work in demonstrating these advance signs and I think after reading this story from Mark today, watching the above clip, and mulling it all over again and again, I think I am starting to understand what Wright is saying. I think I am starting to understand what I am supposed to be doing.

Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget, comment moderation is off so please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you are learning about these things too.

Soli Deo Gloria!

HT: Jason Goroncy

Sojourners,

Here is what happens in the Revelation:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

In Greek, the statement by Jesus in verse 5 begins with the word: “Behold!” Thus, what he wants us to do is look around and see what is going on, see what he is doing, pay attention to the work he is continuing to do. We are not to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear or a hard heart to this work of creation that is ongoing in the hands of Jesus. However, neither are we to stand around looking with mouths agape: “Why do you men of Galilee stand around staring at the sky?” the angels asked the disciples. We don’t stand around marveling as if we play no significant role. We get involved. We do what we can. We become a part of the answer to the prayer we pray: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…

Next, notice he present tense of the verbs: “I am making.” Well, this verse has been read in the present tense ever since Jesus uttered it and John wrote it down. In other words, every time this verse is read, no matter what generation, no matter was century, no matter what culture, the reader is reminded that Jesus is stillmaking all things new. I don’t know how I ever missed this. I have always believed that the modern conception of ‘heaven’ was somewhat dilapidated, and I could never get past those verses that speak of the new heavens and the new earth. (Such as in verses 1-4) Now I think I understand. New heavens and new earth are not things we wait for as if all that matters is then. No, these things begin now, inaugurated by Jesus himself.

Jesus is making all things new. He is in the process of remaking the heavens and the earth. The old order of things is already on the way out, and the new order of things–the new heavens and the new earth–are already on their way in. The old order of things has already passed away. The old order of things is already dead. It is a strict past tense (aorist) verb. If I have learned anything about the Greek New Testament I have learned that verb tenses matter. Something has already passed (lit., the first things) and something else is already taking place (‘all things’ are being made new). This is beautiful! This is revolutionary! This is mind-boggling!

This means that what we do now is not in vain. It also means that there is more to being a disciple, following Jesus, than just wearing an ID badge and singing hymns. It means that the scope of our ministry is greater than the sum total of our small congregations. (I’ll explore this more in a later post.) It means that the least thing we do for the kingdom is of significance. And this certainly gives new meaning and new depth to the sentence, “Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

This is what this new blog is about: New discovery. New insight. Fresh understandings of what Scripture means. Wild-eyed imagination at the work that Jesus is already doing. And, because of these things, an energized participation in ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Wonderful.

jerry

Sojourners,

I assume by this first part of the sentence, ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth,’ that something is yet to be finished here, on earth, where we live. I also assume that by the second half, ‘…as it is in heaven,’ that what is not finished here has been finished there or, at minimum, the work is well underway there. I assume that Jesus means for us to pray that this kingdom and this will, ‘Thy,’ sort of takes over, takes off, down here as they have ‘up there.’ We play a part, however, and it is this part I wish to explore by examining Scripture and by examining news stories of how this is already happening in the world.

What I think this means is that ‘missions’ or ‘evangelism’ means more than just getting someone on board with the Christian idea, drilling some sense of orthodoxy into their heads, and setting them loose with a tract and a bible. It means, in the deepest sense, taking up the cross and following Jesus. Well, what does that mean? How is the cross-driven life shaped? What does it look like? Where does it go and what does it do? Exactly what does it mean to be a Jesus follower in this world?

I mean for this blog to be an exploration of what that means. I want to use this space to share my journey of exploration into what that means. I hope you will join me. I hope explore what it means to say ‘we play a part’ in His Kingdom and will coming and being done. How do we do it? How does it complement or enhance ‘go and make disciples of all nations’? What does resurrection mean?

This will be the gist of this new adventure in blogging. For you who visit, please share your thoughts. Moderation has been removed so feel free to comment.

jerry