Epiphany and the kingdom

awakening : Kingdom | posted by Shaun O

The church calendar season/time of "Epiphany" will end this week, and Lent begins next week, with Ash Wednesday.  
I've enjoyed this season of Epiphany, and really only thought about it more because I preached one Sunday, helped with music on some other Sundays, and also weekly looked at texts and how to teach them to kids.  Nothing incredible has happened in the readings; but dwelling on the texts (in general) has been centering.  I've had a few epiphanies.   
(Here my mind keeps going to Scrubs rerun from just the other day, about the Epiphany Toilet!)

I've also been part of teaching the Lord's Prayer, and specifically, "your kingdom come."  I tried to share with the middle school students about the type of kingdom that Jesus might have been talking about.  I pieced together some excerpts from Jesus for President and Everything Must Change.  (Ryan, if you're reading, I passed J4P around to the kids and they seemed more interested in the images of that book than they've been in most anything we've done!  It was good to see.  Well done!).
And the moral of the story is that I've come away with new, refreshed, kingdom thoughts.  As McLaren hints, we should feel free and compelled to frame "God's Kingdom" into images that have meaning to us.  Perhaps it's the "dream of God," or the "revolution of God" or the "ecosystem of God."  What I like about this epiphany is the imagination associated with it; so much of what we do with religion is fact and truth and no poetry.  I'm finding out, it's all in who you're reading. 

And reading Henri Nouwen's Making All Things New, a few life-thoughts emerge.  He writes, "Our lives are destined to become like the life of Jesus."  I sit with that.  I imagine.  ... I know Nouwen isn't constricting our lives with this statement, he's opening them. 
Later on he considers that Jesus came to give humanity his own life.  There's that phrase in Phillipians about how Jesus did not cling to equality with God, but emptied himself and became as we are so that we might become like him and thus share in his divine life. 

And here we are with the meaning of this post:  I've struggled with the notion that God needs us.  I was taught that Jesus died, "paid the price," and all is done.  Just believe.  And one day you'll end up in heaven, in the kingdom of God.  But as I experience the world, I see lots that I can do, everyday, in an attempt to bring "the kingdom" to earth.  Every action has a reaction, and many actions of mine have consequences that are either life-giving or life-threatening.  But why does "King Jesus" need our actions to build his kingdom?  Why doesn't he just say the word and the kingdom appears?
Small epiphany today:  God likes imagination.  God likes cooperation and community.  Jesus came to offer a new life to the world.  And he emptied himself. 
I imagine Jesus pouring out his life, and what is poured out is the spirit of God, spirit of love.  And it flows around and it flows to us, and perhaps fills us to some degree.  And so we've been given a gift from God.  

But now, there is no Jesus but us.  We are it.  We are in community with God, and God's spirit, and now we build the kingdom and we bring it here.  God dreams and imagines with us, we do it together.  Jesus is emptied, but now here we are. 

So, may we keep having epiphanies, even as the season ends.  

Access the divine life, then dream, revolt, and build accordingly. 

Comments

[Nate]

I read this from you as I was leaving Dallas for Virginia the other day Shaun. I liked it.

"But now, there is no Jesus but us. We are it. We are in community with God, and God's spirit, and now we build the kingdom and we bring it here."

That part was kind of hard to read...given the evangelical background I live in now...that you grew up in and know so well. Which may construe that statement one way.

However, it seems to me that there is some truth in what you said. Keep sharing.

[s.o]

Thanks for interacting Nate!
I think you picked up on what I was (am) mulling over. Just a small idea, wondering why God would really need all of us. I mean, in so many evangelical explanations of gospel, salvation, etc. ... the human is pretty meaningless. There is an attempt to give some meaning to life, but it's always seemed like sort of a stretch to me. Like, "God will be glorified with or without you, but you should give Him glory." - Sometimes that seems like some silly game God is playing. I mean, why?? Why not just fix everything and get it over with?

Instead, I'm focusing on how Christ "emptied" himself, and wondering if the rest of it comes as humanity is filled and then acts as the new Christ. (And this would be in so many, unconventional and probably secret, ways) There is a sort of "need" in that scenario: God came to earth, pouring out God-spirit, so that man may breathe it in and live the God-spirit on earth.
The song, "with kindness" by Brian McLaren, says it well -- if we take it seriously:

Christ has no body here but ours
No hands, no feet, here on earth but ours
Ours are the eyes though which he looks
On this world
With Kindness

Ours are the hands through which he works
Ours are the feet on which he moves
Ours are the voices through which he speaks
To this world
With Kindness

Through our touch, our smile, our listening ear
Embodied in us, Jesus is living here
Let us go now
Filled with the Spirit
Into this world
With Kindness

[Nate]

Amen man. Thanks for the lyrics and further explanation.