2023-10-25 A Meditation on Kingdom Now
“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Col 1:15–23 ESV)
The future is promising, even as Kingdom Now theology brings us to a brink. We stand on a brink, because the event horizon is richer and fuller than self-chosen creature comforts. To learn; to dwell near; to open wide and to warm across the hearth, is a brand of giddy delight or modest grin, a hope filled residence, a personal honesty that makes us out no longer to be wrapped up in sin, but today excited and excitable.
The schemes of Man lay plain future appropriation, divvying up, perseverance of the person and his or her legacy; yet today if we hear His call, it is unto a spiritual investment, a mysterious sense in which these may be the most important hours of our lives. All good things come to those who pray. A future species will look curiously, fondly in some points on the rascally grabbing and the persistent, or patient planning, as Man evades and deceives Man, yet our inheritance is in Heaven, from where we await a Savior. Our trust is that, for all the clever games one officer of arms plays with another officer of arms, intelligent and secret, that in the end we have simple, very simple, desires and plain loving needs. That revise lusts or passions of the flesh (1 Peter 2) into occasion to fellowship or entertainment or to long for a brother or a sister in Christ. For their companionship and for honest self-assessment as to what concerns we can divest ourselves of, in full-on acceptance that another shall lead us, another shall dress us, another shall take us where we shrink from and would never take ourselves.
The soldier’s experience, then, is holy unto all of landed estate, all the gentry, all the strange pillars in this divided and warring world. The soldier who discovers that Peace in dying, that others may honor the sacrifice and pass over in silent reflection the hour of observance. The soldier who knows better than all the routinized, mechanized, oppressive technological limits and measurements and shufflings, herding, alignments and wearying logical offices. Today we are called to Life.
Against offices that measure and try to assess corporate capacity, investing financially therein. Offices that measure and assess educational projects, investing and politicking therein. Offices that are called into existence in a war wherein nothing quite can be delegated: each of us needs to take ownership of puzzles too numerous yet too holy to pass off to others.
Therefore to pray is to be graduated, hooded, into a stark and at times bleak landscape called Home Base. It is where we loosen our grips, that we may more gratefully sink our teeth into the sacramental elements, which are found as perhaps unintelligible at this juncture to even the clergy who consecrate them; but to some soldier out there, some reflective soul Called this hour, some person convicted or defeated, they are the sum and substance of what we now believe. To put aside warring madness and see with clarity. To end the cult of the self and walk in lockstep with a fellowship or a team or a Savior. To long rightly for one another, even at the cost of our better schemes. Life-affirming schemes. Divinely sanctioned schemes. Holy ways society evolves and a good woman’s or man’s projects safeguard, shepherd us “by the skin of our teeth” into that strange mixture of good works and trust fall. We fall into line, because the line is ministered to and served up a good woman’s a good man’s fare for these her or his people. We trust to order and fall into line because the world’s accolades are nothing compared to the divine foretaste (1 Peter 2:3); a head-shaking emergence from a long night of Encounter and prayer allows us to ape the persecutor, who is frustrated that we still rejoice even having lost all things, and all earthly boasts.
Somehow this joy keeps us invincible. Somehow this patience keeps us stalwart. Somehow this clarity keeps us victorious. We shall overcome, though the world be incommunicado and at loggerheads; our fruits shall endear one another to our reasonable Cause. Our character shall ape the immoral warmonger. Our no-nonsense shall end any shock and awe campaign, for we are not spooked nor frightened by the images: if they do such violence to holy ideas, then no doubt they shall do such violence to holy persons, to holy borders, to holy “I-thou” capacity to reach across and befriend or talk down from a ledge. Is the world today calling us to something radical? Is the war all around us calling us to claim a higher side? Is the world still hating Christian, gracious, examples of life?