Monday, January 24, 2011

Civilian Affairs & Kingdom Dreams

I recently had a brief chat with a fellow Christian in the church I attend that revealed an interesting but potentially troubling view expressed in our movement. 

The brother recently attended an international leadership conference for our worldwide churches in the US, where one of the speakers shared about the urgency we must have in building the Kingdom of God. To underline the urgency, the speaker apparently shared (based on what the brother told me) that in a few years Islam will be the World's major religion and if it keeps growing at the current rate, it will be the dominant religion in the US. My immediate reaction was, 'so what?'. Why 'so what'?

Well it's not as if the World's major religion has been, or ever truly was Christianity as Jesus taught it, and I certainly wouldn't describe the US as a Christian nation (it's meant to be a secular nation actually). But if Islam was to dominate the World or the US, this is an American concern and perhaps a political concern, but not a Christian one. Even when Christianity dominated certain parts of the World it did so in some of the most horrific ways, not the ways Jesus taught. And the faith was even born at a time ruled by paganism and secular values, and thrived nonetheless. 

If we are to take Jesus and Biblical prophecy seriously then we know the Kingdom of God, "will itself endure forever" (Daniel 2:44), there's nothing to worry about. The only variable is who will endure with it. God is not in a foetal position in a corner of his office wondering what became of his country - after all he's not a conservative fundamentalist Christian American, or any kind of earthly citizen. In fact I don't think he has any interest in politics or nationalism of any kind. But we can appropriate God's image (thus committing some kind of divine copyright infringement) and have him represent our causes without his compliance, agreement or permission. 

If we're in God's army, the most dangerous enemy is usually within our own hearts, and where our hearts will be in a few years is purely up to us.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Communion: Examination or Celebration?

The communion is Christendom's most holy 'sacrament', to borrow a Catholic term. Along with baptism, it's one of the few rites that Jesus actually told his disciples to engage in. Three, including prayer, if you want to be legalistic about it. But the idea is not to be legalistic at all, however, anything oft repeated has a way of either losing its meaning or gaining one that was never intended.


Jesus told us to '...do this in remembrance of me' (
Luke 22:18-20), referring to the communion, and Paul chimes in with an admonition to examine ourselves before partaking in the same (1 Cor 11: 28). But what often happens during this rite is that we focus far more on our sin, shortcomings and weakness, and hence encourage guilt - because Jesus did so much for us and look at how we 'repay' him. The communion becomes the examination rather than a celebration. It becomes more a remembrance of what we have done (usually the bad) rather than the good Jesus did. The point of the examination is to be free to celebrate. 

We become like a freed slave who spends all his time musing at the chains that once held him. His now loosed chains take on major significance, and he spends more time with them than just enjoying his new found freedom. Paul asserts that 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free' (Galatians 5:1). That's an odd but profound statement. Many only go as far as the 'forgiveness' part of the communion, but, and this will sound weird, Jesus didn't die for our sins - he died so our sins wouldn't be a hindrance to our lives! 

We need to get out of that small confining space of 'forgiveness' alone. Staying there implies that God's forgiveness isn't potent enough for our sin. Understanding that our victory is a fait accomplis will allow us to move beyond 'elementary teachings' (because we fully accept them) and move on to living profoundly free lives.