Jesus - Church.....New Community

If the Kingdom of God was the driving message of Jesus, then what does that mean? Well, for Jesus it meant drawing people into new communities that would practice their lives under the reign of God. Jesus clearly went around Galilee and surrounding areas drawing together a new people of God out of Israel. Jesus choosing twelve disciples was a deliberate move to re-enact the community forming act of establishing twelve tribes in Israel. The Sermon on the Mount is nothing other than a community forming sermon to teach the new community how to read and live Torah.

Gerhard Loflink has argued that the first communities of Christ followers were developed into what he calls, "contrast societies". These believers understood Jesus' call to discipleship as a community forming event - the calling of a people - in order to live differently from the world for the sake of the world.

"Oh no", you may think, "another withdrawal from the world sect". And you would be wrong about thinking that way - because Jesus didn't withdraw from the world (he had that option available to him - he could have joined a community like the Dead Sea community) - instead he engaged the world by carving out communities in the middle in society. These contrast communities were to live differently in order to witness to the world that there is a profoundly new way to believe, behave, and belong.

So where are we now in the church? I am afraid that we are all over the map. There are some churches that withdraw from the world so far and circle the wagons so tightly that it becomes unloving and unattractive to the world. And there are some churches that long to appeal to the world so badly that they lose all of their contrast, all prophetic voice to the world. It is this latter option that seems to be gaining momentum presently.

So what keeps us from getting the right balance? Why do we as a church struggle with being a true community of believers with strong convictions, accountability, covenants, and habits of life together so that we can witness to a watching world. Why don't our folks (by and large)live any differently than anybody else?

Here are some possible culprits:
1. We really don't believe that the kingdom of God is upon us.
2. We really don't want other people that involved in our lives.
3. We really don't understand our culture and the way it has discipled us away from community. Consumerism, nationalism, individualism, democracy and freedom (these are part of the world's sermon on the mount) has formed us away from the Kingdom of God.

Jesus - Church - New community. The spirit, I believe, is calling us to deeper community - and then the world will take notice.

Jesus - Church ......The Kingdom

Well, I am finally getting started. After all the abuse that I took for not posting as I intended - I hesitated to overpromise anymore.

So what animated Jesus' ministry? Clearly, the first post has to call attention to Jesus' preaching of the kingdom. It is amazing that the church lost this fact through its history - but just this century there has been an awakening that the centerpiece of Jesus' ministry was his announcement of the kingdom. And the church through the centuries has typically responded in two ways.

First, one response was that the kingdom was already present - of course it was - Rome had conquered far and wide - the kingdom of God was in the midst of political Rome. Everyone was a Christian, and if they weren't it was only because Rome hadn't conquered their land yet. Especially after the conversion of Constantine, the kingdom of God became synonymous with life lived in the peace of Roman power.

The second response was that the Kingdom of God is relegated to a future time that will only be ushered in by the return of Christ. Life now is an attempt to live as best as one can - but real living happens after we die, or after Christ comes again to establish His future reign.

Both of these views seems to miss what Jesus was doing. Jesus appears to have believed that the kingdom was already upon his hearers. They could enter the kingdom and live in its power. But at the same time Jesus taught that the fullness of the kingdom was still coming - and we must live in that tension - living within the dawning of the kingdom, yet still learning forward into all the promises yet to be fulfilled.

When is the last time you heard a message about the kingdom? A message about living in the kingdom, believing that Jesus has enacted a different way of living in this world. We must become a church that leans into the future - reaching forward in the Spirit - and acting as if Jesus really did do more than die for my sins - he enacted a way of life that becomes a visible sign of the kingdom on earth.