God
Save Us From God[1]
When
the skies are dark and all around us seems chaos with the news in Ferguson,
Gaza, Liberia, and the terror of ISIS, I am quickly reminded of our recent
small group study, Surprised By Hope, a
book and study by Bishop N.T. Wright. Out of many things that I gained
from this study, one that stands out is to consider how we live into the words
of the prayer we recite every week "thy kingdom come, they will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven." That the language of 'Kingdom of God'
that may seem so foreign is talking about God's kingdom here on earth.
This shatters any of our categories that I like to think of as the 'evacuation
model', a model that is so focused on saving oneself that it leads to a removal
of our responsibilities to our neighbor and all of creation.
Jesus
spoke much about living into God's presence in the here and now, or as we say
in our more churchy words, "The Kingdom of God." Rather than
the evacuation mode, this is one we live with our feet, where our street
credit comes from how we walk the walk. When asked the most important of
commandments, Jesus gave the most beautiful summary of God's law, "To love
God with everything we got, and the same goes for people." (translation mine). So as people
of hope in a world that is motivated by fear, how are we going to walk?
God's
purpose throughout history has been restoration of all things. In the
resurrection, God did something new. Brian McLaren, pastor and
theologian, helped open new worlds for me in understanding a loving God in my
journey through seminary education. One simple translation that helped me
see God in a new way was to translate the word 'righteousness' as 'restorative
justice.' This last week as I was at retreat and Brian was the keynote
speaker, he continued to help open my eyes to our amazing creator by looking at
some of our most difficult and violent passages in Scripture, but not in
isolation, but rather in the context of the many books. From the most
violent texts of Judges, we looked at this next to the opening of
Ruth followed by Matthew. You come to see an evolving and new
understanding of God that culminates in one whose judgment is one of justice,
who feeds the masses, and whose abundance is more than we could ever imagine.
To
look at the larger story, may we be transformed to see God not as a God of
violence, or as a God of patriarchy, or as a God of sacrifice, or as a God of
choosing favorites, but may we see God as one whose purpose is loving and
restoring relationships. Or as N.T. Wright shared in our study, “people
who believe in the resurrection, in God making a whole new world in which
everything will be set right at last, are unstoppably motivated to work for
that new world in the present.” While the news may make everything seem
dark, may we live in the hope of sharing light in the darkness. This is
reflected in how we love and care for one another and how we live out the
belief of a God of non-violence, a God of inclusion, and a God of justice.
From the words of the prophet Micah who shared a new vision of a non-violent and transforming
understanding of God:
With what shall I come before the Lord,and bow myself before God on high? Shall
I come before him with burnt offerings with calves a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I
give my firstborn for my transgression, the
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and
what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
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