The Gospel
Is the Gospel timeless? Is what it means to be "saved" or "redeemed" evolving through time? Are we trying to take the cross and Kingdom and force them into a box that insists on a one size fits all concept.
God as a changeless being, is that what we really want? Is that what we really need? I'm not suggesting that God is a "frivolous God" - given to flights of fancy. Jen Lemen, in one of her blogs reflects on the personality of God:
i just have this image in my head of god as a consummate artist, and i cannot imagine any artist worth her salt deciding to stop creating. and i can't imagine any true artist not being somehow moved and fundamentally changed by her art. how does that kind of creativity stop, and then wait for a predicted, decided outcome?
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The Gospel Jesus Preached?
Jesus challenged power structures? Are politics and religion to be seperate? First century Jews would have laughed at the suggestion. Try telling that to a Roman emperor, worshipping national gods meant people worshipped him. When Jesus offers a Gospel that poses a threat to the existing power structures, he was not offering a simple alternative political solution. He was offering a new way of living and thinking . . . a new world.
When the state is made a god, it becomes a demon. Think about this, we talk about the "forces of economics or of political theories. How about the forces of anger and sensuality? We often say these forces are impossible to resist. NT Wright, when talking about forces in our world, says:
When Jesus dies as a failed, bizarre, nonpolitical political Messiah, Pilate embodies for a moment the apparent triumph of Satan over Jesus. "This is your hour," says Jesus to the soldiers in the garden. "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Satan had offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world on one condition, that he fall down and worship him. Jesus had refused to do so and the cross is the direct result of that refusal. The kingdoms of the world reject him, and kill him. And not only Rome, either. There was no room for Jesus not only in the Roman empire of his day, but also in the official Judaism of the day.
An interesting Fact: Judaism and Rome sent Jesus to the cross: the greatest religion and the best political and governmental system that the world had ever seen.
Jesus did battle with demons - they were not all evil spirits. The battle was also with those who ruled the world at the time – those who put together the world in such a way that there was no place for Jesus. So Jesus didn't come to offer a political alternative, but to break the grip the powers have and had on the world. He offers something new. Anew world where God is God and humans can be set free to be humans. Think about what Paul says in Col 2:
6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
What do I think about the Lord's Prayer?
In many ways, it is a prayer that affirms and calls into action the Kingdom of God. It is a reminder of what life is like in the New World. But I also believe that it is an Old World Prayer - meaning pre-cross. It is a prayer that looks forward to Christ's death and resurrection. I can now forgive those who have wronged me because I live in the new free world. I only need my daily bread because; I live in the New World. I can call Jesus Abba because I live in the New World. I invoke the Kingdom’s will and thrust it out against the powers that are still rearing their ugly defeated heads.
Eric |
