"The kind of food our minds devour will determine the kind of person we become." - John Stott, Your Mind Matters

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Accidental Agents and the Texture of the Kingdom

"And there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain."

So says God himself in the Book of Revelation: Here is what my redeemed, restored world will NOT look like. All of this crap will be gone – forever! It’s a comforting thought, a verse that has encouraged me in some of my darker days.

But I've only been getting half the point. These things - death, mourning, crying, pain - won't be there. What will be there in their absence?
A recent rereading of this verse caught my imagination.


Not death, but...life! 

Not mourning, but...rejoicing! 

Not crying, but...laughing! 

Not pain, but...pleasure!

Not death, but life! Not only will we not die, but we will live – we will experience life in all its fullness and richness. What was broken when Adam and Eve sinned will be mended, redeemed – we will recover the full-bodied experience of life in harmony with God, each other and all of creation.

Not mourning, but rejoicing! All that once caused us to mourn will be gone: death, injustice, unkindness, un-fulfillment, greed, hunger, infertility, homelessness, disease, pollution, hypocrisy, deception, abuse, loneliness, selfishness, popularity contests. In place of all these things we’ll be able to rejoice in the shalom of God: life that is characterised by equity, kindness, fulfillment, generosity, feasting, truth, and community, to name just a few examples of what God thinks is worth rejoicing over.

Not crying, but laughing! As I tried to tease out a nuance of meaning for the opposite of crying as opposed to mourning, I came up with laughing. I’m pretty sure some kind of good belly-laughter will be going on in God’s redeemed world. I think there will be good jokes, and an ability to laugh at ourselves and with others in a way that evokes joy, not derision.

Not pain, but pleasure! And again, what is the opposite of pain – health? Yes, but I wondered if that’s aiming a bit too low – how about pleasure? Apart from pain and the brokenness that too often attaches itself to our experience of pleasure in the present, imagine the pleasure we’ll enjoy when there is only joy to be had – not guilt or condemnation or the risk of being rejected or hurt?

Life, rejoicing, laughing, pleasure: these are what life with God will look like. This is the texture of the kingdom. And this kingdom is not far off, but near. Here. We are kingdom-makers in the here and now, subversively turning the world on its head: what is broken is being mended, what is impure is being made pure, what is high is being brought low, and what is low is being lifted up.


And this leads to the question:

How are we agents of life, rejoicing, laughing and pleasure in our lives right now


And that might lead to the question:

Are we? 


Are we, who proclaim Christ, agents of life, rejoicing, laughing and pleasure, or are we accidental agents of something else, something that does not reflect God's deep love and good plan for the world?

Are we as the Church known for speaking words of life or for sucking it away 
through endless posturing and debate? 


Do our choices and actions bring life, or do they wound and injure and tear down? 


Do our imaginations make room for God’s amazing ability to redeem what is broken, 
or do they assume that large parts of this world are hopeless and doomed for destruction? 

Are we known as ones who rejoice in the knowledge that all are made in the image of God 
and loved by God, or as ones who choose instead to criticize, judge and condemn? 


Are we known for our sense of humour, as ones who find laughter and joy to be closely intertwined, 
or are we known more for our furrowed brows and disapproving glares? 


Are we known for our enjoyment of pleasure - as ones who experience God through good food, 
good art, good sex, and good work - or are we known as ones who fear pleasure 
and view it as being at odds with our spirituality? 


Most of us, I imagine, are a mixture of both - the good and the ugly, the holy and the base, the old and the new. We waffle between the reality of this world and the dream of the next, and stumble in the dissonance between the two. But God himself speaks these words to ignite the early church’s – and our – imaginations: "I am making everything new!" Here is what God is doing, and we’re a part of it! We are characters in God’s story, and we have a role to play in the unfolding of his kingdom, the realization of his dream. Start dreaming a little bigger, he says, let me stretch your imaginations to make room for all the grace and goodness I have for this world.

And so we pray: Let us be stretched! Let us make ever more room in our hearts and our minds and our world for life, rejoicing, laughing and pleasure, that the dream of God's kingdom may become reality!

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