Sunday Reflections

So besides the JAO post, here's an extra one for you. I'm running out soon for dinner at Mahina's (she insisted it's her turn to host) but before I go...

I've been thinking about the "Kingdom of God." This term gets used a lot, thrown around even more, and ever since someone made a rather pointed comment about it once, I listen up when we start talking about the "Kingdom of God." A former housemate once asked, "What if the 'Kingdom of God' is not a liberating idea? What if it denotes further oppression? What then are we about?" Hmm, good question. As I've been thinking about it today, the Bible talks a lot about the Kingdom of God and if when we say "kingdom of God", people run and ride, that means a couple of things. We have royally mucked up the kingdom concept, haven't we? If someone preaches liberation as only God can establish in a Kingdom and someone else hears and wants nothing to do with it, we better first understand what they hear when they hear "kingdom." We also ought to rethink what we envision when we envision and preach "kingdom." We third ought to gather at a round table so that none take precedence over the other and talk about this radical Kingdom of God and how it should be envisioned and construed so that all run towards it, not away. As a French person, I would want nothing to do with a kingdom (or the church). As a person enslaved at the orders of a king, I would want nothing to do with a kingdom. As a concubine among the masses, I would want nothing to do with a kingdom. As a Christian who wants to take seriously this Biblical "Kingdom" concept, I want to learn what God really means. I guess we have some work to do.

Spiritual growth--I've been tossing around the idea of measuring spiritual growth. If growth denotes activity and life, then inherently an object is growing somewhere. What is its end and how is it getting there? And first, is it growing? Does it have sunlight, water, air, the essentials? And how are we keeping tabs on it. I think particularly here in the context of GBU after a great dinner with one of the students this week. She really pumped me up and got me thinking--we need goals and markers. It's good and right to grow in knowledge. We ought also to be growing in maturity, in how we apply spiritual knowledge. Much further food for ministry thought and action.

Why is it easier for the church to envision establishing justice outside its walls than being an institution of justice to begin with? I guess if we're just, someone who has always been comfortable at church might get uncomfortable. Plus it's easier to keep injustice, sin, and brokenness as a problem "of the world" then rather confront that it might in fact be a problem of the Church, as in residing in the Church rather than something to merely respond to "out there." Yikes, really, because I thought we had gotten so much right for so long.

And in closing, here's some lyrics to a song I've been listening to. Hope it ministers to your soul as it did mine.

To Close to the Mirror--Eddie Ruth Bradford

Yes, I'm too close to the mirror to see what you see
Why you shower down your blessings, your blessings on me
Not anything I've done, Lord, as far as I can see
Yes, I'm too close to the mirror to see what you see in me

Sometimes I think about the things you have done for me
How you washed away all my sins, set my spirit free
Then I look back on my life
I haven't always done right
Still goodness and mercy follow me every day and night

When I thought about giving up
You said trust in me
If you hold on and faint not
Keep your faith in me
Lord, you don't see me like I am
You see me like I'm gonna be
So I believe I'll run on
And see what the end will be

Hallelujah, I'm too close to the mirror to see what you see
Why you shower down your blessings, your blessings on me
Not anything I've done, Lord, as far as I can see
Yes, I'm too close to the mirror to see what you see in me