Monday 8 August 2008

Today we move into a section called "Jesus and the Kingdom of God" by Stanley Hauerwas.

...we must remember that for Israel to imitate god or for Christians to imitate Jesus is not an end in itself. Such an imitation is to put one in the position of being part of a kingdom. As we have already noted, Jesus as portrayed in the synoptic Gospels does not call attention to himself. He comes to announce the kingdom as a present reality. To what extent he understood then how his life would be chosen by God to be the means by which that kingdom would be made a reality to all people, we have no way of knowing. What is significant is not what Jesus may or may not have thought about himself, though he certainly acted as one having authority (Matt.12:28), but that he was obedient to his calling and therefore is the sign and the form of the reality of God's kingship then and now.

What strikes me in my reading of this piece is that this proclamation of Jesus - this announcement that the kingdom is a present reality - is the beginning of it becoming a living reality. Jesus announces its present reality and he is walking within its bounds. It is a action that not all of us do. Often, announcements are made but the life they announce does not become a reality. When we look to Jesus in the gospels, we see a life and yet we are not given any perspective on how he thought of himself or how he planned out his day. Rather we are given the story of his life. This story as we look at it though, gives us a living example of the Reign of God coming to life. Could it be that our announcement of God's Reign presently around us is the way we move into its life? We announce its reality and in that announcement, we already begin to be pulled into its life. All the more reason to never stop announcing.

Connection: Sometimes it is not easy to announce the presence of God's Reign. It can come off as a strange kind of presentation. Then again, this Reign is all about real life stuff that is a part of each day we enter. Therefore, it need not be so strange.

Lord of the New Day within God's Reign, encourage us to step into the many opportunities of life within your Reign as we move along through the may dynamics of the day. Often we simply need the eyes to see them and then the heart to enter them. Amen.