Last week was bit manic, so not much blogging going on. I have kept my emails down to 2 though! And have been finishing some counselling essays (and I thought I wouldn’t be doing any more essays when I finished university!).
But on to part 4 of mission and development (also see part 1, 2, and 3). We are looking for good biblical (theological) reasons why social justice or development should be seen as integral to our mission - not secondary, or a means to an end, but a central part of our mission.
We have looked at how the Kingdom is one of Shalom that Jesus comes to bring. But now we to ask ourselves the question (which one switched on person asked me a few Sundays ago): why do we not see more evidence of this Kingdom of Shalom in the world? So the paper we are reviewing continues:
The reign of God is hidden in history
We need now to reflect a little on the mystery of God at work in the world. God creates this world in shalom, and God is at work in it sustaining shalom - but everywhere is hatred, poverty, disease, pollution, and violence. Dwelling in shalom is not exactly how one would describe the experience of the people of the earth! To make sense of this is a profound matter in Christian theology that has to do with human freedom, sin and suffering; and here we can only touch briefly upon it by
reflecting upon the work of Jesus. Within the mystery of God’s work in the world, God allows Godself to be pushed off centre stage - so that the profoundest proclamation of God’s shalom is on a cross, on the dung-heap of Golgotha. Yet, we know that this was not the end; and God signalled God’s affirmation of what Jesus had witnessed to through the resurrection.
At the heart of Jesus’ work and ministry was the proclamation of the kingdom of God, or the reign of God. Where Jesus healed, freed, touched, proclaimed - where he manifested shalom, and restored life - there the reign of God was experienced; and in the victory over death on Easter Sunday morning the reign of God and the defeat of sin was signalled in the most profound victory of life over death. But we are still living in history, a time characterised by human freedom, sin and suffering. The reign of God manifest in Jesus Christ is glimpsed and experienced in many ways, but it is not yet fully established. The Bible tells us that this will only happen at the end of history, and that for now the reign of God is hidden in history - often found amongst the poor, in
weakness, suffering and powerlessness.
My Comment: Here we see the mystery of the God’s wisdom. At the very point when it seemed as though God’s purposes was defeated, was actually his greatest victory in the death of Jesus. Just now we look for signs of God’s kingdom and sometimes they are hard to find. We wait for the fullness of the Kingdom, God’s rule to fully brought about (say as described in Rev 21), but for now we look for “signs of the Kingdom”, those small indicators that God’s Kingdom is at work, rather like yeast in the dough.
We live in the midst of hope and pain, peace and conflict, brokeness and healing, good and evil, harmony and discord, live and death. Which of these do you see more of?
Tags: Development, Gospel, Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Missio Dei, Mission, Missional Church, Social Development
Tags: Development, Mission, Social Justice
If I’m talking about my own life/world then I see and experiance a bit of everything, (hope and pain, peace and conflict, brokeness and healing, good and evil, live and death).
But if I talk about outside my world then it depnds on my knowledge of current affairs and I have to be honest but I’m a bit ignorant to what goes on out there as I don’t always read the papers or watch the news, maily because I find the media quite one sided and corrupt.
My fundamental way of finding out what’s going on is via what people tell me and even then I can’t always be sure of the truth. If I was to make an analysis of what’s going on in our world then I would think that it’s a bit of everything for different individual, families, tribes, nations, cultures etc.
Thanks for the comment Tayna.
I really agree about the fundamental way being talking to people, and i think that was what i was thinking about.
I too find that i see both - but often i see more of the negative ones. But thinking about this, i have been challenged to look for the kingdom more, which Jesus does talk about being hidden, and to look for peace, restoration, love, kindness etc.
I don’t find it easy when we are bombarded by messages on the radio or TV of the opposite…