Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

     A thief broke into a church in Florida and stole the sound equipment. A few days ago I received an rss feed that gave the story of how this particular church had reacted by forgiving the thief who in turn eventually joined the church congregation and the body of Christ. this to me seems to be the ideal picture of redemption that could take place if only we were willing to let go of our need for security and place our trust in the redemptive action of god. 

      To release our security would place us each as individuals and  collectively as the church in a position to have to directly deal with an issue that requires us to be the very people whom we are expected to be by way of forgiveness, the cancellation of debts, mercy, grace, and peace, and love. Principles and ethics recited on every person's lips who has spent any amount of time in a church house, however devoid in practice the principles themselves may be.
     The reason for the shallow nature of Christianity in the US, in my mind, must be its lack of understanding of the practical and ethical persuasions of the person whom its Lordship is under. By maintaining security of our goods and creating stability through monetary gain, we have no way of encountering any existential shift in paradigm on the basis of these proclamations of what God has done through Christ and consequently what we are to also do. We cannot effectively reciprocate the dedication to and love for Christ that Christ has shown for us if we do not understand what love and forgiveness are because we refuse to encounter them in our real day to day lives. We don't know what it means to sing 'MY CHAINS ARE GONE, IVE BEEN SET FREE' if we have never been bound in captivity. If we do not forgive we can not understand forgiveness, or even have it--to say it as Jesus did.
    Security is the wall that we build around ourselves, all that it does is keep us in. It is a lie, and it has cheated humanity of its soul and kept it in the dark, blinding each person to his or her essential nature of being as a child of God for so long we can't even identify our Father when we see Him. We dont recognize providence, because we are too afraid to lose that which we so arduously wasted our time making money for.

     We cannot see that we work and labor for the things that we already have. We have let someone convince us that they actually own some part of the earth and in order to have it, we must give them something. That person, has attempted to make themselves above and greater than any other person (and even God) on the basis of claim of possession of any specific resource by cheating others out of the right of having it, and then making us into working-class slaves in order to obtain it. This person would have no power if we simply refused acknowledgment of their claim to ownership and the slavish system.The inability to function within, or the desire to become the one on the top of this system is what drives thievery, which is really all that proprietorship is in the first place.
     

     The Christian response of course is not a direct taking of what another person claims to be their property (unless a particular circumstance calls for it, such as deprivation of a life-giving need), but a calling of people to recognize the truth of the matter; God is the one who is the true sustainer. God is the God who gives creation freely to humanity. Having recognized this reality we are also to give freely, so to the one who requires money, we give--and not only that, double!

      The release from this chasing after the wind, is not release of responsibility to one another, however, because we are living in a time of Eschatological hope--That is the "already, but not yet" status of the redemption of creation. We have a need to be responsible to one another, equalizing and doing away with economic disparity as much as we possibly can within our Christian communities. To do this causes us to be under the need for our Body of Christ, the Church, to care for us, as we also put our efforts into care for her. The release of stability as we have created results in the truest stability--the love of God from the Church to each of its parts. You can not steal from the one who has everything in common, because that which you have attempted to steal is yours already. There is not any reason for violence towards the one who thinks they are stealing, because it wasn't owned by any one to guard. When this becomes true governments fail and national borders fall away for the reason that everything is regarded as God's continual giving to humanity, and when all is benevolence there is no need to fight or protect. Conversely, without the need for war, there is no need for government. When people realize the freedom that comes from these truths, the hunger and thirst for righteousness sets in and the result is to seek justice peacefully by way of participation in the active rejection of lies and perversions of reality in communion and fellowship with the rest of the citizens of the Kingdom of God.

  

      They will persecute you on account of Gospel of Jesus because self preservation is job one. This happens for anyone who seeks security for any possession no matter how rich or poor they may be. The imminent threat of removal of the item that is held on to is going to cause violence and reactionary tactic no matter the item.  When the sense of security of the system of the ones who have built their kingdoms on the backs of the ones they themselves have made poor is threatened, they will come after you. Creating a false God, creating a God who is happy with the protestant work ethic and blesses Americans with wealth is the way of the ones holding the goods to perpetuate the system that benefits them. 

     The kind of prosperity that exists among such disparity of classes (not only in comparison to other Americans but to people across the entirety of the globe), causes me to be suspect to such a theology.  We have not been faithful to a Jesus who came as a bearer of the redemptive message, we have not kept covenant with YHWH. Our redeemer may have the name of Jesus, but it is a false redemption and a false God bearing a false gospel that has nothing to do with maintaining justice and righteousness in order to be a light to all nations that they may know YHWH, the God who will create peace, redeeming and restoring the proper order of the creation as it should and was meant to be. 

(Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said what I think would be a good contextual placement here,) “I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant! And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."  "

Repent! Reject security! Follow the Christ, embracing providence! Do not only keep covenant but fulfill it maintaining justice and righteousness, do this by dedication to YHWH and love for all humanity. 

Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!