Thy Kingdom Come....undone???

Today in chapel I was granted a rare glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have a group of students that comes to Wilmore for 6 weeks for several years and they get a degree. The rest of the year they return to their homes across the world. Well several of them are about to graduate and go home so we began to pray for them and lay hands on them. They stood in the middle of the chapel and we filled in the asiles around them. Then when we were done we all just stayed there to sing the closing hymn. The Singing Sems had sung earlier so about 40 of us were in blue robes (including me). Behind me was a woman from China, on my right was a man from Brazil, on my right was an Asian (i think he's Korean but not sure) and next to him was a man from Malaysia and in front of me were a bunch of Americans. It reminded me so much of the passage we read in Revelation this morning of the great throng of people from every tribe and tongue and nation all robed in white worshiping God together. It truly was a kingdom moment.

and then...
We have an online discussion that is leaning toward being hostile (and definitely borders on unChristian) about what does it mean to be an American, who should be an American, what we should do with "illegal immigrants" etc. It's beginning to rip apart our community. Which is terrible because we have such an amazing international presence on campus. Instead of reaching out in love to our brothers and sisters in other countries, and loving the aliens (legal or not) in our midst, we are building walls against them and against each other and I wonder....where is the love of Christ for these lost people, for those society has cast aside? I wonder how we can all pray "God's kingdom come" as we help it to come undone??

The Veil

Why do we struggle so hard, so pitifully, to re-hang the veil in our heart when God has so graciously rent it? What is it in our spirit that compels us try and hide from the one who always sees us? It's been that way from the beginning, as soon as we realized our sin we began to place things between us and God. For Adam and Eve it was fig leaves. For me, it's shame or distance. I know when I've sinned, and some part deep within me doesn't want the holy God to see me. Even though I know I can't hide from God, that doesn't stop me from trying and then I just feel worse because I've run from God's love. One of the lines in the Methodist confession we repeat before Communion is "we have rejected your love." That line always stabs my heart the deepest, because I know that when I try to hide from God I'm rejecting his love. By trying to rehang the veil between us I am rejecting God's love. And the scary thing is I'm not sure how to take the veil back down.....

two passions, one story

God has given me two great passions. This week both fires have been kindled to a fierce intensity. Conversation after conversation, and random passings have continued to stoke the fire. What I'm realizing is that they are in essence the same story, the story of a beloved in bondage and abuse. The only difference is the scale.

I ache for the church universal. I ache when I remember how much she has been abused, and how much of that has been self-inflicted. I ache that Jesus' prayer in the garden (John 17) is as yet a prophecy unfulfilled. I don't believe that Jesus prays prayers that are impossible, so it is a promise that the church will eventually be reconciled to her God and to herself, but how long O Lord must we wait for that precious reality? How long will we continue to run from you? How long will we fight among ourselves, those you have commanded us to love? I talk to some who say this will never happen, and then I talk to others and see glimmers that it is a process already begun and I wonder which is more true. And all my soul cries and prays that it is the latter. Give us your love Abba. Let is burst forth from those who claim to be your children, overwhelming our sisters and our brothers, drowning the world with your love. Daddy, I love your church, but her suffering breaks my heart, because I don't even know where to begin her healing. I don't know which Truth she needs to hear the most, yet I fear to keep silent, your prophets have remained silent for too long. I fear that it will take another Exile before we again become "your people". If that is what it takes I pray that you would not delay it, but if there is still hope, stay your anger and call us again to confession and repentance, let us respond with contrite hearts and humble obedience. Be our God, oh Adoni, make us your children.

Saturday

that darkest night
was Saturday
Friday's tears
already wiped away
now only grief
empty and unending
hope had disappointed, after all
was life worth living
death had triumphed
over Christ,
the Messiah lay buried,
a victim to death's thrall.

Then Easter dawned
and hope renewed
Christ is Risen
the old is now new.