Something beautiful
I can't tell you exactly why, but I think this piece of graffiti is absolutely beautiful. It caught me off guard when I saw it. I'm thinking alot about this Kingdom concept, that God's Kingdom is alive and active here on earth right now, and that he's not so interested in our personal autonomy, our little kingdom we'd so gladly like him to fit into. I think I think (catch that?) the gospel of Jesus is difficult. The whole of my christian life I've tried to reduce it into neat soundbites. It just doesn't work well in that context. It seems like a core piece of Jesus' message is the Kingdom is arriving...he says "The kingdom of God is at hand." Ok. So is it present tense? "The kingdom of God is within you." Really? Or could it be coming in the future, with the kingdom coming in the clouds at the end of time? We end up with lots of pre-, post-, -systematic, smarty pants thinking that basically serves to create divsion in the Body. But where's the Kingdom? And if I'm looking for the Kingdom, then can I really know the King? I'm reading this book right now called "The Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley. It's good. Here's a sampling:
Consider the consequences of acceptiong a Savior while rejecting the King. On a personal level, we inevitably fall victim to ourselves (failed rulers, all). A self-based faith leads to dysfunction and disillusionment. For example, I've noticed that when things go wrong in my King-less kingdom, I'm often arrogant enough to blame God for my trouble. That's because my worldview is warped to begin with, so I end up twisting truths "I know" in order to support my own rule. Another example: I start thinking-very piously, mind you-that Jesus is the answer for all my temporal problems. Problems like money, health, career, and relationships. Yet where did He promise that? (What He actually said was, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world"). But when our lives are all about us, the appeal of that kind of bumper-sticker dumbness is irresistible. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" gets turned into a tool of the self to assure my business success instead of a promise that brings peace to my soul when all hell breaks loose.
It's interesting to me that the Jews of Jesus' day understood Kingdom language a lot better than me...they were actively looking for a King to arrive and deliver them from the crap oppression they had enjoyed for the last five hundred years or so. When Jesus arrives on the scene, he's talking Kingdom talk, and they all get excited. "Is he the one?" But he's not what we expected! He's not powerful. He's not talking about overthrowing the Romans! His cousin wears a loin cloth! So the Jews have been aniouxly awaiting this Kingdom's arrival, and it blew right by a whole lot of them.
To make Kingdom matters even more interesting...anybody notice Jesus leads with "Repent..." So in turning around, in going the opposite direction, in saying "Hey, I thought my little kingdom was true, but I think I might be wrong" am I laying down the reign of my Kingdom and submitting to God's Kingdom? Ahhh....repent. What a great word. Let's rest tonight on that. Comments welcome.
(PS-The piece of graffiti is beautiful, but I'm not sure if I'm even up for fighting the fighters...I think in the Kingdom my King says something about loving them too)
Labels: cool graffiti, Kingdom stuff
January 16, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Dearest Andrew,
I love your blog. I don't love blogs in general, and I love your whole site. I found it moving (and funny) Thanks for being an amazing person,and sharing yourself with the world. I love you, Christine top
January 17, 2007 at 11:02 AM
where did you find the image of the graffiti? I am guessing that is not in the Cincinnati area. top
January 18, 2007 at 2:14 PM
it's from a blog that has a "Graffiti Friday" post...I think the image actually came from a town outside London... top
January 20, 2007 at 4:41 PM
I'm pretty sure from looking at it that this is the work of a marvelous artist named Banksy, who does art stunts and street art. PLEASE run, don't walk, to his website www.banksy.co.uk or look at http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/Banksy/banksy.htm and prepare to be inspired. He's a genius. top