Kingdom of Heaven

We have a DVR, powered by Tivo. It can be a blessing or a curse, this ability to digitally record any show you want. For my family, it's turned out mostly to be a blessing. I won't pursue the ups and downs of Tivo right now. I had tivoed the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" sometime back. You know the one, with Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, and many more about the crusades. I liked the movie. The seige on Jerusalem with the seige towers and catapults was mesmerizing. The battle was gritty and bloody, with men biting, choking, poking out eyes, and the ruin left behind after a bunch of people run at each other full tilt with very sharp objects in their hands. While it did romanticize war and warriors and knights to some degree, the carnage of the battle certainly balanced that out. The closing lines mentioned that a thousand years later there was still no peace in the "kingdom of heaven".

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? What does it mean to advance it? I, like the rest of the church, don't have a real good answer to that. Yet, that is what Jesus came to do, to usher in the Kingdom, and that is what we are to continue to do, so how do we not really know what this means? We wrestle with what a church service should look like, the music that should be played, programs and the like, to the point that it polarizes and divides brothers and sisters in Christ. Look, I think how church is "done" is something we need to revisit and rethink, don't get me wrong. I think some of those discussions are happening because we see an absolute lack of Kingdom ethics and life in our churches, and that makes those discussions important. Some of them are happening because we want butts in the pews, and we want to be hip and with it, and thats a vain pursuit that cripples.

Here's what I struggle with. Most talk of the Kingdom of Heaven is strictly end times oriented. I'm weary of an interpretation of Revelations that are narrowed down to scaring the hell out of anyone who would listen. I'm really weary of people who believe that a narrow, strictly literal version of the events in the Revelation is THE truth, when prophecy in the Bible is so much more metaphorical, pictures and poetry that reveal truth. We like to point to the violent return of Christ as interpreted literally as the time in which we will be justified for the way we've behaved, but we don't want to look at the way Christ lived, when He said the Kingdom is "here", "at hand", to see if our lives and ethics and treatment of people are even remotely close to what His return will restore. Look, I don't know how the events of the Revelation will be played out in the literal sense. I think we should all view them with a big dose of humility and caution, given how often the people of God have misinterpreted His prophets. I do know that He will return, and that He will restore the Kingdom of Heaven in it's fullness on earth. That should be a great comfort to us, not a source of fear and manipulation. I also think we should collectively as the Church quit pointing our fingers at each other and point them inward at ourselves, and revisit the way Jesus LIVED, not just His birth and death and resurrection. He was born, crucified and resurrected to restore us to himself, and to empower us to LIVE the same life He did, to continue the advancement of the Kingdom. I also believe that the advancement of the Kingdom does not look like scaring people into repeating a prayer, getting baptized and generally living a much churchier life. I believe the advancement of the Kingdom will be visible in how we treat the poor, the marginalized, the "drunkards and sinners", and yes, the way we preach the Gospel.

May we struggle together to see peace in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Ode to Gandalf(s)

Yeah, I kinda had one of those spells in life where change happens rapidly, life spins at breakneck speed, and several weeks have passed. You guys doin' okay? What follows is likely a long ramble foolishly attempting to revisit my last post, catch you up on the last few weeks, and just, you know, reenter blogworld.

I'm nuts about the Lord of the Rings. I've documented this on some level before, and I want to reach into them as a way of saying "thanks". I reread the trilogy once a year, and I have for nearly 15 years. It's not that I plan it and feel like I have to somehow do my duty and read, it's just that at some point during the year I get the urge to read the books, so I do. I'm also a huge fan of the movies. In spite of mostly practical changes Peter Jackson had to make, he captured the spirit of the books brilliantly. One of the scenes that plays out a little differently is from the "The Two Towers". Gandalf, Legolas, and Aragorn have ridden to see Theoden, King of the Riddermark, the Rohan. They find him in awful shape, having listened to the lies of Wormtongue, Saruman's stooge for too long. The scene, book and movie, is high drama, a fight for Theoden's soul. Here's the part the movie left out. After Gandalf had removed Wormtongue and stood Theoden up and began to call on who he really was, he called for his (Theoden's) sword. In the book, the dramatic change in Theoden's appearance and strength happens when Gandalf hands him his sword. Wormtongue had slowly turned Theoden inward, convincing him that he no longer had what it took to be King, to live with purpose, that all he could do was look after his castle and his self. When truth reappeared, part of what his true friend Gandalf did was remind him that he still was king, and that he still had purpose and battles and impact. This was most notable when he gave him his sword. Why carry and grip a sword if you plan to be holed up in your castle feeling useless and defeated? I felt useless and defeated by food and diet. When I last posted, many of you did something figuratively that had the power of doing it physically. You stood me up, and put my sword back in my hand. So to all of you Gandalf's who offered hope, encouragement, and prayers, thank you. From the depths of my heart, thank you. Not only am I back in the fight, but a door has opened to a new job that simply will force me to get in shape. The nature of the work demands it. I'll blog about that later, but it's an amazing fit in terms of philosophy and style that has become my workplace. You'll probably be shocked at where my job is.

I'll stop there, but here is a parting thought from LOTR. There is a huge emphasis in the book and the movies that we are born with purpose. One of the greatest lines in the movie belongs to Elrond when he says to Aragorn (after, interestingly enough, giving him his sword) "Become who you were born to be". The most debilitating lies of the enemy are the ones that reduce our purpose and callings in life. Yes, we are broken, and we shouldn't forget nor hide from that truth. But we were not born to be broken. We were born to be a bride, a body, bearers of good news, we were born to be free. We were not born to be enslaved by food, sex, alcohol, cigarettes, control, etc., we were born again to be new creations, heirs, brothers, sisters. May this truth break through the bonds and addictions that bind us, and may we all, in Gandalf's own words, "breathe the free air again", or, perhaps for the first time.