jumpingjersey

Life · Ministry · Faith

Tag: Kingdom of God (Page 2 of 2)

Dying on Field

May 27, 2014 /

Dear Friends,

Last week I opened the topic of our citizenship as people of God’s Kingdom. Today I continue these thoughts.

Missionary Graves

Wesleyan Missionary Graveyard in Sierra Leone

Missions has change a lot in the past hundred plus years. There was a time when missionaries boarded ships to head to distant lands knowing they would probably never return to the land of their birth. The symbol of this commitment was what they choose to pack their stuff in. Not a suit case or steamer trunk but a coffin. The pioneers walked away from the privilege and position of their home countries to unite with peoples across the oceans. This is the kind of commitment Paul is speaking of the profound mystery of Christ and the church (read last week’s Milk Can).

Today it is rare for a missionary to die “on field.” Terms and length of commitments have gotten shorter and shorter. Missionaries enjoy phone calls, e-mail, and even the ability to Skype with family. Today one can be a missionary without ever leaving and cleaving to a new people. While this has opened missionary work to many who would never have gone, it can dilute the true depth of Christ’s call onto the life of everyone who calls themselves a Christian. As the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

One does not have to go to foreign lands to follow Christ. For many, a generation ago, the call to leave and cleave meant joining those in the Civil Rights Movement. They marched alongside their African American neighbors and boarded Freedom Buses to lay down their lives to battle injustice.

Today many are being called to identify with and carry the burden of the immigrant in our own nation. Simultaneously giving up and using their position, power and prestige to care for their neighbor. More on the work of our own denomination can be found here: http://www.wesleyan.org/1045/faq-on-immigrants-and-immigration-questions-and-answers

Bonhoeffer would also say being a Christian is about “. . . courageously and actively doing God’s will.” Many times I have prayed those words at the end of The Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What if God intends to answer that prayer through you and I? What is God’s will courageously and actively calling you to?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

What is stamped on your passport?

May 20, 2014 /

Dear Friends,

I used to think Ephesians 5:32 was a tack-on phrase. Paul has been talking about the relationship of husbands and wives. He has laid out a radical model of mutual submission . . . wives submit to your husbands, husbands lay down your lives for your wife. Then almost as an afterthought, he decides to throw this phrase on at the end: “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (NIV). I used to think Paul said these words as way to soften the blow to what he has said. Maybe he said it to answer the annoyance of those who are not married wondering what this section of the letter has to do with them. Maybe Paul said it to make the topic sound more spiritual. That is what I used to think about the phrase, and for that reason I largely just ignored it.

Now I think of the phrase as a light bulb moment for Paul. As he is writing along suddenly he realizes he has been speaking not just about husbands and wives but also the church and the words are thrown into the flow, said with shouted excitement. Instead of being an add-on these words are the climax of the whole section.

Let’s take a step back and see what I mean. Immediately before the exclamation Paul sums up his argument for mutual submission with these words: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (5:31, NIV). In western culture, of which I am a part, these words are not particularly stunning. But in the Asian/Eastern culture they were originally written in, they are disturbing. For the recipients of Paul’s letter his words struck at the very fabric and foundation of society. A child’s duty to their parents is supreme. The expectation is you will move your family, abandon your career, adjust everything to take care of your parents. To do anything else is to threaten the very core of society.

While we may not understand the child’s duty to parents we all have areas we feel duty bound to that what we see as the core of good a society. Many of us hold allegiances to civic groups, to family, to career, to political ideals, to nation. When we become disciples of Christ we leave all of those things behind. No longer can we claim to be married to them. PassportNo longer can they dictate our values, customs, and choices. Now we are married to Christ. Now we are united with him. Now this relationship is supremely and exclusively the center of our life.
All of the demands and expectations of society must always be considered not just as secondary to Christ but in the context of and through the lens of Christ. Once we were citizens of the United States, Russia, Australia, China, Pakistan, or England. For the follower of Christ, we have renounced our citizenship. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and to its laws we must submit.

If a passport was printed to show your real citizenship what would be on the front? The United States of America? Materialism? Happiness? Career? You last name? or Kingdom of God?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

Please “Like” The Milk Can on Facebook

 

Newer posts »

© 2025 jumpingjersey

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑