The Marks of the Kingdom in open Hands and Hearts

The Marks of the Kingdom in Open Hands and Hearts

The prayer of Our Father brings to us the reality of the Kingdom which is Jesus and Jesus who is the kingdom. Once the kingdom comes we see the risen Christ, Jesus opens up the future for us to choose. God doesn’t manipulate our history, but offers us a future and we become protagonists, playing our part in its consummation. This kingdom is in our midst, it’s provisional, complete and not yet complete. The challenge is that we do not play as per God’s will or what he wants for us.

The Lord’s Prayer is a royal road to the kingdom. It’s a sign post on how best we need to live, serve and become what the kingdom requires, making out of the new culture a frame of a new reference, by which we know, we belong to Christ. We need to admire the wonder. Like Moses we should realize that we are standing on a holy ground once we are saying Our Father who art in heaven…allowed be your name…

We have to present our own failings and inadequacies of our societies, but the sense of forgiveness turns that judgment into a vision of what might be, but above all repentance, a change of heart, and mind. So pray ‘Thy will be done.’

There exists powers and principalities which will try to get us off the track, vision, and, so we must therefore tear away those obscuring curtains by praying for wisdom and discernment so can keep time to the vision. Our poverty today derives from our family failings, globalization expects us to buy into its obscuring myths, so as we pray for God’s will to be done, we should make sure that these myths do not succeed in obscuring the kingdom vision. We are slowly finding ourselves in 666 market place, where everyone is given a price tag, brand and label but not necessarily their values. (Rev 13:17) “So that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” We need to understand that the word Ecclesia was a Greek word used in antiquity for the assembly in the market place at which the whole community would decide together upon community issues, it became an alternative, non commodifying way of being in the market pace. The kingdom of God theology therefore demythologized market so that it doesn’t become the hidden assumption underlying our life choices, but helping tool for some.

The gardener who only gardens and never stops to look at the beauty of the garden has somehow missed out on the very reason for gardening. The demand for ever increasing efficiency in the urban life means that anyone who is not ruthlessly efficient goes to the wall. Competitive efficiency shouldn’t drive the weak to the wall.

Today at the press of a button we are in touch with vast reams of data to the extent that many of us now feel we have information overload. The happiest key on the key board is the delete key button. We are often convinced that the more information I have the better my judgment may be. “I know that fact, I believe that information, then I can assert that I have the truth” But the truth as an information was actually the rampant heresy of Gnosticism (A heretic movement of the 2^nd Cent Christian church, partly Christian origin. It taught that the world was created and ruled by lesser divinity, the demiurge, and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit) which assailed the church in its earliest years and which the Bible vigorously challenged.

In the Bible the word “to know”, doesn’t refer to an information at all but to loving intimacy. The God if truth is found in loving relationship and, what is more, actually it’s a relationship of the Holy Trinity. Christian truth is not a statement but a relationship and it’s the quality of the relationship which we have with God, through Christ that will be for us the truth (John 15:1-2). “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.”

The globalized world always wants us think that information is the root of all wisdom, then we are simply being profoundly misled. Even the very word globalization may hinder our discernment of God’s will. Governments both national and international have failed to address injustice which are within their field of responsibility, claiming as an excuse, that their hands are tied by global forces. This hides very much behind the media, music production, arts, professional football and entertainment. We have to rise above the earth idols and “seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” Whatever we have we must share it, treating our physicality with respect, we are not disembodied spirits, even though intellectual and class elitism has, since the time of Plato valued more above matter in most exploitative ways. We are living in our sedentary lives so much by the application of our intellect that we get almost no physical exercise. We are watching screen all day and another each evening is to live a life as an out of body experience.

How can we pray “Give us our daily bread” when we have so evidently squandered our bread from yesterday? We have wasted the potential of others by offering them sparse and inadequate training, education, and opportunity that is effecting us, de-stabilization and urban violence. Our economic theory and practice is predicated upon scarcity that is why we draw economic charts of demand and supply. But God’s economy, much to our surprise, is predicated upon generous over abundance and extra ordinary preparedness to share. The labourers in the vineyard are paid a generous day’s wage even though they have not been able to work a full day and how much more will the heavenly father give to those who ask him “unlike ours, God’s economy is one of extravagant generosity. And when it comes to debt, in God’s economy it is all forgiveness, even seventy times seven times. This is different from the loan shark mentality of our housing estates and our city finance houses.

Generosity is a gift the young people can bring to us the old, our life together must mirror the self-sacrifice which Jesus makes as he forgives us, includes au at the banquet and gives himself as the bread for the world. This can only be possible once we know the other. We just have to have a sense of responsibly one for another. God is “Our Father” makes us all brothers and sisters in the commonality of the human race, but you still get people who fear to give a seat to someone else dressed differently, or in clothes form another culture, who look so very different from us. We realize that we have no common language with which to communicate and all that seems to be communicated is otherness, so we construct defences against them in a form of a wall.

Jesus crosses the ultimate boundary of the otherness, from divinity to humanity, so that the veil of the temple is torn in two- the holy and common at last in “holy communion.” In the land of exclusion and racial conflict, he reaches out even to the collaborator Zacheus allowing him to entertain him in his home, Syrophoenician woman, a person of altogether another ethnicity, is granted her request, excluded lepers are healed and welcomed in. Jesus life demonstrates that the Kingdom of God must be marked by welcoming inclusion and embrace of difference and otherness, God’s work of reconciliation meets very powerful counter forces that ours sins may be mutually forgiven and must be in ardent prayer. Even on the cross, where Jesus is being attacked by the powers of fragmentation and dislocation, he prays, Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.

Our gospel must become Pentecostal, multi-voiced, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak in each language and each culture and context in ways that each of us of us will understand. The gospel in a local accent, mutual respect and acceptance which is life transforming. If we treat people like rubbish, they will end up to behaving like rubbish. We are today, becoming fearful, even to our personal cohesion. It’s easy to lose memory of who we really are, for our identity feels threatened, so we heat out at those who appear to have found a sense of identity by belonging to an alternative group. The person who looks vaguely different begins to count, more and more as an enemy. Sometimes the tearing apart, in fragmentation, bringing us back to our senses of who we are.

We have to be a church that reconciles, listens and a forgiving community, a meet and listen church, connections ought to be made, voices have to be heard, stories told, and meeting the victims, even if it means for a moment. Jesus tells his disciples to stay in the city, to confront the city challenges, not to flee from them into holy huddle. It’s there that we will meet God. In the midst of struggle, surrounded by others who are very different, so that we can learn that our sins are forgiven, as we forgive those who sin against us the gift of reconciliation.

The structure which surround us have a way of controlling us, they form the culture which we must critique. The complex hidden structures of society are not always benign, but can be quite beastly. We always feel powerless to sort out our problems. The beast had invaded the structure that we felt no solution. The beast makes us impotent because of the sheer scale of the problems, the beast is just too vast to manage. Some structure promise well, but let us down.

But in Jesus, “we created all things in heaven and on earth-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together? (Col 1:16-18). Holding all things together is simply “systematize”. The structures are meant for service, but have fallen from grace, we can appreciate the market forces, but we refuse them to dominate us. We must engage the powers of evil, just as did the lamb, with courageous action and vulnerability. Just as the kingdom is now and “not yet.” The Church is the privileged instrument of the kingdom of God, but it is sometimes more concerned for its own welfare than it has to sacrifice itself for the sake of the kingdom of God. The church has to change radically into listening, engaging and trustworthy community, and must be seen to have become so.

Evangelism is about sharing the good news of trust, hope and reconciliation between different generations of the estate, breaking down barriers of fear and antagonism and finding new ways to be church, proclaiming Jesus with our hearts.

 

IN MEMORY OF DAVID JACOBUS BOSCH

TRANSFORMING MISSION: David Bosch- Some Personal Reflections by Willem Saaymann, Prof. Emeritus in Missiology at Unisa, Pretoria, South Africa, in Mission Studies, Brill, Leiden, Boston, 26 (2009) 214-228

Once you enter into the world of Missiology will have to come across this a man called David Jacobus Bosch. A man who has been quoted by many scholars who has had a real respect and homage because of his venture into mission land, who know didn’t look very professional in his attire but who showed a man on the move due his simple dressing, as in the words  Willen Saayman himself, he states:

 “I still remember the photo I saw of David Bosch, it has been something of 40 years ago, in a Dutch reformed mission magazine, and it was taken on one of his mission stations in then Transkei, (Today Eastern Cape) South Africa (S.A)… in contrast to the quite formal “Minister’s clothing” which the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) missionaries and ministers wore in those days, he was dressed in an ordinary farmer’s khaki shirt and trousers…and I immediately took a liking of this missionary, because in my mind he was dressed as a south African missionary “in the bush” should be dressed…but I had no idea to why he was considered extraordinary, just like his dress sense…Later I learnt that there were more similarities between us than a similar taste in clothes: like him, I grew up in a poor farming community, and both grew up in houses consisting in total of four rooms only, with an outside toilet (called a long drop in South Africa). And we both passionately loved and enjoyed doing missiology.”

David studied in the South Africa of the 1940s and did his studies and his master’s dissertation studies in Afrikaans literature. This shows at that time there was nothing called missiology, but he built a great theological love of his life in the passion for New Testament studies, he completed his first degree in theology and went to Basle in Switzerland, to study New Testament under Oscar Cullmann, for whom he had great love and respect. This completely made a great paradigm his of looking at reality and also interpreting it in light of his mission. He completely his doctoral thesis, on Jesus’s eschatological approach to Gentile mission in the synoptic gospels magnum cum laude before returning to South Africa in 1950s.

 

At that time South Africa was going through a complete turn of political dark pages, in the apartheid election of 1948. The whole study on the Bantu homelands and a grand launch and institution of apartheid in South Africa. This role was made public in 1954 and the role of mission societies and churches was very clear in this process. This created a great enthusiasm inside the DRC in S.A and a great increase in mission vocations among DRC theological students preparing for ministry.

 

David was one the young ministers caught in the upsurge, as was another well-known South African Missiologist, Nico Smith. David strongly emphasized the importance of studying indigenous language and culture, he was very much ecumenical minded, in an era where ecumenism played a very minor role in the national DRC, very active in the Transkei Council of Churches.

 

He was too outstanding that he was played in the black DRC Theological College at Decoligny in the Transkei, his star kept shining until he was appointed ad hominem to newly created post of professor in Missiology and Science of Religion at Unisa. He always held an ecumenical and contextual view of the church, and saw the need for Missiological development in SA, where most Missionaries at that time were foreigners, who had studied overseas.

 

He started an idea to start South African Missiologists, in 1968, convened the first conference which was to become Southern African Missiological Studies (SAMS) very alive and kick to date in SA. David was elected the first the first general secretary of SAMS, a position he would unopposed until his death. SAMS organizes annual congresses open to Protestants and Catholics, white and black, male and female, lay and ordained alike, Missiologists and other social scientists. Relevant Missiological topics were discussed by a wide variety of experts- sociologists, economists, anthropologists and medical specialists were always involved.

David had to make sure the information debated circulated to other parts of the world and he stared a journal called missionalia with is famous abstracts section. International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS) was started in the 1980, which catapulted David to an international figure, he played a major role in IAMS having had a great milestone success in SAMS, and it baked him into a system thinking fellow.

 

In 1992 IAMS had an international conference in Hawaii, just a few short months after David’s death, which created a sad moment in his colleagues, to have lost a whole library of missiology, just more than a year after the publication of Transforming Mission, Saaymann in his words could say “So many nights I was left with so desolate but unanswerable cry, Why Lord, why at this time? Yet we had to deal with the reality of life after David, for the department of missiology at Unisa was greatly given a great blow which represented seven years of hard work” as Seeymann quotes his colleague Klippies Kritzinger, would aptly say “Poor use of resources, but what a wonderful humanity!”

What can we continue to draw from this quite rich legacy of a man called David Bosch? Witnessing of people and their living faiths in Transforming Mission (Bosch 1991:489)…There is no place in authentic Christian mission for triumphalism, only humility, Christian missionaries are vulnerable, because they do not have all the answers, and are most likely to fail as anybody else. Yet this doesn’t incapacitate us, because we do know that we are witnesses, envoys and ambassadors of the servant Lord who sits on the throne. For David did not only talk the talk, but he also walked the walk. There was no disparity between Missiological teachings and his everyday life, word and deed existed in seamless whole.

David in in his book Transforming Mission, says the only adequate way in which we can define mission in many modes, and therefore as “mission as…” to talk, think and write about mission, a truly liberating experience, and underlying his concept of “mission as…” is the overriding reality that this mission could only be carried out in vulnerability, as “mission in bold humility” “We live in the abiding presence of the shades, those great forebears who have gone ahead, but who still with us. Thank you David, for the privilege of getting to know you, of working with you and still in your presence. Mooi loop, ou lang man!”

HOW DOES ONE FORGIVE?

 

We shall always learn to forgive, to seek the heart of God, which is love itself. This will involve doing the difficult part of damage repair and reconciliation. One has to enter into that door which seems uninhabitable to soul search the sense of forgiving and praying to get the ability to make a move on the road less travelled, often with no travel Geo-Map yet you have to soldier on.

 

One has to create a space of experience that is open to the horizon of hope, because the more one is open to that self discovery, s/he encounters God’s tender mercy towards that inner conviction of who He is in one's life, enabling Him to extend that mercy and compassion and above all  more so towards others. (Reid, 2011). The Lord is an active agent in promoting forgiveness, and he uses our acts as vehicles to accomplish his agency (Wade and Worthington, 2005). God is always patient to all you go through all the emotional process you feel like, so as to face your very self, this sometimes escapes our meditation and discernment.

As one considers all these  he  also learns to find the connection between forgiveness and love, for the two cannot be separated from each other. One is called upon to proclaim the good news of the Gospel, which includes the forgiveness of sin as the gospel message teaches one from the Scripture (John 20:23). This can only happen through love. Love cannot be experienced in the fallen world without forgiveness. Love must start with God and be consistent with God’s eternal relational paradigm of love. (Cheon and DiBlasio, 2007).

 

Loving God is a response  has to give to God’s indwelling love, you cant remain indifference to that gesture of warmth of God's loving face. As God initiates love, His children respond as gratitude. The affections, thoughts and will are reoriented in Godward direction, evinced in the command that Paul said “Walk in the ways of love” (Ephesians 5:2) and “be rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17) and “bear fruit” in love (Galatians 5:22-23). Jesus himself showed the way when he said “Love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34). It’s a source of deep joy to know that God can be trusted (Harvard, 2014).

Lack of forgiveness of self and others can result in guilt and shame. Therefore self-forgiveness and communitarian dimensions of forgiveness, shame and guilt also need to be considered. Forgiveness involves making right relationships. In Hebrew Bible, these aspects were applied to the temple, the family, the courtroom, business dealings, treatment of widows, aliens, orphans, and the poor and the most of all, to relationships with God.
 
In the New Testament, it involves a process of restoration after an act of injustice has taken place. To forgive you must do it individually, recall all moments in your life when you also were forgiven, people had mercy on you and the feeling you went through to receive forgiveness. As many would say, you cannot understand love if you don’t know what hate is. The more you love, the more you will be hurt, but the more you feel hurt the more you ought to change the form of looking at certain things in life.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, what are you living for. Everyday you have to wake up, good, everyone seem to be doing the same, but for you what gives you the reason to wake up, you have entered into the world of resignation, living because you have life...that is too cheap way of evaluating yourself? The  world  is  full of doubt, confusion, and leaving your legs on the breaks ruins the clutch plate, you will smell the burning that indicates things are not fine, you just have to relearn your mechanical electrification of you car (life), or you have a free drive through the park and enjoy the breath of air and respiration, so that you fulfil life by looking at everything with new eyes and freely accepting to be surprised by God and counting your blessings every day and seeing what the lord has done in your life. The choice will always be personal.

As Pope Francis teaches that to wise you have to three languages: "Think well, feel well, and do well, to be wise allow yourself to be surprised by God". You ought to respect your dignity as a person, recognizing your personal struggles and refusing to judge. God's mercy reaches out to everyone and you have not justification to hold it for yourself or against your brother or sister.

THE TRIBAL DRAMMERS

ECO- CONNECTOGRAPHY

 

NEGATIVE ETHNICITY

 

06.12.2018

Negative ethnicity  refers to an attitude that thinks or informs that one's culture remains the yardstick by which other ethnic groups are judged. Simply put, thinking that your tribe is superior, forgetting that everthing is interconnected. This will always call for profound interior personal conversion than a community conversion.

 

This means that one has to come in touch with a cultural diversity of co-existing in unity in its diversity. Sometimes those with lack of interest in cultural differences will always avoid situations where such differences become apparent. Literally they would prefer to stay put, and associate with only their tribal group. This drives such people to a defence of looking at their tribe as "good" and the best way in dealing with issues. The stereotyping comes packaged as threats, it now turns into "us and them" view of reality. "We" do things this way but "they", do not realize the importance of this, "they" don't share our values, "they" dont understand how things really work.

 

This comes as a result of lacking an understanding at a deeper level, where the point of reference remains at that tribal level, and one's own culture. Acceptance does not necessary mean agreement. It is a  personal decision to say No to Tribalism or negative ethnicity. Its harmful, it is wrong and morally unacceptable, because it doesnt transcend cultural values. Its has to be a balance between accepting the relativity of values within a cultural context. That means making a pardigm shift to see reality from the eyes of the other tribe, culture and people in a very natural way without exaggerating anything or any people. This too doesnt mean assimilation, you dont give up your culture in order to take another culture, but adding different and several cultural perspectives to that of one's native culture.

 

It has also nothing to do with learning rules of what is approriatr in different cultures but to shift to another culture and being able to feel people in that culture. One has to self identify yourself as an individual, free from cultural manipulations. You just have to be your own authentic man or woman. You have to get integrated into the society, being a man and woman of your own skin in a global world, you have to be a global citizen.

 

Sometimes meeting other people out of our tribal centres makes as to be reborn in a new reality, the fear we have created we come to realize that it does not exist, except we have to let go of something to gain something, this is what worries us often. You get a person locked into self identity, closes his or her hands and not willing to embrace others in the sharing of life. We have to feel at home in many cultures in this common home, planet and manyatta.

 

This is how religious men and women live in a very intercultural way practicing communion and communication. That does not mean that  they dont encounter challenges, they do but the difference is that its smoothened out with time, like a big mountain rock that goes through erosion and turning into a small beautiful pebble, there is always conversion and transformation, that personnal spiritual renewal like in  in marriage, in religious commitments, now becomes seasoned in this school of hard knocks.

 

Transformation is an ongoing school of love learning that has to produce fruits of conversion to the mission of Christ, its a true witnessing of life that is authentic, that invites others to listen to us in our state of being. We are called upon to uncover respect, honour genuine demand of our cultures and seriously commiting ourselves to meet other cultures with gratitude and willingness to learn.

One has to grasp the eco-connectography and power of a new global culture of brotherhood and global citizenry. We have to know what stifles us in our environment or frees us in our cultures so as to  have a constant challenge to appreciate cultural differences so as to co-existence creating harmony and peace in our common home.