LOG 3/18/17. “I APPEAL TO A HIGHER LAW!”
When Martin Luther King, Jr. was challenged that he was breaking the civil laws regarding racial segregation, his immediate response was: “Yes, but I appeal to a higher law!” Precisely. As we stand appalled at the behavior and values of the present administration of this nation, and what one columnist has described as: “the Voldemort agenda” set forth in the budget proposals, those of us who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, have to give serious thought to our response to such. Do we essentially ‘throw in the towel’ and hunker down hoping something will change, … or is there an active, a higher power that we have access to?
It displays a profound misunderstanding when we blithely pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth …” and yet have so little awareness of what a revolutionary concept that reality portends—so little understanding that Jesus came to inaugurate his Age to Come / kingdom right here in the midst of the values and power structures, the ‘principalities and powers’ of this age, what with all of the counter-cultural and revolutionary implications of that Age to Come, that kingdom, which we are praying will come and be incarnated right here on earth, right now.
Perhaps it will be of value to plagiarize New Testament scholar, N. T. Wright’s Biblical eloquence on this:
We cannot, then, pray this prayer and acquiesce in the power and glory of Caesar’s kingdom. Augustus would have known quite well what was going on if he’d heard anyone praying this prayer, and he would have trembled on his throne. If the church isn’t prepared to subvert the kingdoms of the world with the kingdom of God, the only honest thing would be to give up praying this prayer altogether, especially its final doxology. (from The Lord and His Prayer, in his last chapter expanding on: ‘The power and the glory’.) Bingo!
Yet, our mindlessness so frequently does ‘acquiesce’ because we have not come to grips with the role of the church in the world as God’s holy nation, in which it is not the rich and powerful and nobly born who prevail, but God’s weak in this age, foolish in the world, low and despised in the world, … to confound the rich and powerful and wise, according to this age. God’s New Creation, his kingdom, is subversive to the core, yet it is the true power.
With that reminder to my friends who read this blog, we need to be ceaselessly exploring and embracing the potential, and dynamic presence of such a kingdom, … and separating it from any bland, detached ‘religious Christianity’ that resides comfortably conformed to this age. As one hymn writers says so poignantly: “Prayer is the trustiest weapon of all.” Therefore, as these days of political darkness and confusion can easily cause us to despond, … resist and pray: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven, … cause the values and ethics of the Age to Come be incarnated in this age … as God empowers his holy nation to live out its calling.
Does that sound revolutionary and subversive enough. Believe me, it is!
