Advent 2 - Reflection - The Rule of the Kingdom of God

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 Picture from here

The reflection below was prepared by the

Social Justice Group

from

All Saints Mitcham, in Melbourne, Australia. 

 

THE RULE of the KINGDOM OF GOD

During Advent, the Social Justice group is asking the people of All Saints to reflect on a portion of Advent scripture in a context of Justice. As it was last Sunday, is to-day and wil be for the next two Advent Sundays, the pew sheets include brief reflections to include in your studies and prayers in the week ahead.

Isaiah 40: 9-11

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead the mother sheep.

As we prepare for the birth of Christ our Saviour, we prepare to usher in the rule of the Kingdom of God.  This is our Good News, God’s gift to the world which we are asked to proclaim.  Attention is drawn to two key words:

Reward and Recompense.

The ability to administer either reward or recompense is in the gift of a ruler or a government. 

Our God is a God of justice and of reconciliation.  He rules with strength but, as the Prophet points out, we find gentleness within that rule.  We find with that gentleness an inclusion into the Divine Presence and into what some people refer to as the Kin(g)dom.  We are kin to our Saviour, the Divine Ruler.  He makes us his own, makes us part of his rule.  So along with the self-fulfilling purposes of reward and recompense, we find in the coming of Jesus into our history a form of justice and reconciliation which goes far beyond the outcomes of earthly governments, courts, and judgments.

As we know and understand this

In our own lives

We are then confident to say to others

“Here is your God!”

 

Gaps in the Gospels: Women of means: gaps in the Christian experience #Christianity#bible#women

Picture from here

Leslie Cannold makes some important points in The Da Vinci sisters. However, there are gaps in her thesis.  So often these days, I think of the gaps – the gaps in the Biblical stories which do not include things that are important to us to-day and yet are not transient but have always been there.

Cannold writes about the sisters of Jesus and throws in a mention of Mary Magdalen. Clearly, Cannold’s familiarity with the Christian Gospels is minimal because she left out women – some named, some nameless – who I consider rather vital to the public ministry and advocacy of Jesus and whose type still abounds in Christian communities of all types and sizes across the world to-day.

The women I speak of are named/mentioned in Luke 8:23 – the verse following the one that names Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.  They are Joanna and Susanna and we are told there were many others.  These women provided, we are told by Luke, out of their means for Jesus and The Twelve as they moved about the cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.

Joanna was the wife of Chuz, the steward of Herod….yes THAT dreadful Herod.

These women have fascinated me for a long time.  They followed Jesus out of gratitude for what He had done in their lives. But their devotion went further than that.  These women seem not to be poor, penniless women. They are women with “means”.  We don’t know whether this is their own private “means” or the means belonging to their husbands.  I wonder about Joanna’s means which may have come to her indirectly from the persecuting, ambitious, collaborating, murderous Herod into the promotion of a way of life which is the very opposite of the qualities describing Herod.

I look at the women in my lifetime who keep the Christian church going through their means, their organisational skill, their energy, their love, their gratitude.  Women love Jesus – because He first loved, listened to, and respected them.  The women mentioned in Luke Chapter 8 were among the first women to have experienced this face to face, person to person. They didn’t forget and they expressed that remembrance together with their gratitude in real and practical ways.

Just like women to-day: the women who make jam for stalls to raise money for poverty stricken schools in Papua New Guinea; the women who populate the halls of peace to abolish and have removed the land mines of war; the women forbidden ordination by their tradition yet minister to whole parishes without priests; the women who have wielded the paintbrush to freshen the fabric of the church when no bloke was there to do it; the women who form communities which example for us something of how the kingdom of God might look and how it might be experienced.

Mary Magdalene and Joanna and others were at the tomb when The Twelve and other males had gone to ground. They were the eye-witnesses of the Resurrection. Not The Twelve. Women were the first to bring the Good News that Jesus lives. Church tradition refers to Mary Magdalene as Apostle to the Apostles. And yet….and yet many traditions do not open to women the fullness of Christian work and experience possible for males. Just as there are gaps in the biblical record, there are gaps between the experience of being male and being female in the Christian church.

 

Picture from here

Picture from here

In the Orthodox tradition, these women are remembered for their first Easter work as the “myrrh-bearers”. I can’t help feeling, though, that this is merely a pious token of their presence at the tomb. It is high time their substantial role in the extension of the kingdom of God was recognised by extending to their sisters in Christ from henceforth every right and entitlement within the Body of Christ  that is extended to men.

Lastly, I can’t let the opportunity go by to express my gratitude to Luke, the Beloved Physician, my brother in Christ.  Luke, tradition has it, was very close to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and much of the gospel carries stories of peculiarly female experience.  I am indebted to Luke for undergirding my kingdom experience with his gospel recording.

Welcome to the Defence Dept and may the peace of Christ be with them

Since I have been posting on this blog about the Bonhoeffer 4, the Australian Department of Defence has paid a few visits. Last one was about half an hour ago - but not to the latest post. That surprised me. If you are not a blogger you may not have realised that bloggers usually have a form of statistical tracking system on their blogs which give a range of information. One can't tell who the individual is. I won't know it is you but it tells me who the provider is and where the broadcast point is. However, in the case of government departments, the department's name is given.

I find it unusual that Defence visits this blog yet over at The Network I am doing identical posts and they haven't visited there. Perhaps they twigged to that early on and are diligent in not wasting taxpayer time and money, do you think?

However, dear media person from the Department of Defence, if you have dropped by to read about the Bonhoeffer 4 being arrested at the Shoalwater Bay defence facility near Rockhampton and then being arrested and appearing in court, I do sincerely hope that you can spare a minute to look more closely at this blog and its range of spiritual resources which can enrich your life. Only a minute or perhaps two....God will do the rest.

May the Peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.

Choice: the Kingdom of God or Tyranny

This picture came from here

We can move in the direction of justice,

but if our personal relationships don’t become more human,

we haven’t moved in the direction of the reign of God

and, in the long run,

we will discover that our point of arrival is just another form of tyranny.

Arturo Paoli

I have snitched this quote from Sacred Threshold who seems to have got it from inward/outward. It is from Henri Nouwen.

You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.

God's Kingdom, Reign & Justice: Prison & Sentencing: Victims and the Oppressed

On Sunday, 25 November 2007, the Feast of Christ the King and the last Sunday in the Year of the Church, Jonathan Chambers - who heads Anglican Criminal Justice Chaplaincy in Victoria - delivered the following sermon at the Church of St Thomas, Upper Ferntree Gully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Reign of God in Luke’s Gospel .
Feast of Christ the King 2007 UFTG
Nature of the Kingdom of God -What sort of Kingdom?

_______

Jesus’ Final Words to another human being before he died were to the Criminal beside him “….Today you will be with me in paradise”

The Kingdom of God is not something in the future- It’s NOW
“Today you will be with me in paradise”
Why would Luke finish this way?

What clue does it give us to the Nature of the Kingdom of God?

To understand the nature of this Kingdom, it is necessary to go back to Nazareth and the Jesus Manifesto, his campaign speech:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

And he rolled up the scroll,

gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them,
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

……“Today you will be with me in Paradise”
The Reign of God which Jesus declared and commenced with his ministry was about:
God’s Justice
Relief from poverty
Release to Captives
Recovery of sight to the Blind
Freedom for the Oppressed

In Luke, we see Jesus living out His Manifesto about the Reign of God - and what it looks like - in his life, ministry and teaching

Good News To The Poor
Magnificat
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

Beatitudes
Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.
But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation

blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.
Woe to you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

And then there were:

The Rich Man and Lazarus
Zacchaeus – the rich man who shares his wealth. Salvation has come to your house Today

Jesus was concerned about the gap between Rich and Poor
Luke was concerned about the gap between rich and poor in the Christian Community for which he wrote his Gospel.

Look at:
Housing at Docklands and the High Rise Commission Flats of Fitzroy or Flemington
Median Household Income in Braybrook is $575 pw
Median Household Income in Kew is $1850
(Median Household Income in Upper Ferntree Gully [where St Thomas’s is] is $1277)
25% of Victoria's Prison intake comes from only 13/647 in Victoria

The Reign of God is about the rich like Zacchaeus sharing wealth with the poor; and including the socially disadvantaged through equal education, maternal health care, adequate housing, employment.

Hugh Mackay in yesterday's Age spoke of reclaiming egalitarianism- a fair go - which was part of our Australian culture only 15 years ago.

Release To The Captives
Jesus brought release and community inclusion from captivity of sin. He included the sinful woman who anointed his feet; release and inclusion to the Leper; release and inclusion to the sick woman bent over for eighteen years; release and inclusion of the hated Samaritan Leper who returned to thank him for healing.

In the Gospels, Jesus didn’t spring anybody from prison.
But in the Book of Acts, Luke records four occasions when early Christians were released from prison by Divine intervention. Demonstrating God did indeed come “to set the prisoners free”

“Holding people captive” is a foundation of our Criminal Justice system in Victoria in the hope that paying people back with deprivation of liberty will deter them and others from offending again.
But 62% of those who go to prison will return.
The payback system.

How does it sit with Jesus command to love your enemies and do good to those who hate you?
If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, contrast the response of the Loving Father and the Older Son to the Prodigal. We are challenged and overwhelmed by the generosity of the Father who doesn’t “give the prodigal what he deserves”

The wisdom of God’s Reign as shown in this story is demonstrated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa following apartheid.
“Healing through truth telling”.

Jesus shows the futility of inflicting more harm in order to “pay the price for the harm done”
Walter Wink says:
“As a society we run the risk in endeavouring to fight evil with evil – of becoming the very evil that we hate”.

God’s Reign and Kingdom looks to the future and aims to restore and repair the harm done. It builds up. It doesn’t beat people into submission.


Recovery Of Sight To The Blind
I discovered that The Blind in Luke’s Gospel were not the physically blind - whom Jesus healed - nor the spiritually blind who regained sight like Zacchaeus.

The Blind were Scribes and Pharisees who always complained about anything Jesus did to help anybody. “Tut tutting”. They are like Older Brother who complains that the son isn’t getting what he deserves, or like the Pharisees who complained that Jesus was breaking the rules.

In Victoria, The Blind - as far as the criminal justice system is concerned - are the Community in general. Because what goes on in prisons is hidden, we don’t know – other than what the press tells us. Or what the Ombudsman reports, as we saw this week.

The Press, generally, only report newsworthy stories- ones that will reinforce peoples’ beliefs and, particularly, prejudices. They don’t portray people as someone’s son or daughter, but dehumanise them stereotyping them as “Monsters” and defining them by the crime.
Murderer, Rapist, Paedophile, Thief.
Truly dangerous serial offenders = 2%.
The rest are tarred with same brush.

So the public are blind to the true story - and so there are calls for tougher sentences and longer jail terms.

• Academic studies by psychologists, criminologists and sociologists point to the futility of locking people up.
• Anyone who works in the prison system agrees it is counter productive and makes people worse.
• Politicians associated with the prison system know that it’s costly and ineffective, but not one is willing to risk the electoral backlash if they appear to be “soft on crime”
  

With no other voices, other than the media, the Community continues to be Blind.
We like to believe it’s a Just system,.
Collusion terms are there like “Collateral Damage” in War.
We talk about:
Humane containment. Duty of Care. Modern prisons.
We hide the damage done by kidding ourselves we are rehabilitating
And we euphemistically call the govt dept ‘Corrections Victoria’ – when 62% return !

You can’t bring about a change of heart when you’re holding someone under force, isolated from the community. We each need community to survive.

The Reign of God is demonstrated by the story of the Shepherd who would care for each lost one so much that he would do the irrational thing of leaving 99 to go after that one. And when he finds it, like the loving father who found his son, throw an extravagant party.

The kingdom of God is not about condemning the lost by exclusion,

but by seeking them out, costly caring and celebrating –

even when they don’t deserve it.

To Let The Oppressed Go Free
The oppressed in the Gospels are those who are captive. To Roman and Jewish Laws- which were oppressive. Served law makers – not the people.

In the Criminal Justice system “The Oppressed” are the Victims of Crime- who, because of our legal process, don’t get a fair hearing. Crimes aren’t against a victim; they are offences against the State.
Therefore the only reason for involving a Victim is to call them as a witness.

Howard Zehr:
We don’t listen to what they have suffered and need
We do not seek to give them back what they have lost
We do not help them recover
We may not even let them know what has transpired since the offence.

Consequently, Victims feel that no justice has been done which recognises their loss. There is no closure .Which leads to anger, fear, and demands for vengeance.

Consequently Victims of Crime Groups are angry –
because they are oppressed

A Restorative Justice system, focussed on healing the wounds, with compassion as seen in the tender treatment of the Good Samaritan to the victim of crime on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho would go a long way to letting these oppressed go free.

A compassionate system which gave a place for victims to be truly heard and which still held offenders accountable to restoration could result in more Victims of Crime becoming Survivors of Crime.

The Reign or Kingdom of God as shown by Jesus actions and teaching in Luke are clearly at odds with the values of the Kingdoms of this world.

The Day of the Lords Favour, which Jesus declared began with his ministry
“Today this scripture had been fulfilled”.

If God’s Reign, which commenced in Nazareth is to continue, then WE are called too - as Christ’s Body to-day -to practice what we preach.

We are to do what we can to:

• Restore the poor.
• “Make poverty history” not just overseas but for the households of Braybrook who receive $570 per week
• Set the captives free.
• Work to find better ways of making offenders accountable rather than locking them up. Impossible? We did away with the death penalty. They said you couldn’t abolish slavery yet Wilberforce knew about the Kingdom of God. As did Mandela.
• Open the Eyes of The Blind.
• We need to let the Community know the truth about what harm prison does. We need to inform politicians that they will lose their seats if they let this injustice continue. Because God’s justice isn’t about payback. It’s about restoring right relationships.
• Let the Oppressed go free.
• We need to change the legal system – so that it is not combative with winners and losers. To change it to a place where victims are truly heard and offenders are truly held accountable. A place where people don’t just look at an offence and say : “this is what you will have to pay for breaking the law”, but instead we ask the Victim “what can we do to heal the damage, what can the offender do to bring restoration, what reparation should be made to the community, and what can we do to help prevent this offender from needing to offend again.”

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words to another human were addressed not to his disciples but to a criminal. Most of his followers had abandoned him. They were words of inclusion to the outcast who on his own admission was guilty - but who sought Jesus’ acceptance.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled
“….Today you will be with me in paradise”

Can we be as inclusive –
so that the Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.
Today?
I believe yes, we can –
as people who want to live in the Reign of God and God’s Justice.

Jonathan also handed out a document with the title Victoria's Prison Population: 2001 to 2006. It, along with its statistical documentation, can be found here. It is a publication of the Sentencing Advisory Council.

For more about Howard Zehr and his work with Restorative Justice, see here.