‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is a weekly Sunday post; its blog
history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogpost.com
This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church
construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious
participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via the
existential false ‘gospel’ of corporate and culture formatted selection.
Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete
social holiness and move into personal holiness. As God wills community for all
of us, Jacob’s Ladder will keep on growing!
Sun Mar 29th : Palm Sunday: The Kingdom of God
Dearly Beloved,
As we begin what the Church’s liturgical calendar calls Holy Week, do go back
to the posts of Apr 13th and 18th 2025 on the Blog; remember, these
posts started because of my work on Jacob’s Ladder, and it seemed useful to
share the adventure with whomever was interested. The Blog is a reference
source. And also for this week only, if you have anything to share with me
about all of this and where it is going, do so. Same goes for questions of
clarity. You all will have noted that I do not use a proof text verse approach
but will always refer by incident to biblical narrative.
The Kingdom Of God notion starts with the Old Testament
teaching about God calling Abram into becoming a people, who would have only
the Lord God as their King. Didn’t happen. Opportunity lost. Never mind about possible
‘reconciliation’ someday for ‘Israel’. History has moved on. The once chosen people
gave up on God, so they could be like the nations. Their choice. And they have done
so. What the Bible teaches is only for those who walk in the Spirit. The rest
say what they want it to say. Even so, much of what could be in the content of
the Bible has been left out. And so we have this blank of some 30 years in the
life of Jesus. This is why issues of what constitute the Canon and why, cannot
be easily ignored. We will get to Canon vs Witness soon.
But, per the NT, the opportunity to be the people of God then
fell to the early Christian Church. A chance to fix the shortcomings of the
first offer and get it right. Only because Jesus had now covered all the
requirements. Our remembrance of Good Friday and the blood of Christ shed for
us. No more rules, regulations or rituals. Just the relationship with God
matters. But the beginnings of that movement were still very much within an
ethnic and cultural picture. Many did not see the huge broadness of what Jesus
was proclaiming i.e. the Kingdom of God – for all people everywhere.
The church had its own notions of how the Kingdom would be
worked out on earth, and that question came down to the political power of the
State and the political power of the Church. Both made claims, and neither
manifested the true power of God. But whenever the 2 came together, they proved
to be doubly effective and twice as deadly in consequence. Crusades against the
wicked. Indeed. Deus vult, vulting, until quite vulted, even. Another side of
veni, vidi, vici, I guess. And that is where we still are. Sorry. It is what it
is.
The world’s countries kinda got to a nationalist platform of
thinking about how we could get it together for the benefit of each other, but
the idea could never get beyond the dominant corporate interest that bought up
too much too quickly and swallowed it whole, even with people in it.
Conflicting ideologies put an end to the rest. And so here we are.
Enter Jesus on Palm Sunday on a donkey. He is saying much
the same thing now as in the Gospels. Remember Jesus came preaching the gospel
of the Kingdom of God, not the gospel of Jesus. Note how these things get
changed! His message on Palm Sunday - your expectations are wrong and come from
your own desire for power over others. You live in a world you have made, of
winners and losers. That is not of God’s making, but of evil. What needs to be is not of winners and losers,
but of justice over injustice. And then you all can go forward together as God
intends and wishes. But are you listening? No one was, then. And who is, now?
Some, here and there. The scattered church is real. Find it.
But that is the challenge of Palm Sunday and it is the most
powerful challenge in the Bible to the continuing reality of human nature.
What do we do with it today? Fight injustice when, where, and
how we can? Spoken word, written word, speaking on street corners and maybe getting
arrested for being a ‘one man assembly’, as in Singapore, which defines
assembly quite differently from the English dictionary! Politicians redefine
terms as a matter of convenience whenever it suits them. Course, back in them
days, I had a Methodist pulpit. But if they didn’t like what you said they had
a Government Act that would prohibit you from preaching from said pulpit until
the Government Minister concerned was convinced that you had indeed repented.
Neat! Shades of Ash Wednesday, I guess, government style! But I was never able
to get back home to test that one out!
And now we have more than enough here. Roman times, sure
enough. ICE = Roman soldiers, once again! No need to ask about the Emperor and
his minions. Nor are we a people who are
able to think as clearly as we like to think we can. Many looked at all that
was offered (or did not!) and said OK, we’ll take a chance. Not once, but
twice. The line between political persuasion and crooked salesmanship is often
a thin one. So here we are. Living day after day of illogical madness that has
become horribly dehumanizing for many. It is what it is.
But the Kingdom says it does not have to be that way! And it
starts with you and me, wherever we might be. In our own locality. In our acts of kindness,
of honesty, of fairness, and in our struggles for justice, whatever that might
amount to. And how are we enabled to do this? This is where the intersection of
social holiness and personal holiness happens. It is not the movement that
makes and empowers you. It is that which you bring to it. And it is
frighteningly simple, because God has made it so. The doing of it, ah, that’s a
different matter. That’s where you can tell the Kingdom folk from the
pseudo-Kingdom folk.
Remember, scripture teaches that Jesus preached the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God. Do not get carried away with the traditional orientation
of ‘I accepted Christ! I’m saved.’ Not quite. But I confessed with my mouth. Oh sure. What
else did you do with your mouth? And I attend church. Uh huh. Outward show,
mostly. You’ve taken the first step. Great start. But much work begins from
there. Unfortunately, it often gets quickly forgotten, and folk end up doing
churchy things. Lovely social fellowship, I’m sure. Not necessarily Kingdom
work at all. The real Kingdom work is on your own, in the world. It is where
the interface is, that the real work begins. And it is neither ‘mission’ nor
‘outreach’. It’s in the acts of kindness. And they can be risky. Like the Good
Samaritan. Crossing ethnic boundaries at his own risk. Not the church stuff, no
risk in that, unless you wanna count committee meetings where folk fight over
stuff and you might lose social standing or some such! Not of the Kingdom.
But go with the ‘seek ye first…’ in Matt 6:24ff which means in all of your life
you place the Kingdom first and give second place to the rest. Remember Jesus
and Nicodemus and the conversation about being born again. We got the water
part right, easy enough. Never could
quite get the Spirit part right, though. What was the new tool or skill or
ability conferred that we could go out and use in the world? Ask yourself,
baptized Christians! What was it? Doesn’t seem to come quite that easily just
because someone said so. Happens between you and the Comforter. Results are
very clear. In that Matt 6:24ff section, ‘do not be anxious….’ is mentioned how many
times? The first marker is peace. Not so much a gift as the effect of the Holy
Spirit on you. Inner peace. Anxiety free peace. The 2nd is energy,
God given. Not from energy bars. Connects with the notion of man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, except
that the Word is not reading something in print or saying it repetitively. It
is divine creative energy, this Word of God. Again, the presence of the
Comforter in your life. Find Him and don’t let go. You will know the
difference.
Being in the world but not of it is difficult. It may mean not
working overtime = less $ for income, just so you can make time for your
children; and you will work through that if you need to because our children are
important. They are a commitment. Half the world is filled with desperate unhappy
children whose parents never had time for them, who grew up unwanted and
unloved. And in some sad places, starving. Ultimately, they learn evil in the
schools of the world. And whose world is it? Remember what Jesus said about the
Prince of this world….
In order to make things better we must have much more than a
toe hold, a once in a while election type participation with our leaders and
politicians. We must hold them responsible and accountable consistently,
clearly and loudly. Elections every
year! Why not? This is possibly the greatest challenge the people of the world
face today. The politicians for the most part ie most of them, are doing bs and
making free money out of the taxpayers. Ugh. We must call a spade a spade and a
bad spade a very bad one if need be. And require remedial action. Immediately. But
we cannot do this without insight and energy. And this is where the strength of
the Kingdom within you is seen.
Peaceful, calm, yet resistant to injustice. Like Jesus riding
into Jerusalem on a donkey. This is done by the will to achieve good. And this
is truly where in many of the same heart and mind and spirit - there is
strength. Because the good will overcome. The no Kings gatherings this weekend are
a throwback to that dialogue between God and Samuel in the Old Testament so
long ago when the people wanted a King and God said to Samuel do not be angry, they
have not rejected you, they have rejected me. Read Samuel’s lecture on the
evils of Kingship! (see 1 Sam 8:10ff) Big mistake on Israel’s part. Human
society has never recovered from that one, never mind Israel. Threw the mission
out, replaced it with politics. Palm Sunday calls to all of us to engage the
process of getting it right this time. Grace, peace and every blessing unto
you, The Rev. R. George Eli, Ph.D. (Duke Univ.)
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