jim is away at the jubilee conference, reminding me that {so much shouting, so much laughter} is four years old. i suppose the occasion calls for pulling that first post out of the archives, pouring a glass of pinot, and toasting you--friends who've been here since day one and those who've come somewhere along the way. i am ever thankful for your voices, encouragement, and sojourning. you make this space rich, and i am grateful for you.
this too shall be made right {originally published 2/17/08}
last night at jubilee, derek webb closed a great set with "this too shall be made right," a song that is particularly striking:
there’s a time for peace and there is a time for warhe's lifting from ecclesiastes: a time for every purpose under heaven. a time to be born, a time to die. a time to kill, a time to heal. a time to love, a time to hate. a time for war, a time for peace.
a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
this too shall be made right
it's easy to look at those verses, to shrug our shoulders at the mess of the world and think, yeah, there is a time for all of that. it's in the bible, and that's how it is.
but not everything in scripture is prescriptive--telling us how to live. sometimes scripture is descriptive--exploring what life is like in a fallen, broken world among fallen, broken people.
just because scripture says that there is a time to kill, that's not necessarily indicative of how we are to live as followers of the risen Christ.
this too shall be made right, and not just not just one day in heaven. a few years ago, derek webb spoke at another gathering in D.C. for pentecost, and he said something else that echoes in my heart still:
We are called to be people who push back the effects of the Fall.when Jesus said to pray, your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, he meant those words.
we have a mission as Christians to be about the work of establishing the Kingdom of God here--in the flesh, among people, now. there isn't time for trafficking, war, poverty, racism, oppression, or even death. the Kingdom of God is about restoration and reconciliation of all people to God, one another, and the earth. it's about radical love and jubilee.
one day, all things will be made right.
may that hope and resurrection promise invigorate our work today.
your Kingdom come, Lord, on earth as it is in heaven.
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