IM Conversations (1)
There is an amazing tool out there called the Instant Message (IM). What follows is an IM conversation distilled into an essay and a dialogue. The colors define which side of the conversation the ideas emerge from. When the conversation is lumped together into paragraphs it is because we are forming a cohesive thought through our individual voices. Contradictions will almost certainly live within the same paragraphs, but they will be less frequent. When disagreements emerge the form changes into more a distinctive dialog/IM style. Ideas will flow in and out of the writing and meanings will shift. Disagreement and Agreement flow in and out of each other. In essence I am trying to capture some great ideas, but more importantly the nuance and beauty of conversation…
______________________________________________________
The Kingdom of God and Jesus’ work of atonement on the cross… Are they separate? Do they accomplish different things? Is one superior to the other?
I think they go hand in hand. You can’t get in to the Kingdom without the work on the cross, and the work on the cross finds it’s meaning within the context of the Kingdom. It seems, in the context of “the kingdom of God is among you”, that there is a slightly different emphasis on the meaning of the cross… and resurrection. I’m not so sure the main point is saving from sins they way we usually think of it. Perhaps it is a way in to what God has been doing since the beginning of time – introducing the Kingdom.
And that creates another question. Does the kingdom exist outside the church or Christianity as a whole, or is Christianity the boundary of the kingdom? If it does exist on the outside, what does it mean for the cross to be the entrance?
Perhaps it depends on how you define Christianity. Is it what we know… or what it was intended to be… and are those the same thing? Now, I don’t really think they are the same thing in a “for all time” sense, but we really can only work with what we live in… what we know. And that brings us back to the original question. If the kingdom really is defined by the work on the cross, and the cross can only be understood in the context of the kingdom, then what came first? The work of Jesus on the cross must find its fullest meaning in the kingdom, but is the kingdom entirely held up in the cross? Held up in the sense that the cross only has something to say about the defeat of sin or fixing our fallen-ness.
Partially, I think the cross is about restoration. About restoring us to the Kingdom. But I also feel that leaves a lot out. I mean, it’s just that there is a whole lot of Bible in between the “fall” and the “restoration”, and then there has been a lot after it too.
Let me sum up: Jesus life and ministry was a Perfect example of living in the kingdom of God. By necessity this example was contrary to the system of the roman rule and the Jewish religious system. Both groups saw this difference and had to try to end Jesus’ influence to keep their kingdoms in place. Jesus died at the hands of those kingdoms. BUT, that wasn’t the end. As Paul says, we preach Christ both crucified and RISEN. The risen Savior shows that there is ultimately a victory in the Kingdom of God.
FRIEND TWO: Right, but all of that fits in to the framework of Fall and Restoration. They are the bookends of the bible. And, everything, I think.
FRIEND ONE: Well, the beginning is people trying to sort out how we got ourselves in the messes we are in.
FRIEND TWO: Right… because we have fallen away from God.
FRIEND ONE: And the end was hope to those Christians living in the horrid conditions of Roman Empire.
FRIEND TWO: But I think that extends to us as well…we live in horrid conditions that are far from God’s kingdom, or what it is supposed to be. We have a taste – a hope – of things to come… ala Romans 8… â€?All creation groans.â€? It knows things are screwed up – we know things are screwed up. The cross gives us a way to be restored. The resurrection gives us hope of this restoration.
Kingdom restoration has been God’s plan all along. Kingdom living was God’s plan before “originalâ€? sin (whatever that means). And the cross is our hope. It’s a way back to the kingdom, to how things should be. But our hope is not just the cross. Jesus’ whole life and ministry is the gospel of the kingdom – the hope of restoration.
FRIEND TWO: The cross is a means to that end
FRIEND ONE: Wasn’t his life also the means?
FRIEND TWO: It was the example of what the kingdom really is. The cross makes it possible for us to enter in to it.
FRIEND ONE: That’s where I get hung up
FRIEND TWO: Hung up on the cross, eh? 
FRIEND ONE: I don’t know. There is a bit of incongruence.
FRIEND TWO: What is incongruent?
What is incongruent is the idea that the cross is the way. Jesus never said that. Jesus said, “I am the way.� HE brought the good news of the kingdom with him. HE made a way for us to be restored.
… to be continued.
