God’s Kingdom or Satan’s chaos?
Posted by Tom Lessing on February 27, 2011
How do you determine whether we are already smack-bang in the midst of God’s Kingdom or smack-dab in the middle of Satan’s chaos? Well, the best way to make sure is to tune into the echurch website. They have an uncanny way of knowing on which days we are in the Kingdom of God and on which we are in Satan’s chaos. I must add that it’s a real topsy-turvy experience when you read Stephan’s Joubert’s and his emergent buddies’ blog comments on echurch. A few days ago, on 24 February, he wrote:
Everything is different nowadays. Above is below. Below is upside down. Nothing is safe, fixed or predictable any more. It feels like life is out of control. . . .
Well, here’s an important newsflash: Today’s world is all over the show. It is chaotic. The solution is not to try and get everything and everyone artificially back under control. There’s a better way: Follow Jesus into the heart of every storm. He thrives in storms, as I learn in John 6 and Matthew 14.
And only two days prior to Stephan’s comment, on 22 February, his buddy, Dries Cronjé wrote:
Thankfully we are seeing some encouraging signs of a growing Church awareness of this [the need for justice] during the last decade or two. Let’s keep going, and gain momentum! Lots of justice is still required… (On that point — please support me in a bid to raise some money for justice in South Africa.)
However, all that being said, the kingdom of God is very significantly also about peace and joy. And I think this is where we need to spend some serious time. We might still be missing something important here…
If the kingdom of God is a new reality for our world that Jesus came to announce, surely we should be able to concretely feel the peace and joy of it if we are subjects of this kingdom…?
In many other blog comments they emphatically proclaim that the Kingdom of God is now here? Huh? Really? Is God’s Kingdom a crazy mixture of justice, peace, joy, injustices, wars, crime, corruption, pandemic diseases, abortion, terrorism, spiritual deceit and deception, false Christs, false apostles, false doctrines, etc. etc. etc. and again ETC.? Is this just another sick joke and a case of the Emperor’s new clothes? You know the story written by Hans Christian Andersen, don’t you? In short, the plot runs as follows:
An Emperor who cares for nothing but his appearance and attire hires two tailors who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid”. The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.
Isn’t this just so typical of today’s emerging church? For fear of being unsuccessful in their endeavors to usher in the Kingdom of God, they pretend to be followers of Jesus Christ and . . . wait for it . . . to follow Him right into the heart of every storm. Ironically, Stephan Joubert refers to Matthew 14 to strengthen his argument that we should follow Jesus into the heart of every storm. There is absolutely no mention of a raging storm in Matthew 14, at least not to the degree that the disciples’ lives were in danger. The author simply says that the wind was against them and that their boat, beaten by the ways, was driven offshore. There is however another chapter written about a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee in Mark 4. Did his disciples know beforehand that a storm would suddenly spring up and say: “Hey guys, a storm is brooding but remember we are macho men who have decided to follow Him wherever he goes. Yep! even into the heart of every storm.” Perish the thought! They were shaking with fear and thinking only of themselves and their own safety “Master, do you not care that we are perishing?” Ah! but then Peter and the other disciples took matters into their own hands and did exactly what the eloquent and very distinguished master of echurch, Dries Cronjé, taught them to do. They humbly decided not to wake Jesus who was sleeping peacefully in the stern on a cushion. Instead, they immediately sought to enter into God’s presence . . . yes, into the very kingdom and righteousness of God by engaging contemplative spiritual practices such as Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, chanting, silence and solitude for the awareness of God’s presence to grow in them. As soon as they did all these wonderful things, the storm immediately subsided to a small whisper and voila . . . justice, peace, blissful joy and happiness prevailed. Here are his own words once more. It’s a pity that Jesus didn’t know about these spiritual practices. If He had He wouldn’t have taught us to pray, “Let thy Kingdom come . . . .”
We need to faithfully engage contemplative spiritual practices like Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, chanting, silence and solitude for the awareness of God’s presence to grow in us. Maybe this is what Jesus referred to when He asked that we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33)?
Who needs Jesus? Let Him sleep peacefully in the boat while storms and chaos are ripping the world apart. Don’t wake Him up. Let Him sleep. We will follow Him while He is asleep. We don’t need Him. We only need his Name as a pretense that we are following Him. We have our own gadgets to usher in the Kingdom of God as well as his justice, peace and joy. We have the Emergent Church. What’s more we have Mosaïek Church in Fairlands, Johannesburg, that frequently hosts such illustrious speakers such as Ron Martoia, Stephan Joubert, Johan Geyser and Trevor Hudson. Above all, we have our contemplative spirituality like Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, chanting, silence and solitude for the awareness of God’s presence to grow in us. So, once again, who needs Jesus. We will follow Him whilst He is sleeping.
Gentlemen, let me remind you that the only thing the disciples could do was to cry out in fear: “Lord! save us! We are perishing!” Jesus was the One who commanded the wind, the storm and the raging sea to be calm and likewise, He alone will end the chaos and storms and usher in his Kingdom on earth whenever He decides to do so. Like the Emperor without clothes they too are to proud to acknowledge that their puny efforts are but wood, hay and straw. and that their contemplative spirituality is going to leave them naked in the Day of Judgment, unless they repent and begin to follow the Jesus of the Bible. Sadly, they too hold themselves up proudly and continue the procession on their journey to Antichrist’s kingdom.
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