Living in Two Worlds

The Bible attests that those who follow Christ have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of the Son (Col. 1:12-14). This sounds nice--like something we'd be happy about, but it raises the question of how we live in light of the fact that we are now citizens of and earthly kingdom and the kingdom of God. The implications for mission are not as problematic as the reality of how we live our lives as individuals and communities. For instance--

How do function as self-giving, patient, sacrificial, forgiving, long-suffering communities (Col. 3:12-16 among others) of faith when we are transient, fragmented, selfish, and individualistic people? The realities of the life we've bought make the kind of community life envisioned in the New Testament (and perhaps best illustrated in the picture of a body of believers) a distant reality that appears as a shadow to us. We find it difficult to imagine spending the time and effort it would take to develop deep family bonds with fellow believers let alone to find the challenge and encouragement there to push us out into service and witness in the world. We just don't have the time. We have accepted a life where our deepest relationships with other believers are forged in an hour or two a week. We don't have the patience to work diligently on much anymore, we just want quality quickly.

How can we show people a life characterized by love for enemies and peace when one of our foremost concerns is our rights? Whether or not we should retaliate when our rights are violated isn't given much thought. We just assume that if we are mistreated, caused to suffer, or just not given our due, then someone needs to pay for it. The example of our Master might lead us to consider otherwise (1 Peter 2:20-24).

How will we learn to be disciples of the homeless, sinner-associating, positionless Jesus when we love money and comfort? The life we are called to, both individually and corporately, cannot be lived in the service of more than one master. I just wonder how badly we twist the message of the Master so that we won't have to feel too uncomfortable. We are often bowing to masters we don't know are there, because we don't take the time to look and see them.

Much of this comes out of reflections while teaching Colossians. It is an enormous task for us to live in the place we occupy in this world, as faithful messengers of our Lord, while at the same time being transformed by the upside-down values of the Kingdom of light.