sarah masen
The Dark Corner
The Presence and the Promise of the Kingdom
A methodist magazine asked Sarah to share her thoughts on the transition to a new millennium. Here's what they published... i hope that our hearts are ready for more as this new millenium begins. i pray that the Church will move their ideas and dreams and buildings and people better under the Lordship of Christ. that we would be willing to find out what this means, so we can live in the presence and the promise of the kingdom- what N.T. Wright calls the "double advent"; the understanding that the kingdom HAS come in Jesus and his upside down kind of love that is extended to our enemies and requires leaders to be servants, and the hope/belief/promise that His kingdom IS Coming. i hope that the church will take seriously its possible role in ushering in this kingdom-third way-ultimate alternative lifestyle that Jesus lived and died representing. this to me means the church taking a more active role in feeding and caring for the poor (this includes the spiritually empty as well as the immediately hungry), taking care of the wiser ones who have a few years on us (the elderly), the widows and orphans (single mothers, and children whose parents have emotionally checked out), victims of war and violence (the church can be a powerful opponent to violence under the faith and often sacrifice of pacifism. see Walter Wink or John Howard Yoder), jubilee 2000 (the practice of extending Mercy to countries in great need for debt cancellation), and becoming opponents to the death penalty (perhaps this means more involvement in the lives of prisoners and a great desire to see real forgiveness extended and embraced by those who have made decisions for fear and against Life). the church can be a place known for its compassion and convictions. Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. the bride of Christ is supposed to be representative of the eternal kind of life-NOW. And why not? we have the mind of Christ, the reality and history of His death and life's impact on the world, and we have His Father's help and unique love for each of us-as individuals. my hope for the church in the new millenium is that we won't forget God's present and radically humanitatrian WAY under the sleeping potion of "being realistic", but that we would change current systems and "powers" of selfishness and fear. it can be done. like Abraham, we can hope-even against hope-for His Way to come.
© 2000 David Dark
