The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth. Dallas Willard

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СКАЧАТЬ of the intrinsic futility of relying on human abilities to provide resolution to our problems. Thus, if telling the truth on a mortgage application or quarterly report, forgiving a family member or neighbor an offense, or giving time or money to an organization from our stockpile of resources is perceived to put us or our pursuit of our individual version of the American dream in jeopardy, our moral compass is adjusted to justify our own sense of self-fulfillment, pleasure, or even security. The result is one more brick of our lives laid on a foundation of shifting sand.

      It only becomes a matter of when, not if, such a life and such a civilization will implode. The mental and emotional energy required for rushing about in the vain attempt to control the uncontrollable in order to preserve what tiny sense of security we can is an exhausting and deadening errand. The effort reveals a total lack of understanding of our Shepherd, his nature, the structure of the universe God created, and the ethos of his kingdom. Without such a vision generation after generation continues the desperate search for that elusive guarantee of holistic flourishing. And our social and political ineffectiveness continues to fuel the rage and shame of unrealized desire, which continues to fill our hospitals, prisons, and morgues with stories of cataclysmic sorrow and tragic despair. One sociologist has suggested that adults today represent the most numb, obese, addicted, medicated, and indebted generation in American history.¹

      The human problem has no human solution, because it is humans that are the source of the problem. We need a Shepherd.

      GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW ME

       You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

       Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

       and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

      Such a Shepherd comes to the weary and burdened to whisper hope in their ears: “My dear little children: Really, truly, love one another. That’s the big idea. When you do this, it will answer all your deepest questions and solve all your biggest problems. I’ve designed it that way” (1 John 3:18–20, paraphrased). Our point of breakdown is an opportunity to break through toward a new life. We must begin to imagine a new way of being. Green pastures, calm waters, restoration, safety, security, and provision—this is the life we all long for and seek, and it is exactly what Jesus came to provide. The Good Shepherd corrects all the gaps in our vision for life and fills the voids of our understanding of God’s provision right now, where the rubber hits the road of our daily lives.

      Ironically, the prophet Habakkuk makes the same claim, but from a different vantage point. He writes of God’s sufficiency exactly at a time when he and the nation of Israel had been overrun by their enemies. These cataclysmic events at the end of the seventh century BCE left many Israelites’ lives shattered. Not unlike the kinds of scenes we have witnessed during the many Middle Eastern conflicts through the centuries, Habakkuk saw the trauma caused by rapid political change, social turmoil, deadly military engagements, and endless rebellion.² In this cacophony of conflict Habakkuk reminds the people whence their hope springs:

      Though the fig tree does not blossom,

      and no fruit is on the vines;

      though the produce of the olive fails,

      and the fields yield no food;

      though the flock is cut off from the fold,

      and there is no herd in the stalls,

      yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

      I will exult in the God of my salvation.

      God, the Lord, is my strength;

      he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

      and makes me tread upon the heights. (3:17–19)

      In light of such a state of sufficiency, even amid conditions of total desolation, an experience of joy, rejoicing, and strength remained. Neither fear of death, nor disease, nor danger, nor hunger, nor pain, nor person, nor creature, nor circumstance, nor loss can interrupt or overwhelm the life lived in the empowering love of the Shepherd’s care (Rom. 8:35–39).

      GETTING TO KNOW THE GOD JESUS KNEW

      Psalm 23 and Habakkuk 3 lie before us as the result of reflection on the manner of being that fully establishes the ultimate goal of the divine conspiracy throughout all creation. Psalm 23, the God-breathed, with-God life, has already been initiated and is now being brought to pass in and through the lives and communities of his devoted students. As disciples of Jesus, following in his footsteps, listening to the Spirit’s ever present counsel, we are to facilitate and lead a humble, peaceful, wise, and loving festival of goodwill, the result of which will overwhelm every competing agenda, every fearful scheme, and every desperate plan founded on the shifting sands of human fear or pride. It is a revolution of loving-kindness.

      History reveals that acts of rebellion and resistance to God and his ways, whether overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, individual or communal, are most often committed by those with ears deaf to the music and eyes blind to the beauty of the plentitude provided by the Good Shepherd, who is the Lord of all things, Yahweh, the great “I am,” who prepares a table of goodness that nourishes body and soul, family, tribe, city, and nation to the point of overflowing. It is from this position of lavish blessedness that God is set to deal with all creation.

      Psalm 23 provides a step toward a primary change that must occur prior to any renovation of our thoughts and actions. We must come face-to-face with the king of the realm we seek to expand. The God that Jesus knew was perhaps very different from the God often described in our contemporary world. The God Jesus knew perfectly and testified to is a self-sustaining, all-encompassing being who is also immaterial, intelligent and free, personal and triune, perfectly good, wise and powerful, who created the universe and continues to sustain it as well as govern and direct it by his providence. The moral attributes of God as loving, beneficent, and generous flow out of the plentitude of his being. There is nothing to fear. We are in fact more than conquerors when we obediently follow in God’s good purposes and plan (Rom. 8:37).

      SEEING KING JESUS’S ONGOING WORK

      It is also important for us to recognize and celebrate the fact that Jesus has made wonderful and glorious progress in accomplishing his divine conspiracy and building his church throughout our world. There are more improvements to be made, but we can and should marvel at the amazing achievements Jesus accomplished in bringing life and light into our lives, families, cities, and nations. Pages and pages could be filled recounting the miraculous, supernatural realities that have taken place right before our eyes that remind us and testify to how steadily God is moving in and through our world to turn hearts and minds toward his unending and boundless majesty. Truly “the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3).

      Just some of the deeply satisfying improvements can be witnessed in the progress the church has made, in general, in dealing with many of the paralyzing debates and conflicts we have engaged in over the past two centuries. Of particular note are the advances made with regard to racial reconciliation and gender equality, the reduction in denominational acrimony, increases in cross-confessional and cross-cultural respect, awareness, dialog, cooperation, and relief efforts, to name just a few. Controversies still rage in certain corners, but much advancement has been achieved, and we should relish these developments.

      Even still, much crucial discernment is needed regarding СКАЧАТЬ