God’s Grip on Sovereignty

We had the privilege of attending a “spiritual gathering” that was radically different than our traditional church. Yes, the music was way too loud for our “ancient” ears, but the youth were passionately engaged, expressing a longing after seeing God’s Kingdom extended in their generation. The preacher openly addressed sexual purity. While old timers shifted around a bit uncomfortably, most of us welcomed someone with courage enough to challenge Christians with healthy sexual restraint. The speaker humorously highlighted the strangeness of some of our “normal” spiritual practices, and his message conveyed thought provoking interpretations of very familiar Scriptures. He even dared to end the service without an altar call and instead we held hands and lifted our voices in passionate prayer for the persons on our right and left. Strange, but challenging!

And God did amazing things in this strange atmosphere! Isn’t it remarkable that God can do stunning things without our traditions, without our organization, or without our church? This Kingdom thing is a God thing, not a man thing, much to our chagrin! We can so easily shift subtly into the idea that we have a corner on truth or even a monopoly on God’s strategy and become quite arrogant servants.

I love the fact that God never allows one man or one organization or one church to have a monopoly on success. He even seems eager to launch surprise “nobodies” into effective ministries in places where others have failed or plateaued. He seems to delight in surprising us with shocking new approaches. What a King! He is still very much in charge and exercising his sovereignty in surprising ways to extend his rule into the hearts of all men everywhere. Lord, may we see more surprises! We love your sovereignty.

They’ll Know You Are My Disciples

How refreshing, challenging, and disturbing. MukomaWa Ngugi wrote his appraisal of lessons learned and not learned from the Kenya election fiasco of 2008 in the Jan-Mar 09 edition of BBC Focus on Africa.

Refreshing because Ngugi profiles the National Council of Churches of Kenya as responding in an honorable role during this hiatus of Kenya politics. Not because the churches remained exempt from participation in the violence, but rather because they publicly acknowledged their partisan response to the post election violence and apologized for not taking a united stand for justice. Such a humble public admission of wrong stands out as a stark example in a time when many governments and leaders flounder to make reasonable and honorable excuses for their own failures that have crippled nations and cost great loss of lives.

Challenging because Ngugi showcases the church’s apology on the international field, setting a standard for the Church worldwide to be as courageous in admitting their failures to be the source of solving problems rather than being embroiled in the problems along with the public. Challenging because the watching world knows how the Church should respond! Challenging because they know the Church should be different.

Disturbing because Ngugi has highlighted the Council of Church’s acknowledgement and apology in such a way that leaves us as believers with a serious reminder to follow their example in our very basic everyday existence. While it feels quite safe for us to honestly confess our sins privately to God, it is another thing to transparently acknowledge those same sins and failures in the presence of our most beloved critics, our family members and peers. In an era of political mud slinging and dodging expertise, the National Council of Churches of Kenya has clearly modeled the radical humility that God calls for in those of us who would call ourselves Christians.

So refreshing, challenging, and disturbing. The eyes of the world have observed and recognized a higher standard. And they shall know you are my disciples by your…humility and confession of wrong. Now that is disturbing.