Why is it that everytime I need to get my spiritual tank refilled, I turn straight to the David Crowder Band?
My pal Mike Berry posed a question over on his Heart of a Rebel blog regarding the immediacy and presence of God’s kingdom, a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately (as evidenced in recent posts here on Faithrants.com). So listening this morning to David Crowder belt out the old bluegrass gospel standard in the opening track of “A Collision” (and in the video above) triggered some thoughts as we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
How did we become a society of Christ followers so fixated on the afterlife and at the same time so blind to what Jesus calls us to do in the here-and-now reality of this world? It seems like a lot of intolerance and injustice is perpetrated by Christians who want to claim God’s grace and promise for life beyond the grave, but not his calling to live in a present kingdom of love and justice.
We want to claim that we “love the sinner but hate the sin,” but how often do our actions betray our words? In another post, Mike links to a Newsweek article that talks about the decline of Americans claiming a Christian faith. I can’t help but wonder how much Christians themselves are responsible for turning people away from the real message of a God who came to live among us to free the captives, love the unlovable, and to bring us abundant life; and instead turn it into a message of a God who despises and punishes.
What if we really saw the opportunities before us to participate in the Kingdom? To really give the world a taste of what Heaven’s like while we’re still here?
Play the banjo now, Jack:
