Notes from Kingdom Living (get psyched!)

I'm home in Wake Forest until Wednesday. Well, Wednesday is when summer school starts, so I'll probably go before that. It's funny how different the sounds are here in this little home. Earlier a donkey was braying. And the peacocks were crying and it's just so peaceful. In Greensboro, I sit in my room and listen to people playing beer pong or corn hole and wait for the train to go by.
This past week at Rockbridge was a good one, as always. I'm putting my notes up so maybe you can learn something too, and also to just keep processing everything that I heard. The topics that we discussed were the Sermon on the Mount, Relationship with Self, Multi-ethnicity, Relationship to Others, Sexuality, Social Justice, Environment, Christians and Politics. (I just started laughing because last night when I was babysitting I said, "slamming doors is one of my pet peeves" and Noah (age 4) said, "Me too.")

[Tuesday]
Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-16):
What does it look like to live in the Kingdom of God?
What is blessedness?
Not a reward, but a gift of grace upon those in whom He is working.

1. Poor in spirit: weak, needy, deserving nothing -> Kingdom: everything
2. Mourn: grief over the effects of sin which affects the Lord -> Comfort: God comforts
3. Meek: humility, giving up rights -> Inherit: God gives rights

[first three beatitudes have to do with our heart and relationship toward God.]

4. Hunger for righteousness: right relationships, not easy, for rightness in society and internally -> Filled: God is able to give
5. Merciful: I need mercy, I will give it. Care for people affected by sin, since we have been given blessing -> Shown mercy: God is merciful, so I can be.
6. Pure in heart: Psalm 24:4-6, We are beset by lesser lovers, know the Lord is all that we need
-> See God:
7. Peacemakers: Christ is our peace, so we make peace. -> Sons of God:
8. Persecuted: When we want what is right, it produces friction, 1 Peter 4- this come from reflecting His character

[last five beatitudes have to do with our heart and relationship toward others]

We are to preserve and flavor our world.

[Wednesday]
Sermon on the mount (Matt 5:17-48):
-Our culture defines sin as hurting someone else.
-We all want to be filled, but which well will we drink from.
-The world is not the way it's supposed to be because our hearts are not the way they should be (Deut 5:29)
You: lived out in community, plural.
-Many of us don't have real relationships withe the poor, broken, enemies; we don't know them, so we fear being taken advantage of.
"Do not resist an evil person."- continue to love people, love your enemies. Cycle of dehumanization ends with us because we love in response.
-when a fellowship loves well, it attracts people who are hard to love.

Relationship to Self:
self: identity, who we know, what we do
World says: physical appearance + job + performance = self
Matt 5 disciples vs. crowd
Matt 4 "I will make you fishers of men"-> God says who we are.
God says: what I say about you + relationship to me = self

We are always who God says we are.
-We are most aware of ourselves when who we want to be doesn't match up with who we are.
- We think we have to manage ourselves: self dismissive (ignores self), self antagonizing (beats up on self (most resembles me.)), self exempting (makes excuses for self)

God relates to us by the Gospel:
created in His image
affected by sin
forgiven by Christ
restored by the resurrection
sent by the spirit to be a part of the kingdom
-Godly character is a result of reconciled relationship to self.

Multi-ethnicity:
(The place of race in the kingdom of God.)
-The one institution that remains segregated: church
ethnicity: characteristic of a people, especially a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like...
-It is a problem in our theology that we cannot deal with racial and ethnic division.

Multi-ethnicity is scriptural:
Gen 1:27-28 (cultural mandate)
Groups spread and create culture
-relationship to self is crucial to this journey
-repentance can transform
Gen 12, 15 (master plan of multi-ethnicity)
Matt 28 (great commission)
Acts 1 (Jesus' final words)
Eph 2 (He is our peace)
-our ethnic identity is affirmed by God
Acts 2 and the "beauty of Pentecost"
Ethnicity is eternal
Rev 7:9
Rev 21:22-23
Rev 22:2

Our responsibility:
to care
new vision leads to new thoughts and actions
to be agents of transformation

How to be intentional:
pray
get educated
be an advocate against racism
take some risks
ask good questions
persevere

[Thursday]
Sermon on the mount (Matt 6:1- Matt 6:24)
Motives of the heart.
"Your Father knows what you need before you ask." -> Do I believe this?
How does the Lord's prayer shape how I pray?
-Who do you look to to provide for your needs? We will serve who we think will provide for us. (God or money)
"Your Father who sees" -> Do I believe this?

Relationship to Others:
World's view: Treat others the way they treat you, have friends who serve you/ meet your needs

meekness: Surrender of rights
-We cannot escape involving others. Community is crucial.
- World says relationships should be easy.
Jesus makes us like Him through sharpening us with people; used to transform
The more I strive for mankind, the less I love people

We have to learn to repent well. Maturity in Christ is repenting more quickly, not less frequently.

Sexuality:
Creation = God's yes to sex in marriage (Gen 2:24)
"Song of Solomon"- the Bible is not afraid of talking openly of sex.
-God's good intent for sex is ruined by the fall (Gen 3:16)
dehumanization: women find identity in man and he will rule her like the creation he was supposed to rule.
People can't meet people's needs
Introduction of shame

"Porneia" result of the fall is total sexual brokeness.

Jesus says sexual brokeness resides in the heart.

Lies cultures tells us:
-Sex can be wholly separated from procreation, separate identity from body.
-You should test drive the car before you drive it.
-Married sex is dull and boring. Constant sex is matched with sex is unattainable.

Lies the church tells us:
-Sexual sin will make you feel lousy. (We all know that we cannot trust our emotions, only the word of God. )
-Women don't really want to have sex anyway. (Both are sexual beings.)
-Our bodies are gross, dirty or unimportant. (1 Cor 6:20)

Sexuality is communal.
-What you do with your body is other people's business.
Accountability.

We give up on committed love before it starts.

[Friday]
Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:25- 6:34)
-How would people respond to us if we lived in dependence on God?
-If you are serving God, don't worry.
-Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well:
poor in spirit
mourn
meek
hunger and thirst
merciful
pure in heart
peacemakers
persecuted

Social Justice:
What makes something unjust?

Psalm 10
-Injustice is rejection of God (3-4, 6, 11)
-Injustice is the elevation of the self (3-6)
- Injustice manifests itself in the destruction of others (2, 7-11)
Injustice is a social and cosmic disorder where God is rejected, self is elevated and others are destroyed.
personal injustice is in everyone's heart.
when oppressive hearts when they get together, they create oppression.

Features of mourning:
anger (1, 12, 15)
sadness (1, 17)
discontented (1, 12-13)

Direction of mourning:
the unjust (2-10)
God himself (11-18)

What you do with your life isn't something separate from justice. Do something more purposeful than building your own kingdoms and families.

We fight injustice as an act of worship to the Lord, even though it might not make a change.

[Saturday]
Sermon on the Mount (Matt7:1- 7:29):
-We are always aware of our own righteousness. As we seek the kingdom, it will seem easy to judge.
Will you be as gentle in rebuking others about their sn as you would be with yourself (plank and speck)
Community in relating to sin.
Intimacy brings conflict; forgiveness brings more intimacy.
Prov 9:8, Acts 18:5-6 Pearls, sacred = wisdom
We are still saved by works, not our own, Christ's. We accept his work and live by grace.

Environment:
Gen 1: 26-28 We are all made in God's image, but we are still of the earth.
fill
subdue
care for
Instead, we exploit it for our own purposes.

Sabbath for the land: 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, Leviticus 25:2-4, 20-22
Right relationship with the Creator starts right relationships with the creation.

Colossians 1:15-20 "all creation", "all things"
Romans 8:19-21 The creation waits.

Psalm 84:1-4, Matthew 10:29-31
We care for the creation because we care for God and it is His.
Care reflects love for and faith in our Creator.
Pollution and land mis-usage, etc = human rights violation
We don't care because we think it's going to be destroyed, we care because God cares. Love driven, not fear driven.

Christians and politics:
Causes of apathy:
sense of helplessness/ self absorption
lack of education

"Fear not your enemies- they can only kill you. Fear not your friends- they can only betray you. Fear instead the apathetic, for the will allow the killers and betrayers to safely walk the earth." - Edward Yashinski (Holocaust survivor)

Causes of division:
misplaced hope (church runs to political power to fix our problems)
misunderstanding (if you are a Christian, you vote Republican)
schism between liberal and conservative:
liberals embraced social justice issues
conservatives embraced moral/spiritual issues
civil rights movement: liberal/ conservative split

Christian values in the Republican party (2 Chronicles 7:14):
concern for unborn life
commitment to the nuclear family
value of work
American's allegiance to God
world wide freedom
commitment to individual morality

Christian values in the Democratic party (Micah 6:8):
care for the poor
human rights
concern for the environment
commitment to social morality
abolishment of the death penalty

Jesus' values (Luke 4:15-16):
pro all of life
concern for personal and social morality
social justice
peace and reconciliation
environment

Which kingdom?

"The church is a community of God's people rather than an institution and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology." - Lausanne Covenant

We have a civic duty.
Causes worthy of attention:
Concerns of the King.
Where is His focus? -The people, so that they can bring glory to Him.
immigration
environmental policy
abortion
foreign policy - war -global economic policy
local politicians
city councils and mayors
zoning laws
law enforcement
money to schools

How do we proceed?
kingdom hope -> The Savior and His work through people
kingdom role -> To speak against injustice
kingdom perspective -> Philippians 2:6-8, Good Samaritan, John 9:1-2 (The disciples saw a theological dilemma, not a person to be compassionate toward)
kingdom mission -> Do unto others

A verse that I reflected on during my much looked forward to Retreat of Silence: Psalm 147:2-3 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up all their wounds. He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name.

Currently listening to: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong- Can't we be Friends, also Mom's sewing machine.
Correct time: 8:52
Currently feeling: Hopeful about getting a job, and excited about summer school (Is that completely nerdy? I can't help it. I'm excited. Of course there are things I'd rather do, but this is it, so let's do it.)