I was reminded that the early pioneers to America, whilst pioneering – had arrows shot at them! Pioneering can be tough!
When we consider the Lord’s Prayer, Gods desire is that things on earth may be like things in heaven. We are reminded in the prayer that we ask for Gods kingdom to come so that both heaven and earth are joined under God.
I wonder if God has a comfort zone?
Assuming for a moment that he has, God stepped out of his comfort zone to create a planet and then populate it with all sorts of goodies, including human beings. He then had this fantastic idea to build into this planet a thing called ‘being spiritual’. So that all the things on the planet will recognise him and the trees of the fields will sing for joy! And humans can be in a perfect relationship with him and one another, ‘on earth as in heaven’.
Okay it creaks around the edges, well quite a lot, but I like the idea of God being a ‘planet pioneer’. He has the odd arrow fired at him, complaints about this and that, loads of humans who just turn their backs and don’t get it. However against this background God decided to stabilise things and set up a new venture called the, ‘Human Church’. To make it work he again stepped out of his comfort zone and sent Jesus, His son, (yes God has a Son) on a mission into the interior. It didn’t look too bad at first, water to wine, bread and fishes, boat trips, days out at the beach. But if only he would keep his hair on and stop whilst the going was good! But no, as he matured into full on pioneering mode he became even bolder and the more he antagonised certain groups of people, then he began to find himself in trouble. Eventually he overstepped the mark and was done away with, much to the relief of those whom he antagonised. Some of his mates, well they were on board at the start but when it came to the crunch, where were they?
But something clicked with those blokes, his mates, who having run away now had a different appetite for pioneering. However they stayed together albeit under something of a cloud (well you would be if you said or made promises you couldn’t keep and when the going got tough had legged it)! So they went off fishing, but God the pioneer hadn’t finished with them yet, and neither had Jesus. He knew they had to eat so he got a barbeque going on the beach; he gave them a shout to bring some of their fish and to have a bite. Normally pioneering isn’t as scary as this, but they thought Jesus was a ghost! So to see Jesus standing by the barbeque calling out for his lunch, well that was a bit scary! For Jesus had been killed on the cross; but here he was risen from the dead, what a Pioneer this man has turned out to be. Remember that time when they saw Jesus walking on water (Pioneers can do amazing things),
All in all it worked out quite well, they all made up and forgave each other and said sorry and I love you. So Jesus said, ‘I’m off now, over to you.’
‘Well, hang on a minute what do you mean, ‘Over to you’ – What kind of pioneer are you Jesus?’
‘Well, I’m the kind of pioneer that says you’re ready, off you go! He said just that, he said his mates were ready to take it from then on!
Okay Jesus made some promises, and we know he is good at keeping promises. But the wilderness is not an empty space which is all cuddly and soft; it is full of those things called human beings. God then had another good idea, one that Jesus helped put in place. He gave them his Spirit to help decide how to build the human church. Yes, a human church, the kind of place where he and humans could connect. He obviously knew that it would be a potent mix; he is after all a pioneer God. He clearly thought that this is a good idea because it’s been working for years and years now and there doesn’t quite seem to be an end to it… well, not at the mo’.
Actually I think God is quite pleased with his human church, because God told Jesus that it would be Jesus’ church, Jesus would be the head of the church. That takes some courage, to be the head of the human church, it keeps him busy and there is no-end of complications with the humans, but somehow he makes sense of it. And it works, amazing!
Just a thought!
Stay blessed.
