Insurrection for Peace
Over this past year I've been part of various discussions that question if seeking the Kingdom of God can be equated to revolution. The general opinion of those who believe it can't asserts that human endeavour cannot be the means by which the Kingdom comes. As in, we can't follow some postmillennial social gospel that believes that we can create heaven here on earth. I agree with that, but at the same time am uneasy with those who then say "so, therefore, why bother doing anything? Let's just set our sites on the world to come."
Such an approach ignores the already and not yet aspects of the Kingdom. To claim that we are currently part of the Kingdom because God is among us, and that we are in fact helping God's Kingdom come "on earth as it is in heaven" by anticipating in hope the future fulfillment of the Kingdom, is not the same as some misguided faith in progress. We (the communal we of humankind) don't expect to complete the task, but still must participate because in one sense we already inhabit the very realm we are hoping to create. In other words, we simply must do our duty skingdom citizens.
So this past weekend at Matter '09, I was grateful to Pete Rollins for putting a better language to this whole manner of living. He said that, yes, in the grand scheme of things we are part of a revolution, but we will never see its end or entire scope. So instead of confusing critics by speaking of revolutions, we should instead start seeing ourselves as merely part of insurrections. Where we see oppression and injustice in the world, we rise up against it. We are the creators of the systems of this world, we are the ones fueling the oppression, and so we can be the ones to insist upon change and recreate it. It isn't about ushering in the Kingdom in all its fullness, it is about being the resistance movement in the places where the Kingdom is already under attack.
I loved that imagery he provided. It allows each of us to work where we are at and to bring the changing force of love into the small pockets of the Kingdom we can access. It is grand and cosmic with revolutionary undertones, but without the dangers of confusing our actions with the breaking through of the divine. We work with and for God, trusting in him. Through our transformation in Christ we can be stripped of the power of this world and can affect change in our communities of insurrection. We can rise up for peace, and justice, and love not simply for some future kingdom, but because Christ has already broken through and invites us to live for him now.
julieclawson(at)gmail(dot)com 
Good thoughts, Julie. The language of insurrection seems, for me, to supplant at least a bit of the dread of viewing the larger issues and feeling individually helpless.
I was reading this morning and ran across something along these lines. Kimberly Vrudny writes that "the quality of existance for all of humankind is directly impacted by the degree to which we allow one another to participate in glory, or to languish in suffering."
As is often the case, I think C.S. Lewis said it well:
"Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.
"Enemy-occupied territory–that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
"Mere Christianity" Bk.II Ch.2
I like what Rollins has to say about about not seeing the revolution's end or entire scope: I think it is very easy to be results oriented which is probably a side effect of "purpose driven" thinking.
I'd say that we need to be more aware of our presence in this time, in this place. To act justly because it is the right thing to do, not because we think we are meeting a goal.
if we did embrace the idea of being insurrectionists in each of our corners of the world, then it seems that would we not have to dread the larger issues like Charlie says. The connectedness of all issues being dealt with by people committed with the same insurrectionist heart in their local context would free us from that dread of dealing with the larger issues because we would not feel individually helpless.
my mom (we call her rev. mother) spoke on the 'already but not yet' @ pepperdine lectures a while back… and what a love like this might look like to a watching world and especially our children. thanks for the post!