Theme 7: Our Royal Personhood; our dignity and responsibillity for building the kingdom/queendom of God. Creation Theology as Kingdom/Queendom Theology.
Whoa. That's a mouthful of title!
p. 95 - The first meaning of "king" for Israel is that God is King. This means three things: First, it means that God journeys and is with his people, leading them. Here we have the recurrent theme in creation theology of Emmanuel, God-with-us. The authentic king journeys with his people. Secondly, what it means for Israel to say that God is King is that God is Creator. p. 96 The third stage of kingship for Israel is found in the messianic tradition, sherein the messiah would be a king of the sort who truly embodies the divine reign of justice and care for creation.
That reinforces what was learned in the last chapter. I am learning to grok that concept. Grok is a term from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land to mean to understand something so well it becomes a part of you. Maybe the lack of such a word is why Westerners are sometimes considered shallow and materialistic; or maybe, presuming that perception is correct, is why a word to that definition was never created.
I like the third definition because care of the planet is a new aspect of practicing my religion. It seems as I start to learn this new skill, that I am more understanding of myself as a particle of creation and more respectful of others as part of the whole. I feel gentler and kinder because of it. That is leading me to start to love my enemies. My biggest enemies were the 39,000,000 viruses who share this "earth suit" and since I have started treating them as friends, talking to them (although I don't think of them as individuals but as a collective), my blood tests have improved and some of the symptoms are better and I feel more positive about myself and about the future. New thought.... if God is all in all - does He live in each viride?
p. 97 - It was common among all the religions of the Orient in the time of ancient Israel to recognize that kingship began with the creation of the world.
I was aware of that; however, I hadn't thought of the magnitude of affect it would have on kingship. Yet, Jesus is the only King who not only was there at creation, he was there before creation. It seems odd - I certainly would find it odd if Queen Elizabeth created the world? Especially since we have photos of her from babyhood to now.
p. 99 - Christians believe that such a royal person occurred in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is with the people..... he invites all peoples to be royal persons. He calls them to their dignity as images of God - the theology of human dignity and royal personhood that the Yahwish author of Genesis 2-3 writes about and that the psalmist praises.
That is putting together two concepts I believed in: Jesus as a royal King; and people have dignity because they were created in the image of God... but together it is much more powerful.
p. 99 - ... their royal personhood is two things: first, their dignity. Next, their responsibility.
I chuckled when I read that. My thought was, how can I believe that without returning to the weigh of legalism? I pondered. The dignity of humans was easy. Having responsibility felt uncomfortable. But as I thought, what purpose is royalty without responsibility? That would be about as silly as the stereotype of a secretary buffing her fingernails at work -- too busy being a secretary when I'm at work to even remember I have fingernails let alone buff them. That lead me back to the book to see what responsibilities were delineated by the author:
p. 100 - The responsibility of justice-making and preserving creation. On the part of the poor, this means being actively involved in asserting one's dignity, which means one's rights, and letting go of oppressive self-images that others have handed on to me. On the part of those who are comfortable, this means letting go and siding with the afflicted. This challenge of Jesus is put forth in many parts of the gospels, especially that of Luke.
I think of this as more then economic poor or comfortable. I interpret those words as weakness and strengths and think they can be exchanged quite well. Bolster my weak areas and grow; use my strengths to not only help others but have empathy for others' weak areas. "Let the weak say, I am strong." (Joel 3.10)
The struggle for me is that what I perceive as a person's weak area may be what they consider their strength and vice versa. Then what happens? Example: I had a discussion with a person this week and explained how something they did caused me pain. As a woman who is coming-out-of-co-dependency, being assertive was hard and I think I handled it okay; I didn't cry, I didn't scream, I didn't rude on them, I spoke my truth, listened openly to their response, and didn't try to prove I was right and they were wrong or even went into the meeting with expectations that my pain would change them. I am proud of me for that step. Yet, that person sees that area in themselves as one of their strengths; where I see it as one of their weaknesses. The response was if I was hurt by their behavior that it showed an area where I needed to work on me. I agree. I know I can't change other people - I can only change me. I think this is strength in me because I felt a universal pain of people everywhere who are subjected to verbal bullies; yet they see it as a weakness in me. I don't want to change that about me because I see it as a strength in seeing the affliction of others. Although I've lost respect for this person, I haven't stopped loving and caring for this person and wanting their best. I accept this person's right to have a perception that is different than mine; yet, I realize for my own peace of mind I will have to find ways to detach.
I am praying for God to lead me in healthy ways that won't hurt this person or people who know us both. I'm typing here because I won't risk gossiping and hurting this person's standing in the community. If he/she falls because of his/her (what I perceive as) being a verbal bully, then it isn't because of me. I think this is the best way to live a guilt-free life and to show love of this person and for God's creation. I trust God to show me if I have a weakness - and then move us toward reconciliation.
That's a bit off topic, but I think it's good I got it out of me.
I think of 1 Corinthians 8: 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For
if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge,
eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what
is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore,
if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will
never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
It would be easy to look at this scripture and wish the other person embraced the teaching there. I have found myself being snarky in patternening my speech after this person's. I do not like that about me. As I said at spiritual reading yesterday while discussing another topic, "The fruit of the spirit is not love, joy, peace and snarky." But I realize this is my accepting offense and I need to figure out how to handle it.
There is one place/situation where the verbal bullying affects me the most. I can avoid that place/situation by going to another room. Just don't put myself into the position to be offended. That would leave me free to fellowship in other places/situations with that person, even in the same building, while I toughen up so I'm so offended. The need that is met in that room, can be met in other buildings and rooms with other people (friends to be). I know that is vague, but I don't want to blame or shame the other person, I just want to work on finding ways to both heal and grow. Journaling or blogging works best for me.
As I proof read this, I realized when both sides think they are right - that is what causes rifts in relationships and can become so huge as to cause world wars. Yet, I do not know how to attach/condone to this person's behaviour that I find repugnant without compromising who I am. I do not know how to listen to parts of this person's speaking (the part I find bullying) without causing myself harm; even though 95% of what this person says is excellent and building. Lord, guide me.
Now I have the option of highlighting and deleting the above because I've found a safe path for myself or leaving it there. I'm grateful there is an edit so I can remove it later if I decide to. But since we're all human, I feel positive every one of us has grappled with the questions: How do I protect myself emotionally but stay in relationship? How do I make boundaries without making expectations? How do I show honor to the other and myself?
p. 99 - By reclining with them at table he made them feel "clean and acceptable," and since Jesus was considered a man of God, they were now approved by him, acceptable to God.
I like that. The God of Eternity has ate with, laughed with, cried with us (through the 12) and through that action, gave them the ability to see themselves as worthy. I never had self esteem until I felt worthy in God. I am grateful for Mike Bickle's teachings on Song of Solomon because it was the genesis of my self-worth. I moved from self-hate and egocentricity into self-esteem.... let's call that God-esteem... and am learning to be there for others and to be there for me - one baby step at a time.
Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
p. 101 - in the Hebrew tongue, the word for salt, melach, sounds almost identical to the word for king, malak. Jesus, who spoke his stories and did not write them was very attuned to plays on words, as all Jews are. In this parable, therefore, Jesus is calling all of us to our royal personhood with its consequent dignity and responsibility.
As mentioned earlier, learning the Jewish roots of Christianity and the Jewish life at the time of Christ has enhanced my practice of my faith. I even went online to talk to Hebrews about ezer kenegdo and that lead me into some awesome new understandings of marriage and how women steeped in Jewish culture don't care they have a different role and can't participate in synagogue. In Jewish religion the home is the seat of religious life and the synagogue is secondary. Thus, she is free from wearing the accoutrements of religious life because she "lives" in the home (the seat of religious life) and is given greater freedom in prayer and practice of her faith.
I may come back and add an excellent link; however, I lost most of mine in the computer crash a few weeks go.
p. 101 - Jesus came preaching the kingdom and what we got was the churches--what a letdown.
;-)
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