The narrative of the bible carries two major themes: ‘Covenant’ and ‘Kingdom’. These two are the ‘warp and weft’ of the scriptures. There is no part of the bible that is not about one or the other of these two. The covenant theme reveals the eternal love of God and his call to intimate relationship. It’s focus is on the invitation of Father to us to be his sons and daughters, the invitation of Christ to his bride. The focus is love.
At first glance, the Kingdom theme might appear to be at cross purposes to this love covenant as God reveals the challenge and high calling of his people. God positions his church as the key agent of his Kingdom, a heavenly outpost of his rule and dominon in a world at war with heavens rule. The Church is prophet, priest and evangelist; its calling and purpose is to invite, to challenge and to inspire, and in this task it is thrown into inevitable conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil. The focus is war.
The church is a warrior bride, an army of lovers, a nation of prophets, and to the extent that it takes up this challenge it is the salt of the earth.
When in Genesis God is described as brInging each animal before the first man for him to give them a name, there was a key relational principle at work; man was agreeing a vocabulary with God in which they both understood what was meant to the end that they could communicate, commune, and cooperate. This power of agreed vocabulary was deliberately undermined by God at Babel when it became clear that their agreement was undesirable and was leading to the entrenchment of a destructive culture.
Biblical culture is an oral tradition rooted in community in which stories, principles and teaching were committed to memory. People were largely ‘illiterate’, but their minds were trained to store information and knowledge with an accuracy that eludes most moderns. In our day the vocabulary of values and principles has become a fleeting image or a passing reference with little to root it into people’s consciousness or community imagination. There remains in all of us a need for a common vocabulary that enables us to understand our context, and to be understood within it. Without this common vocabulary we are lost in a sea of words which have different meanings to each person who uses them.
Each generation is dependant on those who will give true definition to the meaning of words. Those who through thier lives will restore dignity and integrity to the words and vocabulary they use.
Words are spiritual, and their use ultimately detirmines their meaning. They are not neutral. They are either weapons of nihilism or of beauty. Truth in the mouth of a demon is to be rebuked. Jesus would not receive such a testimony of the demonic, for ultimately evil will out, and will corrupt all it clings to.
An agreed oral tradition is a stronghold of spiritual agreement. For good or ill It carries the weight of a common understanding and covenant.
In Mark 1:15 Jesus starts his ministry by announcing; ‘The time has come, the Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news’ . This year we will explore these wonderful words and regain a common understanding of what they mean, so that we can communicate, commune and cooperate with Father, and with one another.
