I don’t know if you, like me, were gripped by election fever. I enjoyed an amazing night of banter on Facebook as I stayed up until 5am watching the results come in while drinking lots of coffee and eating Doritos. And now we have a new Prime Minister and he’s got a new best friend to help him out and now all the questions are about how do they change the country and move us forward.
I wonder whether when they looked at the world over 2000 years ago, the ‘cabinet’ of Father, Son and Holy Spirit had a similar conversation – how do we bring this broken, hopeless world back to ourselves? And when we send our diplomat to earth, what policies will he be shouting about?
When Jesus came to earth, his message was simple, loud and clear. ‘Good news! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe!’ The reason I work for YFC, the reason I am active in my community and the ache I feel whenever I see young people is because I believe in the Kingdom of God and I am desperate for this world to embrace it, its policies and mostly its King. So what does it look like?
Firstly it is where Jesus is King. A street, a school, but most significantly a heart. And it is a Kingdom of relationship rather than rules. It’s about the heart rather than looking good on the outside. Morality and spirituality are woven together. If you are after a political manifesto then the sermon on the mount is the party conference speech. The poor are blessed, it’s peacemakers rather than a defence policy and traditional sins like murder and adultery go deeper and become more about the heart – actually issues of anger and lust, ‘If a man looks at a woman…' It’s party political tag line is ‘Love God, Love others, Love wins!’ And the picture Jesus paints of being in the Kingdom is more like being a guest at a massive party than a solemn member of a religion.
What would it look like if this Kingdom invaded our streets and towns in 2010? I see fat cat bankers running out of their glass towers in city centres to the nearest McDonalds and spending all their bonuses on feeding the poor, the prostitutes, the chavs, the oppressed and the downtrodden. I see a football match with people of all backgrounds and ages, Liverpool and Man Utd fans on the same team, asylum seekers and skinheads, ASBO kids and police, Labour and Conservative members, hooligans and policemen, former terrorists and soldiers – and hugs and handshakes after the game because they know a love bigger than themselves. And in a generation where so many sons and daughters grow up not knowing a parent, I see moments of children returning home to the dad they never knew, the father seeing them far off being filled with compassion, running, putting his arms around him, a coat on his back and a ring on his finger. This generation was once lost but now is found.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, ‘Father your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’ and may we each day pray this for this world of ours. May we fix our eyes and our actions on a relationship with Jesus and a heart that is full of love and compassion. And may we dream and live for banquets of generosity, football matches that unite and a lost generation coming home to a party.
Phil Knox works for Youth for Christ at head office as part of their missions team.
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