Zoe:

In Luke's gospel two things never happen. First, Jesus never asks someone to be born again. At least he does not do it in the formulaic fashion that we have grown accustomed to in the last 50 years. The second directive is never to try to decide what he really said or did not say. At least he does not do it in the sense that we have grown accustomed to in the last 50 years. Both are fruitless and to enter into an adventure of missing the point, according to Tony Campolo. In the Gospel of Luke we are asked, taught about, invited to participate in a invading mutiny of mercy and grace. This new invasion is not political it is spiritual and known as the Kingdom of God. This phrase is used by Jesus 38 times in the stories of Luke. It is high time we start to use it in our own stories. It is our framing story. We are called to participate in the antithesis of the imperial narratives of the day and so we are encouraged to enter into the same mutiny of grace today. A great mutiny that is an upside down peaceable kingdom--it is never what is the most plausible or instinctual action. Rather, it is usually quite the paradoxical opposite.

We are called to get de-framed from the imperial political, sociological, economic and ecological predominant paradigms of the day to be reframed into a new politic, community, economy of generosity and ecology of the brotherhood and sisterhood of humankind that is known as the Kingdom of God. In our day we are called to do to our enemies before they do it to us-this tends to be the primary politic. We are called to isolate as narcissistic individuals and be suspicious, judgmental and fearful of those not like us. We are called to accumulate pleasure, be financially secure, and develop our portfolios at the expense of those who have nothing. Afterall, they just need to get a job to provide or themselves, so the story and predominant belief system indoctrinates us. More than anything else, because of the industrial and new technological revolution, we rule over our environment, not participate in and with the environment. The progressive agenda roams the world seeking to accumulate, devour and consume. The First President of Kenya, President Kenyatta and Bishop Desmond Tutu said, "When the missionaries came to our country we had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They asked us to pray. We closed our eyes and prayed. When we opened our eyes, we had the Bible and they had the land." This is an oversimplification but one that I and others could develop and articulate quite easily.

However, the mutiny in mercy calls us to stand apart of and from this heavy indoctrination to become unfettered by the secular framing story to get reframed into the Kingdom of God story. A story that asks us to get transformed and reformed, to get de-framed and reframed into a mutiny of mercy--in Jesus and his Kingdom. It is a framing story that...
*Says enough to greed and yes to generosity
*Says enough to nationaistic militarism and yes to a peaceable kingdom
*Says enough to plundering and pillaging the environment and make us co inhabitants in a global
kingdom to see our environment as the theater where God's wonder, awe and grandeur are on
continual display
*Says that the growing and ever widening gap between the rich and poor is immoral, unjust and
unacceptable in 2008

What about you will you join this kingdom of God, mutiny of mercy? Time to stand up for something so that we aviod falling for anything....Hey church no excuse is good enough! I want to hear more from you about what this Kingdom of God is in 2008. Please write and give me your statements that describe this mutiny of mercy, this irresistible revolution....jump in and join the conversation...