Thy Kingdom Come: The War of Values

The war is coming.  It is not a war that will be fought with tanks and smart bombs.  It is a war that will be fought in the shops and the boardrooms, in the PTA and the city council.  It is the values war.  We have seen only the first skirmishes of this worldwide battle.  But those skirmishes are enough to wake us up to a deep, spiritual reality.  Something evil comes this way.  This war is an all out effort to remove God from society.

There is a lot of talk about values these days.  Government legislation dictates as never before the requirement of values training.  But anyone who understands human nature knows that values training is nothing but a veneer.  Unless the heart of a man is changed, subscribing to a set of external values will never modify behavior in the dark.  Values concerns lead directly to God issues and wherever values are under attack, God is in the battle.

For many centuries, the cultural foundation of the Western world has been found in simple declarations like those of the Lord’s Prayer.  Whether or not we understood the spiritual depth of these mantras of society, we were recipients of their power.  Jesus’ thought had a direct influence over society’s behavior.  Now we find a strident attempt to remove any vestige of His influence.  This battle has cosmic consequences.  It is the final attempt of Man to assert his independence from God and it has incredible consequences for everyone it touches.

There is a strategic response.  That response was formulated centuries ago when the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray.  If we understand the implications of Jesus’ instruction, we will find a way to oppose this ancient threat in modern dress.  We must know what Jesus meant when he included, “Thy kingdom come” in our address to God.

What does it mean to actively contribute to God’s kingdom here on earth?  Jesus’ instructions on prayer certainly make it clear that bringing about God’s kingdom is of utmost importance.   The Lord’s Prayer specifically endorses the exercise of this kingdom on earth, here and now.  Followers of the Christ are not idle bystanders waiting for the last day to enter into a kingdom found only in heaven.  We are called to promote kingdom values here.  We are called to radically alter the existing patterns of this world so that the world will reflect the glory due its Creator.  But what specifically does this mean?  Is this effort limited to the “sacred” arena?  Are Kingdom activities found only inside the church or confined to the religious world?  Jesus’ words give us a different picture.

Jesus announced the mission of the Kingdom in his first public address.  The best leadership always begins with a clear mission based in core ideology.  Jesus’ announcement combines a deliberate foundation from the past with a commanding call to future action.

“And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

By quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus establishes the historical continuity of the values of His mission.  The God at work in the past is the same God who is now revealing a new chapter in human intervention.  An important development is occurring in the presence of those listening; a development that fulfills the first part of Isaiah’s vision.  But this development is not radically new.  It has eternal continuity.

Jesus says that the kingdom of God-drawing-close is intimately involved with these four actions:  to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to heal the blind and to set free the oppressed.

The relationship between these tangible activities and the core values of the Kingdom receives further emphasis in Jesus’ discussion of success.  In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus points toward those actions that are consistent with the core values of the Kingdom.  He describes the day when the king judges the success of his servants.  Those who receive the blessing, “Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you” are the ones whose actions are as follows:

“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.”

When we pray, “Thy Kingdom come on earth”, we are asserting that we are in concert with Kingdom values and actions.  We are proclaiming that our lives are contributing to the mission announced by Jesus.  In fact, we are saying that hallowing God’s name, honoring Who He is, means at the very least that we are deliberately attempting to fulfill the same objectives of the Kingdom:  to preach the good news, to proclaim release, to heal and to free.  This proclamation gives us a specific target audience: the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed, the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned.

The sovereign God places us in precisely the intersection of events and people that He requires.  That intersection may not always be directly related to the target audience of the Kingdom activities.  It may be difficult to imagine how operating a machine lathe or working at a Dairy Queen can align our actions with Jesus’ call to Kingdom values.  We may see no immediate relationship between our roles as CFO or Division Manager and the hungry, thirsty and naked.  But our lack of understanding and vision does not mean that there is no relationship.  God’s Kingdom values are intended to be a deliberate and distinguishable choice of every Kingdom follower.  The fact that your present work is not directly related does not exempt you from fulfilling the tasks of the Kingdom.  It only means that you must make the connection to these core values by indirect means.

It is important to notice that these actions are not necessarily confined to the arena of the church.  In many respects, these kingdom-producing activities cannot occur within the walls of the church.  The poor must hear the good news where they are.  The imprisoned must be visited where they are.  The sick are to be visited where they are.  The blind healed where they are.  This work is the action of the community of the redeemed outside the walls, in the world.  This is not a proposal for building and inviting.  This is a project of equipping and delivering.  The core ideology of God’s Kingdom values demands that we move beyond the edges of our group and into the world at large, transforming it by injection, not by invitation.

We often overlook the implication that this pattern is equally applicable for every organizational structure.  God’s plan is dispersion.  The church, the company, the community, the constituency – it makes no difference – those on the inside are commanded to reach outside.

Therefore, if your workplace is going to be aligned with God’s plan for the Kingdom, it must be engaged in outside work.  Your manufacturing business must be involved in some form of God’s four target markets.  Your sales staff must be involved in something beyond President’s Club success and next year’s products.  You are expected to make a different among the poor, the sick, the imprisoned and the oppressed.

And you know what?  When you align yourself with His direction, you find a flow with the universe.

The requirement is clear enough.  Perhaps it is worth commenting on the rationale.  Why does God make the outcasts a priority?  Why does God assign Kingdom activities to the cross-sections of humanity who are the least likely choices of association?  The answer exposes our arrogance and self-sufficiency.  The answer is this:  God assigns us tasks that engage us with the world’s left-behinds because He knows that confrontation with desperation is the only way that we can ensure our faith stays scrubbed of self-righteousness.  This is why it is totally inadequate to give money but not give myself to Kingdom activities.  God expects me to embrace those who are in need, directly, tangibly, with compassion, in order that I own desperate need will be refreshed.  It is simply impossible for me to visit a man condemned to life in prison and not be moved by my own freedom.  It is inconceivable for me to hold the hand of the dying and not be aware of my own living.  I cannot feed the starving and not be thankful for my own provision.  I cannot read to the blind and not praise God for my sight.

I do not engage myself with the audience of God’s Kingdom for their sakes.  I engage for my sake.  I engage because otherwise I might begin to believe that I am different, that I have merit or favor, that I deserve my reward.  I engage with the downtrodden and the sick and the poor and the imprisoned in order that God can remind me of my own frail dependence on Him.  I am an outcast too.  These are my brothers and sisters.  God’s answer to significance always means relationships.

America has reduced compassion to a tax-deductible handout.  We have sterilized giving.  We have successfully altered Kingdom activities so that we no longer stain our clothes or dirty our hands.  We are the righteous givers whose “sacrifice” does not interfere with our need for cable TV and a Lexus.  We stink.

If you want the fragrance of compassion to permeate your life, your company and your church, keep your money and give your time.  Put your soul into it.  You will discover what it means to be a cheerful giver.  You will find that you cannot keep your money.  And you will know something about honoring God.

What would happen to the internal values of your business if a requirement of employment was commitment to one of God’s Kingdom-building external values?  How would the CEO be different if she spent an hour a week at the homeless center?  What attitudes would change if the VP of Sales worked one afternoon (on company time) at the county jail or the pregnancy crisis clinic?  What would happen to the Chairman if he led a group of fatherless boys on a weekend retreat?  Kingdom values change lives.  It was designed that way.