Living in the "Green Zone"

What is the goal of being a Christian?

No serious. What is it? Have you ever stopped to pondered such a question? You probably have, I’m sure, But if you have haven’t, you are in luck! There are no shortage of folks past and present who would love to share with you their insight into the matter.

Here are a few gross generalizations...

• Glorify god, and enjoy him forever
• Fly away ‘ole glory
• Love God, and do as you please.

Don't worry, this is not an attempt to settle the debate or consolidate these into a "super goal" of the Christian life. I'll leave that to people much smarter and knowledgeable than myself to decide. What I will say--with only a mild degree of reticence--is that this is not a wholly sufficient question to answer. The question is like Google Maps without a GPS signal. Google may be a world-class location service, telling you where any and everything is on the map, but if it doesn't know where you are, then it can't get you anywhere you want to be. Likewise, we can define our purpose as Christians with the utmost eternal significance and truth, but until we are able to plot the course from where we currently are to where we want to be, the answer is of little use. To be cliche, It's the journey, not the destination that matters.

So, what I want to suggest to you is that a better question to ask is, not where are we going, but how do we get there. In other words…

How do we accomplish or bring about the goal of the Christian life?

I am becoming more and more convinced that this is the question that should receive the lion's share of our focus within the body of Christ. I say this knowing full well that while there are a wealth of pulpit preachers focusing on the goal of the Christian life with teachings that are well documented and supported in Scripture. However, the more time I spend with Jesus in the gospels, the more I notice, that was not the focus of Jesus' teaching. In fact, I would suggest to you that Jesus focused his teaching ministry not to create goal-oriented followers, but rather journey-oriented ones. We find this by looking no further than Matthew 5 through 7--The Sermon on the Mount. There is no other place in the New Testament, where we find a more concisely detailed road for the Christian than here. More on that later.

Now, assuming there is the slightest twinge of truth to this suggestion, I have a little theory as to why this is the case; that is why Jesus focuses on the path that Christians walk much more than the destination they are walking toward. It's because Jesus knew that his disciples would be Living in the Green Zone. If you would be so kind as to entertain some ramblings, I'll explain.

We live in a fallen world, but you probably already knew that. It is a world that is broken, and in rebellion to the Kingdom in a myriad of visible and invisible, micro and macro ways. It is plain to see--even to nonbelievers and dare I say a few atheists--that the world is not as it should be or even could be, but as Christians we would say the world is not as God intends it to be. The difference is subtle but substantial none the less. This temporal existence, which began at the creation of the universe and quickly turned avarice, continues to this day and stretches into the future for an undesignated span of time. This is the present age--for the sake of ease, let's just call it the "world". This is the world . . .

But this isn't just the same ole "world" of yore. No, things are different now. They may not seem different or feel different, but they are.

What makes you sure things are different? They certainly don't to seem much different; you know with all that crime, wars, natural disasters, and such.

Great question! You're obviously paying attention. It's easy to tell the difference; Jesus tell us so. Jesus began his public ministry with these words; "The time has been fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the good news." In other words, like it or not, things will never be the same, so you better rethink a few things (see: “most everything”).

Jesus' proclamation was wholly unexpected. Not that the Kingdom had come, as most everyone in the first century was certain it would, but that the Kingdom's coming did not mean the end of the above described "world". In fact, the Kingdom's coming was supposed to be tantamount to the full reign of Yhwh, and the eradication of all the opposed his reign--which just so happened to include most all of Israel's foes as well. Today, the theological fad is to over spiritualize this “Kingdom come” by imagining it as a distant, particularly fluffy place for naked, halo-touting baby-angels--and of course the "Elect".

But Jesus announces that the Kingdom has come and is present and readily available now, but it is also apparent that the "world" also remains with all of its brokenness and rebellion. What we have then is a new period of history where the world and the kingdoms coexist, Like this . . .

The New Testament writers and early Christians quickly came to understand that there would span a period of dueling kingdoms steeped in opposition until Christ's return. At that time, God's new heaven and new earth would end of the present age and usher in the full Kingdom and the unopposed reign of God would last forever. The timing as to exactly when this would happen is such a mystery that disciples of Jesus are instructed to simply, "Keep watch, and pray", and this is exactly where disciples of Jesus Christ find themselves today-living in the green zone.

We are living during this odd period of history where the present age runs concurrently with the at-hand Kingdom of God. Jesus knew from the outset that his disciples would be living in this tension--smack dab in the middle of the green zone, with one foot in the Kingdom and one in the world. As such, he gave us a manual of how to live as his disciple in green zone; the aforementioned “Sermon on the Mount”. And the more we living according to the reign of God, the more this present age feels like the age to come.

I would invite you to read or perhaps re-read the Sermon on the Mount with this in mind--that Jesus knew as his disciples we would live sandwiched between two kingdoms utterly opposed to each other. This is exactly what he means by being "in the world" but not "of the world". We live as though in the fully consummated reign of God, even though we find ourselves in the world.

The truth is the kingdom is a steady flow of freshwater into this stagnant pool and we're swimming in it. The point is not to escape the pool but instead to stir the waters.