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Relationships 4.



The Principal of First priority


We have talked about meetings and the reason for them. Now let’s now take a look at what I call the ‘principal of first priority’. What is the most important command for people who follow Jesus? We have discussed other commands, for example the need to
love one another. But what is the first priority, or primary command? It is that ‘we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness’ and with this
command is a reward, God says, I know that you need lots of other things, but
seek me first, and everything else will follow on.



I used to think that there was no difference between the Kingdom and the church; I have strongly changed by views on that. Seeking the Kingdom is not the same as
seeking church. Someone recently said,
normal"">“The Kingdom is a dynamic greater than the church. If you pursue the
church you won’t find the Kingdom, but if you pursue the Kingdom you will find
the church.” (
Simon
Markham with adaptations from Howard Snyder)
normal""> God is at work in his world; the Kingdom has come, although not
yet in it’s fullness, but it is here, and has broken into this time-space
world. We have the ability to pull down handfuls
of his Kingdom that can impact and change situations.italic"">



I appreciate that is a bold statement, that we can grab a handful of the Kingdom. Let me give you a couple of examples to help you understand what I mean. Sometime ago
one of our leadership team came home very tired, we were due to go to a meeting
together that evening, but when I looked at him closely I could see he had had
a bad day. I asked about his day, had it
been tough? He told me it had been
terrible, one of his colleagues had been sacked, blamed for not completing a
task for an important project. I asked,
innocently if he believed that his colleague was at fault. My friend told me ‘No, it was not his fault
at all.’ I asked ‘Did you speak up for
him?’ He told me ‘You don’t understand,
if I had done that, perhaps I would have been blamed and I would have lost my
job.’ My response was blunt, ‘You missed
out on doing what we are supposed to do as first priority, ‘seek first the Kingdom of God’.
My friend was not happy with my response, but I needed to say what I
believe to be right, I needed to state where it’s at!


What we know as The Lords Prayer gives us a clue to what the Kingdom looks like. That is helpful, as we need to know what we are seeking.
The prayer says ‘your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven’ From my perspective, heaven,
or where the rule of the Kingdom of God is will be a place where there is
justice, righteousness, peace, love goodness and wholeness. Therefore, it follows that if we see those
things missing on earth, we need to ‘seek the Kingdom’. My friend could have
grabbed a handful of Kingdom, he could then have sprinkled justice and
righteousness into the meeting, but he was afraid.


Here is another example, for many years my wife and I fostered children. One of the young ladies we fostered had, due to her lies, caused much trouble for social workers, some had even been dismissed. In one of
the meetings that regularly take place with Social Services when you are a
foster career, I became convinced that the young lady was on the same tack. I
strongly believed that she was on a campaign to get the current social worker
dismissed, or at the very least, in serious trouble. I was also convinced that what she was saying
was untrue.


During the meeting, out of the blue my wife said to the young lady, ‘Does your boyfriend ever do anything wrong’ ‘Yes of course’ she responded quickly. ‘And do you forgive him?’ my wife asked, ‘Of course I do, he’s my boyfriend’. My wife
then put the young lady on the spot, ‘Could you, on this occasion, forgive your
social worker?’ The girl fidgeted, aware
she was cornered, and then looked at the social worker, ‘Yes, I could forgive
you.’ At that the meeting concluded,
although I noticed a queue of people lining up to ask my wife about this new
method of resolving conflict. But it’s
not a new method, it just bringing the Kingdom of God
into our space time world.


How does this fit into a series of articles on relationships? It troubles me that there are those who think relationship is the be all and end all. Everything hinges on being together, so a lovely shared
dinner, in a cosy environment, is the sum total of life. We meet because we
meet and that is all there is, that is the point of everything.


I believe relationships are incredibly important, perhaps the most important thing of all. But surely we ought to be together for something? What about mission? Shouldn’t our relationships be about doing
something, seeking The Kingdom? Then we
would come together to equip each other, and support each other as we seek The
Kingdom. I can already hear some of you
retorting ‘Oh how task orientated! How
terrible! We just need to chill! We need
to learn to be. We are who we are not
what we do’ Yes and No. Who we are often
leads on to what we do, and what we do together. If you can, imagine a couple who meet every
night, but never do anything together.
Very boring, and I strongly feel the relationship would flounder.


I think we are in this God relationship for a purpose, his purpose. I think all our other relationships also need purpose, his purpose, which ultimately becomes our
purpose. And that purpose? To be doers,
not just hearers of his words, to be Kingdom seekers in relationship with God
and each other.


Adrian Hawkes


For Ourlab Blog


20th February 2010
(Editor A. Brookes)


1030W

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