Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
- Psalm 46:6

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on
and on
- U2

Nepal's recent history is rough. The past several weeks of bloody demonstrations against the king's rule have resulting in his apparent capitulation this week for the drafting of a new constitution. The king's new role will likely relegated to a ceremonial status eventually, if even that. Nothing's over till it's over, but this particular kingdom is falling.

There aren't many kingdoms left, especially where the king still rules. There's the ceremonial United Queendom, f.k.a. The British Empire, where the sun never sets. There's the Netherlands. There's Jordan's King Abdullah II. Thailand, Qatar, Kuwait, Australia, and a couple dozen other monarchies remain. Many of them are more or less symbolic kingdoms.

Remember back, a while before our day, when God's chosen nation of Israel began agitating for their own king in I and II Samuel. Hey, if the Canaanites, Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites have kings, why can't we?

(Pause for a few moments and think about how the church today might gravitate toward observed earthly models of leadership and governance that, if perhaps granted, were not necessarily designed nor intended by God. And "democracy" as we know it is subject to scrutiny as well. Remember the tower of Babel??? One of Democracy's finer moments, just a flawed vision.)

For Israel, having God as the chosen nation's leader wasn't good enough. Apparently God did not yet know about the supremely sacred concept of "the separation of church and state."

God warns the people of Israel, through Samuel, but the people insist. Give us our king. Must have king. King good, we likey.

So God sighs, "OK, but don't say I didn't warn you."

The rest is history. Saul, David, Solomon, and dozens of others; each with their strengths and foibles; most of them mediocre or poor leaders; none of them better replacements for God on the throne.

Fast forward a thousand years, or on DVD/Tivo, click "next."

When John the Baptist arrived, he was inspired by the spirit of God to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." He came preparing the way, making straight paths, for the one who would usher in this new kingdom. He recognized and, strangely, actually baptised Jesus.

When Jesus began teaching he proclaimed, "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Is Near... Has Come... and to this day we who follow Jesus understand this current span of history to be a time of God's kingdom-of-heaven, on earth. Jesus constantly taught about and referred to this kingdom. He gave us parables, stories, and illustrations to explain what "the kingdom of God is like..."

Not only that, but he demonstrated it -- the "Good News" -- with his life, his words, his eyes, his touch, his social interactions, his love for and association with people who were estranged by society for various reasons.

Jesus turned many things upside down with his teaching and conduct. He spoke truth that people recognized as uniquely authoritative. He went to the extreme of proving his point -- about the kingdom of God -- by capitulating to execution by crucifixion, as an innocent man. He gave new life to God's covenant which creation couldn't keep. He introduced Covenant 2.0.

When we look at human kingdoms of today or ages past, compared with the kingdom of God which Jesus inroduced, they are very different things.

Where does this leave us? First, pray for the people in the place currently known as the Kingdom of Nepal. Pray for God to visit hearts and minds there. Pray for peace and for leadership with integrity to emerge from the rubble. Pray for God to use this unstable time to speak into the lives of people who can otherwise be distracted just like we are.

Second, think about kingship. Who is King, who is Lord? In what appropriate ways today should we "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's?" Where does the concept of the separation of church and state really come from and how should we view it today? How should a person who follows Jesus think about the kingdom of God?

How, and whom, do we worship, when it comes to our daily lives, motivations, and passions? Where do we spend our time and money? To whom is our highest allegiance?

There are fewer and fewer places in this world where nomads continue their unique and amazing lifestyle uninterrupted by the modern world.

This community of nomadic Tibetans is no exception.

These are a few beautiful images of the land and the people. According to BBC's captions, approximately 40% of the ethnic Tibetan population are nomadic or semi-nomadic.

In one of the later images you can see new "settlements" where the government is attempting to get these nomads to settle and change their lives, for various reasons. It looks nice and orderly as far as cookie cutter housing developments go. But imagine the immense changes -- good and bad -- that this relocation would mean for a Tibetan nomad.

Electricity (wired as well as solar), concrete buildings, motorcycles and paper money are a few of the injections of outside life that are changing these communities.

The world continues to move from rural life to the city, often because of poverty, only to find that poverty in the city is not inherently better.

There's something sad about technology and "stability" changing the course of the lives of nomads. I'm not so sure that a modern settled life is definitively better, because with these changes also comes a lot of negative cultural baggage, often disturbing community values, relationships, tradition, heritage, and codes of conduct.

It would be wrong to assume that all nomads would prefer to settle; or the converse, that every one of them prefers the wandering life.

I have met Tibetans, and nomads, but not a Tibetan nomad. One of the questions I wonder is in what ways has the one who created these people in the image of God made it possible for them to seek after God's face? How can they seek, how can they knock, how can they ask -- the actions of the pursuit of God which Jesus promises will be rewarded by an affirmative response from the God of love? For those who would follow the yearning inside to know and be known by God, how is God made available to them through these past centuries and in the ones to come?

Job 38:41 talks about God responding to even the ravens who cry out to God for food. Would not God respond to the human heart when it might cry out for communion with God, whether in a desolate place or in the city? I think so. But I don't understand how nor can I explain it in a nice package or bulleted outline.

Theology is extremely important, but I think if we are not careful it is possible for our human efforts in theology to border on idolatry. God is infinite, but because theology is finite, it requires a measure of humility. I know some theological answers to this question, but they don't always seem to be fully congruent with the God of the whole Bible, the eternal God of all of history.

And so we continue to ask questions, seek understanding, dialog, inspiration, revelation, and ask for wisdom -- wisdom with humility. Isn't that what the faith journey is about?

Abraham was a nomad for a time, as were many of the early people in the Bible. Israel lived a nomadic life for 40 years in the desert. Life wasn't easy, but God was near and God provided and protected. And a few lessons were taught and learned that otherwise would have not been possible.

There's something about life on the edge (in the nomadic sense) that can make a person depend on God in ways that are difficult when life is relatively comfortable and luxurious. A heated (or cooled) home, protection from the elements, plenty of food and clothing, convenience of elecricity and appliances to make daily chores so much easier... do we depend differently on God when we're "settled" rather than nomadic?

Pray for these Tibetan nomads. Pray for God to visit them in new ways. Pray for the small church that does exist in Tibet. Pray for the global church to learn something new about God from simple nomads. Pray for the tenuous political situation in Tibet. Pray for peace... in the halls of government, in the streets, in the wide open places, and in the hearts of the people.

Even in the darkest places in our world today, there can be found life and joy and celebration.

But it is hard to not notice that there is also death all around us (murder, disease, war, genocide, famine, old age), and death never feels good. Death isn't a laughing matter.

These recent days Christians have thoughtfully remembered Jesus' execution and how he humored death for three days in the ground.

It wasn't the final story, and for those who believe the teaching of the Bible, death never is.

Death is a good news / bad news thing.

The Good News about death is resurrection, the conquering of death by the one who knew no sin and was wrongfully put to death; the ultimate sacrifice of an innocent lamb.

The 15th chapter of Paul's letter in I Corinthians is sometimes called "the Resurrection Chapter."

Since death came through a man,
the resurrection of the dead
comes also through a man.
Just as in Adam all die,
so in Christ
all will be made alive.

The resurrection of Jesus from certain death is a matter of faith. It is not irrefutable nor provable. People will choose to believe it or not. And they might change their mind -- this is a matter of ongoing faith, not a one-time decision.

To dis-believe something just because we don't understand it is pride. It's impossible to follow this approach consistently.

I find that faith grows. Not in the sense that you psyche yourself into believing what you want to be true, although that can certainly happen.

But sometimes taking a volitional step of faith enables belief to build a foundation, and when we step up onto that foundation we find we can see things that we couldn't see before. We see some things with the mind, some things with the heart, and some things with the spirit.

Hopefully, along faith's journey, we still reason, and we still wrestle, and we still use our intellect. But unless we are insanely proud we don't presume our human intellect to be capable of comprehending the fullness of God, or all of God's eternal truth.

There's a lot of talk these days about death and resurrection, which I think is wonderful. Not all the discussion follows the same set of guidelines, but the fact that so much discussion exists is a good thing if it prompts more people to explore faith in God.

There's the Davinci Code (which is clearly fiction but some people are reading it as historical or authoritative!), the Gospel of Thomas and other gnostic writings from the 2nd and 3rd century, and the newly discovered Gospel of Judas manuscript. Then there's the frequent cover stories on Jesus' identity, history, and divinity.

There are always going to be some who will pick and choose what they personally feel most comfortable believing, not on the basis of what appears to be true in a lifelong process of sifting these questions, but on the basis of what feels good to believe, or what seems most understandable to the human mind.

I would like to be willing throughout my life to believe things that are "unbelievable," because to insist otherwise is to force God to fit in a mold shaped by the finite human mind. There is too much mystery and amazing beauty in this world for God to be downsized to a human construct.

The death and resurrection of Jesus doesn't fully make sense, and at the same time it does. Could God pull this off? Certainly. It would be foolish to declare that God could not. DID God pull this off? Well, that is a matter of faith.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who seeks finds; and to those who knock, the door will be opened... Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
(some of Jesus' words from Matthew 7)

It's "passion week," the special week when we remember the passion of Christ, leading up to his death.

For me, here are the best words (from a hymn) to depict what this week is all about:

Sorrow and Love flow mingled down.

Our remembrance this week is about the combined sorrow and love of Jesus for the people he created in his own image, but who have historically turned aside to other pursuits.

It's two millenia later, and still, each of us are the benefactors of the death and resurrection of Jesus who, in sorrow and love, gave his life as a sacrifice to pay the consequence of our sin.

A question I like to ask my friends is "What would you say is your passion?" Try asking this question of your best friend when he or she is not expecting it. Try asking it a week later in another context.

This question produces a fascinating array of responses.

In our best moments, if we're followers of Jesus we'd always have the perfect answer to this question, right? My passion is to know God. My passion is to love and serve people who were created in God's image. My passion is for justice and holiness. My passion is God's kingdom. My passion is worship.

But unprepared, the answers we hear ourselves saying might differ. They might have to do with hobbies, romantic relationships, recreation, pleasure, leisure, economic status, power, comfort, perhaps skewed notions of freedom or finding our identity and self worth in the wrong places.

This passion week, what is my passion? What is your passion?

Hebrews 12:2-3 (MSG)
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed -- that exhilarating finish in and with God -- he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

There are a lot of stories in the news about various places of worship that have been destroyed.

Almost weekly now, mosques and other sacred places for Muslims in Iraq are being bombed by opposing Islamic factions, often killing people as well. Churches have been burned or bombed in Alabama and Pakistan and other places. Buddhist statues in Afghanistan were famously destroyed by the Taliban about five years ago. Last month, a bomb killed 15 or more people in the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi, India.

Successful or not, there are many attempts in our day and throughout history to destroy temples -- places of worship. This is one of the primely adolescent ways for one group to express its extreme intolerance of another group. These acts of hatred do not damage God nor point to God.

But they do demonstrate the short human fuse, with regards to the unfamiliar beliefs of others.

Is God -- if you believe in God who has always existed and always will exist, and who created us and everything that we might ever know -- is God affected by these human efforts at destruction? What might God think of these foolish attacks on brick and mortar, or worse, on other people whom God created and loves?

These human efforts to destroy places of worship were brought to mind this week when I was reading some of the passion narrative, where Jesus said,

"Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."

Nobody including Jesus' disciples understood that at the time he was talking about his body, which would be killed, and three days later would miraculously rise again from death.

Jesus' very words about destroying and rebuilding the temple in three days were used to mock him at his trial and crucifixion, which Christians remember this week.

It's fascinating that Jesus defined his body as a temple -- a place of worship. Jesus radically redefined the concept of temple -- traditionally a physical structure so elaborate it would take months or years to build, not half a week.

Traditional temples are places where God is believed to dwell, and people go there to worship God.

Jesus did have a respect for the traditional temple and the appropriate reverence for God's House. From a young age he often went to the temple to listen and discuss and worship.

In his only documented physical outburst of anger, Jesus drove shameless capitalists from the temple with a whip because they were defiling the place with their commerce. "How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

(His disciples remembered that it is written in Psalms 69:9, "Zeal for your house will consume me.")

When he was challenged on his authority to drive the marketers out of the temple, he declared the promise about rebuilding the temple, which at the time was just a riddle to his listeners.

The "old" Jewish temple had a place called the Holy of Holies. Not even the priest could enter this place where God dwelt within the temple.

A curtain separated this holy place from the rest of the world. But when Jesus was crucified, after he died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two.

The New Covenant was born. Communion is a ritual that Christians obediently observe to remember "the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." This new covenant is one of direct access to God, the elimination of the need for mediation by priests and scribes and pharisees.

What is the takeaway here? It is that the temple of God is not a building. We still use buildings, they're helpful places to gather. We might even decorate them to inspire worshipful reflection. We might even unknowingly dabble in idolatry in our use and decoration of buildings as temples of God.

But God's real temple is you and me, creatures made in the image of God, with hearts in which God longs to reign as our lord.

In our worst moments, we humans are good at destroying temples. In our better moments, might we seek to rebuild temples that have faded or been destroyed.

In our even better moments, we might seek to be good stewards of ourselves as living temples, places where God dwells, and to worship God at all times from wherever we are, taking captive every thought and word and motive, for the sake of Jesus who gave himself for us.

Paul writes in I Corinthians 3:16-19:

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy you; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become a "fool" so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. 

Are you and I building a temple?

This is a followup to last week's "God's Converts" entry. Mr. Rahman is now safely arrived in Italy where it appears he will live for the foreseeable future.

Another interesting story on BBC's website, about Christians in Afghanistan which is an almost completely Islamic society.

One of the interviewed Christians mentions that most of his personal friends in Afghanistan regard his faith as a personal choice, and accept it. The tiny Christian minority tentatively clings to hopes for freedom to exercise their faith, as do the tiny minorities of Sikhs and Hindus in the country.

"In the future, what God wants will happen. But Christians are always with God and if we are killed we go to God."

Pray for safety and courage and freedom in Afghanistan to follow Jesus, for those who already do, and for anyone who might choose to do so.