Sometimes it’s difficult to describe the kingdom of God and the praxis inherent within. We, as followers of Jesus, have to have faith that when we do what is right, according to kingdom values, then that “redeems” the world… that brings about God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
Admist the riots in Britian right now, a young man and his two friends were killed in a hit-and-run. As his father held his dying son in his arms, others vowed revenge. The grieving father later issued a statement that screams “kingdom of God” action:
“Last night we lost three cherished members of our community. They were taken from us in a way that no father, mother, sister or brother should have to endure. Today we stand here to plead with all the youth to remain calm, for our communities to stand united. As we stand here this is not a race issue,” he said.
“The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of the community, all faiths, all colors and backgrounds. Please respect the memory of our sons and the grief of our family and loved ones by staying away from trouble and not going out tonight. Basically, I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, Whites, we all live in the same community. Why do we have to kill one another? What started these riots and what’s escalated? Why are we doing this? I lost my son, step forward if you want to lose your sons, otherwise calm down and go home please.”
Forget about revenge, he said, and let the law follow its path.
As I read this news story yesterday morning, I was struck by the father’s counter-cultural wisdom of grace and pleaded for restraint. We are “taught” in our culture to vow revenge and “kill them all”. And yet, this man stood against the raging tide of vengeance, even as his own son lay dead. If that doesn’t sound like God’s kind of world, I don’t know what does!
The news article ends well:
…as a nation licks its wounds and everyone wonders how on earth all this could have happened, a grieving father, an immigrant from Pakistan who made his home in the motherland, will stand as the rallying call for sanity and unity in the United Kingdom.
via World Blog
