Making the Invisible Kingdom Visible

Scarcely a day goes by without yet another reminder of the ancient Roman ph=
rase, Homo homini lupus est: man is a wolf to his fellow man. The terrible =
bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon=E2=80=94which, at the tim=
e of this recording, killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, =
and injured at least 140 others=E2=80=94is just the latest graphic piece of=
evidence.

And the bombing is also further proof=E2=80=94as if we needed more=E2=80=94=
of what Christian writer Ed Stetzer calls =E2=80=9Cthe brokenness in our fa=
llen world.=E2=80=9D

Yet Christians know that this is, at best, an incomplete depiction of man. =
Fallen men are capable of incredible=E2=80=94or, perhaps, all-too-credible=
=E2=80=94cruelty towards each other. But even in our fallen state, we are c=
apable of just the opposite: overcoming evil with good.

As one of my colleagues pointed out, one of the most striking and certainly=
the most moving images coming out of Boston was of people rushing forward =
toward the sites of the explosions to help the injured.

The=
Archbishop of Boston, Sean O=E2=80=99Malley, spoke for many of us when he =
said that =E2=80=9Cthe citizens of the City of Boston and the Commonwealth =
of Massachusetts are blessed by the bravery and heroism of many, particular=
ly the men and women of the police and fire departments and emergency servi=
ces who responded within momentsof these tragic events.=E2=80=9D

But it wasn=E2=80=99t only those in uniform. Carlos Arredondo, a peace acti=
vist whose son was killed in Iraq, became a national hero when he jumped ov=
er the security fence and started helping the injured. And he wasn=E2=80=99=
t the only civilian who ran towards the chaos when common sense dictated ru=
nning away from it.

Watching the coverage, another colleague was not only inspired by the actio=
ns of those who rushed to the aid of the injured but also saw in their acti=
ons a metaphor of what it means to be the Church in a broken and fallen wor=
ld.

As Ed Stetzer wrote, =E2=80=9Cit=E2=80=99s not enough for Chr=
istians merely to recognize that the world isn=E2=80=99t what it ought to b=
e and that people are suffering in ways they shouldn=E2=80=99t have to suff=
er.=E2=80=9D Instead, our =E2=80=9Csorrow and indignation=E2=80=9D should p=
rompt us to act in ways that =E2=80=9Csubvert=E2=80=9D that brokenness.

Our task is to =E2=80=9Cwork to make this world more as God would inte=
nd it to be=E2=80=94with justice, peace, and more.=E2=80=9D Or as Chuck Col=
son used to put it,” our task is to make the invisible Kingdom visibl”e.

Chuck loved to tell the story of how, when the great plagues struck ancient=
Rome and the doctors fled the city, Christians stayed behind and cared for=
the sick, even though as a result some contracted the plague themselves an=
d died. They saw this as part of what it meant to be God=E2=80=99s people i=
n a suffering world. As a result of their witness, many pagans became Chris=
tians because they saw in this sacrificial love something that paganism cou=
ld not offer.

That =E2=80=9Csomething=E2=80=9D was the invisible Kingdom now made visible=
.

Think of Mother Theresa. While other people abandoned the sick and dying of=
Calcutta, she embraced them. In doing so, she and her Missionaries of Char=
ity made the invisible Kingdom visible one dying person at a time.

Every time Prison Fellowship volunteers reach out to a different kind of pa=
riah=E2=80=94prisoners=E2=80=94they announce that this world=E2=80=99s brok=
enness is not final. God is at work setting things right.

One day, because of the resurrection of Jesus, it will all be set right. Bu=
t for now, we keep running toward the chaos making visible to the world the=
invisible Kingdom of God that will one day fill the whole earth.