The Kingdom of God

I was at a world missions conference about a month ago, and one of the speakers said something that I have been reflecting on a lot . He said that the Church runs into problems when it becomes political. He used the crusades as an example. He said that the Kingdom of God is a person, spiritual idea.
It took me a while to realize the contradictory nature of that claim, but the irony is that the Kingdom of God is a politically charged phrase. It is a clear allusion to a political system(monarchy). So, the conclusion that I have come to is the Kingdom of God is not an apolitical term, but rather a redefining of our political consciousness. The Kingdom of God is radically different from all other systems of politics, but it is still a political idea. Politics is nothing more than how an individual interacts with a larger society. Working from this definition, it is easy to see how Jesus redefines(or better put reaffirms) God's political vision.
In God's Kingdom the strong are put to shame and the weak are lauded. The wise become foolish and the foolishness of God is esteemed. The Kingdom of God seeks not to dominate the world through coercion and violence, but to restore the world through love and grace. It does not seek to destroy enemies, but to make enemies friends. The measure of economic success in God's Kingdom is not volume of production, but amount of distribution.
Now, it is important not to neglect the spiritual nature of the Kingdom. It is the foundation of our politics. Our concept of politics is modeled perfectly in the spiritual nature of our faith. Take the resurrection of Christ, it models perfectly what should happen to our old nature. Or baptism, it symbolizes the washing away of your old mind set, your old life, your old politics. At the core of Christianity, we find relationship. YAHWEH is a God who desires to be known. He seeks a relationship with His creation. That is what we find in Christ. God seeks to reconcile Himself to His creation through the death of His Son. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point of all history. Both political and spiritual history. Christ dies on the cross and restores creation to its Creator. The transformation of individuals, was supposed to create a community that transforms.
The Church is that community. It has a pressing social and political agenda. The Church does not go bad when it has a political message, it goes bad when it has the same political message as the world.

The Little Girl in the Coffee Shop

I was just sitting in one of my favorite coffee shop haunts enjoying a red-eye and engaging in my favorite semi-creepy habit: people watching. It is amazing how God shows up in the little moments. I was watching a young girl maybe 3 or 4 with curly blonde hair and blue eyes devour a chocolate muffin. She was relentless in her pursuit, sparing no concern for the chocolate residue on her fingers and building around her mouth. Her beleaguered mother watched with split attention as she tended the small baby boy in her arms. The girl took pause from her delicious morsel to survey her surroundings, perhaps distracted by the change in music stations.  As she looked around inquisitively, her mother succumbed to the great temptation of her gender, chocolate. The little girl's attention was refocused by her mother's intrusion upon her scrumptious treat. She was not caroused by her mother's invasion of her sacred sweet. Her expression of childlike curiosity was instantly replaced with a look of scorn. It is the kind of look that only the caprice of a four year old can produce. She began to fuss complaining to her mother that it was her muffin. She was obstinate complaining that her mother stole "her" muffin. How could her mother be so cruel as to take her cherished muffin? Her mother then calmly explained that it was she who had provided the muffin, she who had bought it, she who had faithfully provided everything for her daughter right down to the muffin. What a dumb little girl right? How could she be so blind as to not see that the muffin never belonged to her in the first place?

Homosexuals in ministry

So, I have been searching for a topic that will really stir up some discussion, because I am sick of posting something and simply getting comments that affirm what I am saying(not that I don't like being affirmed) but the point of blogging is to work out issues, to discuss, and be forced to articulate.
So, I am posing this question: should churches ordain homosexual clergy?
I will provide you with my brief opinion. In a word, yes. I do not believe that homosexuality is a choice, but rather an effect of sociological conditioning. I do reject the idea that a gay person has chosen to be attracted to someone of the opposite sex.
Yet, the Bible is clear that any sex outside of a committed monogamous marriage is immoral. So, how do we reconcile these two factors? I believe that homosexuality is another sin, like lying, or lust. It is an inclination that must always be fought and resisted. When someone succumbs to the temptation, they must confess and seek forgiveness and reconciliation. But, this sin can not preclude someone from ministry, if it did, no one would be fit for ministry. For some reason in conservative Christianity, we have seen homosexuality as some kind of unforgivable base sin. We are a body of murders, liars, thieves and adulteres, all reconciled to God through the Messiah, and yet we still pass judgement on a homosexual? I am a murder, liar, cheater, and luster, how can I now condemn someone else? The apostle Paul says that there is now no conmdenation for those who are in Christ Jesus.