Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
You’ve heard the old joke about the dog who loved to chase cars until the day he caught one.
This may speak to why God has allowed Christianity to dwindle in the West, if not always in numbers, certainly in influence. If we began to walk in the promises of God, and took hold of that advancing kingdom Christ inaugurated, frankly, we wouldn’t know what to do with it.
One of the most glorious passages in the entire Bible is in Daniel, chapter seven, where the prophet writes:
“I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.” (7:13)
It’s no coincidence that “Son of Man” was Christ’s favorite label for himself. It doesn’t mean “best of men,” or even “humanity’s representative.” It goes back to this place, and it found its fulfillment in the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God, which we witness in Acts 1. Jesus presented himself to his Father as the Crown Prince, to whom a kingdom had been promised.
Daniel continues his vision:
“And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom … And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (7:14)
This is a prophecy of victory. The sticky bit is later, when Daniel is informed that “the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.” (7:18)
Step one: The Messiah gets an everlasting kingdom. OK, great!
Step two: The Messiah hands this kingdom to his people. Um, wait. What?
We’re in the two-thousand and twentieth year of our Lord’s reign, and his people keep proving they don’t know their left hand from their right. Some of the most glaring evidence for this comes in recent surveys showing that the two fastest growing segments of American society are the “Nones” and the “Dones.”
That is, when asked to relay their religious affiliation, the numbers are growing for those who check the box for “None,” and those who have left their former affiliation in favor of nothing. (They’re done with church altogether: the Dones.)
The Nones grow because we are bad at preaching the Gospel. And when we do, we preach a dumbed-down, fundamentally unbiblical message that even we aren’t all that excited about. The ranks of the Dones swell because once we manage to actually get someone in our churches, we greet them with human rules, useless answers, and a pedophile or three. The wonder is not how many leave, but how long some of them stay.
I would be disheartened about it, except that Jesus dealt with the same in his day. He preferred the company of the Nones and Dones. He pursued them and loved them, just like he did me.
What will we do with this kingdom, if we catch up with it? I’m simple enough to think the first step may be to make sure we are, in fact, implementing it in our own lives, according to the blueprints he left us.
Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:
