Some years ago I taught a course on the life and teachings of Jesus in the Church of the Brethren. We spent a lot of time on the Kingdom of God since every New Testament scholar agrees that Jesus’ message was the Kingdom of God. Part of what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God was the fulfillment of God’s hopes and dreams for humankind, history, and all creation. Because of the Judeo-Christian belief in God as Creator, Christian theology at its best has included creation in the salvation brought through Jesus Christ. Human beings, humanity, history, time, space and all creation will be redeemed, transformed, and made whole when God’s Kingdom comes in its completeness.
As the class discussed the implications for this ancient belief of the church, one of the members expressed the sorrow and frustration he experienced as he went about his vocation. He is a scientist with a particular concern for ecology. His work involves trying to find ways human beings and the rest of creation can live in harmony and with concern for the future. This devoted Christian expressed how helpless he so often feels as he witnesses the destruction of the environment and the apparent lack of will on the part of most people to change their lifestyles so that our planet has a desirable tomorrow. He asked what encouragement I could offer in light of what we had studied that could keep him faithful even when he saw so little evidence that his faithfulness made any difference.
Needless to say I thought, “How on earth can I give an answer to such a sincere question asked by a faithful follower of Jesus?” But then a quotation from the rabbis came to mind. Perhaps the Spirit stirred my memory. I said, “I think a statement from the Talmud would best instruct us all at this point. ‘You are not required to finish the task any more than you are allowed to lay it aside.’” We are not required to save the world. Our shoulders are not broad enough or strong enough to play a Messianic role. God can be trusted eventually to bring the task to completion. All that is required of us is faithfulness. We can yearn for the time when the wholeness of God’s salvation will redeem creation, but we need not worry in frantic alarm when our faithfulness does not seem to contribute to that final goal.
One truth I firmly believe is that we may never know (at least in this dimension) how God can use our faithfulness to change the world and to be an instrument of God’s healing peace. We tend to look at the great saints and heroes of the faith and think they were great “successes” as they transformed their world. But a sober reading of history will tell us otherwise. Saint Francis saw the movement he started quickly become watered down as the papacy took more and more control. Even before Francis’ death, some Franciscans did not share his concern for the poor, the hungry, the work for peace and reconciliation, and the practice of humility. In some ways, he died a broken man. And yet God has for over five centuries used his vision to revive the church and individual Christians to obedient and joyful discipleship.
And then there is the twentieth century hero of the faith, Clarence Jordan. Jordan founded Koinonia Farm as an attempt to live the gospel in southern Georgia in such a way that included everyone regardless of race, creed or position. Needless to say, in the 1940s and 1950s that attempt faced a lot of violent opposition. But after twenty-five years of faithfulness this effort seemed to be coming to an end. Clarence, his wife Florence, and one other family remained at what was to be a “Demonstration Plot” of God’s Kingdom. Jordan questioned whether he had made any difference in his years of faithful discipleship. He became somewhat bitter and depressed. And then a young man who had given away his millions of dollars to save his marriage and to once again focus his life on Jesus “accidentally” made a visit to Koinonia. This man named Millard Fuller and Clarence began a dream together. And from that dream came what we now know as Habitat for Humanity. Koinonia Farm became Koinonia Partners and later evolved into other incarnations and is still active today. The dream rather than being dead took on new form and has blessed this planet beyond Jordan’s wildest imagination. Clarence Jordan died before he saw the extent of Habitat for Humanity’s profound impact on the lives of so many people. And his example and writings have influenced thousands of people. He has an audience and influence after death that he never enjoyed in life.
And what of us? Do any of us really have any idea how God can take our faithfulness—our five loaves and two fish and multiply the bounty of the Kingdom in our time and space? And who knows how God can use our faithfulness in the next dimension of existence—that realm which no eye can see, no ear can hear, and no mind can imagine.
I believe with all my heart that God will use our faithfulness. Whether we see how God will do it or whether we must act in trust that our offered five loaves and two fish will in time or eternity be enough, we really have no choice but to embrace the words of the rabbi. We too are not required to finish the task any more than we are allowed to lay it aside. We too must pray with eager anticipation and deep yearning, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” And we too must live as though we believe that God will not abandon us or creation, but will weave our fine threads of faithfulness into the exquisite pattern of creation’s final destiny—a destiny finding its home in God’s own heart.
