The Divine Tension of Nay

My fellow Exilic Ecclesia,



Since Christ the King, Sunday is this week and we in the liturgical tradition celebrate the consumation of all things when the Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of the LORD and his Christ by the Holy Spirit, I would like to address an Exilic and Kingdom theme which I entitle: The Divine Tension of Nay.



Where did I get this from? This term comes from many places. Many folks who comment on the Kingdom of God says that we must embrace the Divine Tension, I believe among others this can be attributed to MLK Jr but the theme is rooted in the fact that the Kingdom of God is here and not yet. This idea also comes from a book: Tortured for Christ, a story about Richard Wumbrand and his terms of imprisonment for the Gospel in Communist camps. He relates a story from Jewish folklore when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, the Angels rejoiced with the Israelites and Yahweh rebuked them saying that these are my people too, let them celebrate but do not join in. Wumbrand then relates the Story of Joshua.

After Joshua and the people cross over the Jordan to Promise Land; Joshua meets a strange figure who has a sword drawn out and Joshua inquires whose side was this figure on. Was he on the side of the Israelites or the Jerichoites. And in good King James Fashion, the figure said Nay, I am the Captain of the Lord's host. Joshua asked what was the word of Yahweh. The Captain; take off your sandles for this is Holy Ground.

There are some things that we got to notice from this text. First Joshua, was in the middle of a battle where there are sides to be taken. Second Joshua thought that he was goin' to get a word from God about his situation, and yet all he gets is the the divine figure telling him to take off his shoes because what! this is Holy Ground. In the midst of the rhetoric, in the midst of side taking, God creates Sacred Space; a realm of Nay; where it is God who calls shots and transcends sides, and we bow in humble adoration and faith in the unknown or uncertainty.

In our society where social issues is about sides and rhetoric we need a Word that cuts through the rhetoric and says Nay. If I can get my neo-orthodox brothers to help me out; they say that thing are always in dialetic. What is the answer to these social issues: they are Yes and No and stand under the judgement of the Cross. Now I know that one is going to say that Brother Paul in the First Corinthians says: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ." How can we say that we live in the Divine Tension of Nay when the Divine Word who is Jesus says that all the promises that are in him are Yes and Amen. How can we reconcile these two contridictory statements? You don't, you keep them in tension; because when a word of promise is yes to us who are joint heirs to the promise, then that means there is a No or Nay uttered against those who are not of the promise.

My sisters and brothers, let me tell you something, American Capitalistic society ain't heir to the promise of the Kingdom, neither is American Christianity that caders to the culture on both the right side or the left side of these issues. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln. He said, they ask me if God is on our side, and I tell them Nay, I want to be on God's side. We have passed political legislation and called it the Kingdom. We who are in Exile know that we live ambiguities when it comes to these issues. Does this mean that we do not have held convictions. Nay! Does it mean that we do not have different convictions. Nay! What it does mean is that we put our convictions, our sides and submit them to the Spirit who knows how to keep them in Divine Tension because he creates the atmosphere. When we tout against certain rights and for other rights and yet do not take in account the lives that live in the liminal space of these issues, the Divine Tension ,then we lose sight of the Gospel that reaches out to the gray areas. When we do not take in account the peoples lives and be willing to live in the liminal with them and interceding for them and with them even when they may not change in the way we think; then we are not truly acting as priests and mediators of Divine Reality.

We need to live in the Divine Tension of Nay! This is the realm of Exile. This is where when the Divine Word that is uttered cuts through the rhetoric of our culture, and even the rhetoric of what looks like church, talks like church but may not be church. We are called my Exilic brothers and sisters to wrestle with the Angel of the Divine Tension of Nay because is where we get our name as those who travel in the Exilic Way who is Jesus.