Watching this video somehow struck a chord.
Especially, since last Sunday I broke my months of absence at church. Months ago I've somehow lost interest in attending worship services, because I feel as though like I've just been spending years of my life going through the motions of standing up, sitting down; reading the Bible; singing long praise songs that repeats the words Jesus" and "me" to the point of abuse; and sitting for an hour to listen to unchallenging messages and reading bullet points flashed in a multimedia projector.
To cut the story short I dropped out and given up on the idea of attending worship services.
But watching this video reminded me of something and somehow it got me into thinking again about the church and Christ's mission in the world. Since the very reason that I landed myself back at church again was that I was invited to give a lecture on the historical backdrop of the New Testament.
Looking back now I think that too often I think we have come to forget that during the time when the New Testament was being formed in 1st century Roman-Judea there was a widespread consciousness of an apocalyptic vision that existed alongside a nationalist notion of a messiah, as one who will defend the Jews against foreign oppressors and rule the Jews justly, and by divine right. God would reign, to liberate His people from oppression; to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous, and the new age of God’s future would emerge.
The God of promise, the God of hope: this God was now drawing near, so that the final goal of history was at hand. God is coming! God is near! God is here and now establishing His kingdom of righteousness in the people that gathers in Jesus name. This was the message of Jesus of Nazareth.
The resounding chorus of Handel's Messiah climaxes with these words:
The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
And He shall reign forever and ever,
Forever and ever, forever and ever,
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings, forever and ever,
And Lord of lords,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
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