The rebel cries for freedom, liberty, and a brand new world have been filing our TV screens for weeks – as the Middle East roils in confrontations between oppressive regimes and an energized populace that has grabbed a glimpse of the notion that another world is possible.

Hope, longing, and desperation have taken to the streets – as change takes over changeless places, hope rises above hopeless places, and the possibility of potential – untapped and inert for so long – now brims and boils – and is turning the world into something brand new.

1500 years ago a quiet, monkish, man from the wilderness now known as Wales took to this same notion.  David in our language, Dewi in theirs, caught the same wave, took on a mantle of leadership, and in a disorganized time, organized the heart and soul of a nation.

Dewi’s deepest inspiration was the word of a Jewish peasant, 5 centuries before, who was so taken with the notion that another world, outside this one, was breaking through.  Jesus announced, to an oppressive, dangerous, and fragile world, that something was coming, and that people could help it along.   The great Shalom of a quiet, gentle, fair, and fulfilling age was here to trump corruption, oppression, and inequality.  Error could give way to truth, sin to righteous, life to death.

Bringing that world into this one, as Dewi and his followers knew, means living in this world as if we were in that one – treating one another with honesty, respect, and dignity, striving for justice, fairness, equality, and oneness with God – because that’s what this new world is all about.  That is the world that is breaking into this one.  That is the world that is taking over this one.  That is Jesus’ world that has been prepared for us, as we prepare for it.

Reading

The Future of Faith – Harvey Cox

Mark – N.T. Wright

Mark – William Barclay