Human Sovereignty

I love the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis.  In those three volumes, he allows us to explore ideas of how God might rule in other worlds, and how they might speculatively affect our broken world.  Especially the first, Out of the Silent Planet, plays with the idea of how a world might look if there was no divide between the creature and the Creator, between the physical and spiritual.  How joy and love was not a struggle, but a daily basking in all that the Creator has for us to live with.

However, this world is trapped in a bubble of separation from a world of mercy and justice and peace.  And this is the way God set it up.

In the mythos of the first few chapters of Genesis, the whole of the newly remodeled world is handed over to humanity to rule.  This grant of governorship was established on the assumption that humanity, a new creation and toddlers in a universe of mature actors, would remain under God's tutelage, learning the rule of Mercy.  

However, that's not how it turned out. 

 God is not, in the Bible, a faithless ruler, who breaks his promises just because the premise on which they were built is set aside.  Even though humanity became so violent that God determined to wipe out the entirety of his new remodel, he retained a handful of the creatures on whom he placed authority, although giving a few rules on which they were to follow.  Despite all evidence that this was a bad idea, God allowed humanity to retain their sub-sovereignty over the world.

"What is a human, that you are mindful of her?
And the son of man, that you visit him?
For you have made them a littler lower than God
Crowned them with glory and honor
You made them to have dominion over the works of your hands;
You have put all things under their feet."
Psalm 8:4-6

God still kept humanity on a leash.  If any nation proved to be too abusive to their fellow humans, God would take out the leaders that thought themselves so divine that they could ignore the needy or poor. (Genesis 19, Ezekiel 16, Psalm 82). 

God's goal has always been to reform humanity, to train them to be proper rulers over the earth.  He took a long view and had hope.  According to the Bible, here are some of the various experiments in the reform of humanity God embarked upon:

-Scattering humanity throughout the earth, so they didn't focus on each other as much as reforming the landscape (Genesis 11).
-Choosing a single man to establish a family/nation of people who trusted in God (Genesis 12-50).
-Choosing a nation of slaves to rely on God and to never treat others as chattel (Exodus).
-Choosing a king over the people who trusted in God to have a line which would train the people to trust in God's mercy. (I Samuel 16; II Samuel 7)
-Establishing a central place where trust in God might be taught (II Chronicles 7)
-Breaking the people by separation from God's blessing, putting them under the control of ruthless humanity, teaching them to follow God's word and spirit. (Ezekiel 36).

Ultimately all of these experiments (and more) failed.  Perhaps we can see them working if we see them leading up to a greater plan: the coming of Jesus.

-He came as a divine, being fully human, so qualified to rule.
-He fully trusted in God
-He used that trust to help those in need.
-He proved that contemporary leadership was abusive to the needy and so needing to be set aside.
-He trusted God to such a degree that he became hated and killed by all humanity.
-Because of his lowliness, he was raised to be the King of a new nation.
-This nation is made up of all nations, all who follow the mercy that God wanted to establish at first.

This new experiment is best not called Christianity.  Christianity is the shadow side of this experiment, where God's mercy is overtaken by law and empiric lust for power.  Rather, the experiment of Jesus is not found among those who shout "Jesus" the loudest, but those who follow Jesus the closest.

Those who trust in God, giving him the opportunity to miraculously provide.
Those who sacrificially show mercy with all of their resources.
Those who cry for justice, despite their own harm by the human powers.
Those who pray, opening the opportunities for God to act boldly on earth.
Those who are listening to God, learning daily the path of mercy to those in need.
Those who offer grace as fully as they receive it.

Some of these are Christians.  Some are not.  But all are changing the world, small step by small step, toward the love, peace and justice God desired at the beginning.