It is tempting when in proximity to power to become wrapped up in it, to see that power as the only way to achieve one’s ends and to accept the idea that to have access to that power one must curry favor.
Yes, it means the banquet is going to be louder and more raucous, but unlike the fake peace that is simply the absence of conflict, the potential to share and experience the love of Christ and the true peace of Christ is absolutely alluring.
I sometimes strain to see the reign of God, the “yeast action,” at work in my country these days. Even many who name themselves Christian incarnate values of denigration, domination, greed, division, baseness, and every form of oppression, mostly notably racism.
In my words and actions I testify to the divisive, power-focused, hateful, competitive understandings that surround me – or I testify to the truth of the reign of God.