If we are going to embody the kingdom of heaven on earth there are a few steps that, sooner or later, we all need to take.

The first step we all need to take is a step of integrity. This is a personal step. When we decide that we can live ‘divided no more’ but want to live by what we believe and practice the Be-Attitudes . [i]

The second step we all need to take is a step of unity. This is a relational step. When we decide we need to ’unite with others’ and work out a way forward to practice the Be-Attitudes together.[ii]

The third step we all need to take is a step of solidarity. This is a political step. When we decide we need to make our private allegiances and private alliances we have developed to help us practice the Be-Attitudes public. [iii]

The fourth step we all need to take is a step of policy. This is a structural step. When we decide we need to develop alternative groups and organizations in our communities based on the Be-Attitudes. [iv]

However, nearly every time I talk with people about developing alternative groups and organisations, the conversation quickly turns from talk about internal sources we can access through the spirit to external sources like ‘funds’ and ‘numbers’.

If people want to organise a welfare programme, they want to talk about ‘funds’. ‘Where can we get the funds we need to run the programme?’ they inquire. If people want to organise a protest movement, they want to talk ‘numbers’. ‘How can we get the numbers we need to get a major social movement on a roll?’ they ask. These reactions reveal that people, both on the right and on the left of the political spectrum, believe that external resources matter more than internal sources of power. They believe that we can only do significant work in our community if we have access to either lots of cash, or large crowds, or both. It’s all about ‘fund raising’ and ‘number crunching’.

Because so many people frame their problems, and the solutions to their problems, in terms of access to resources, which, by definition, are beyond their control, they disempower themselves. If they can’t get access to the resources they require in order to act, they simply do not act. If they do get the resources they require, they may act, but they only act according to the terms, and conditions, that have been set for the support they receive. Either way, they abrogate their power to solve their own problems; they project the power to solve their problems onto others; and, in so doing, they render themselves powerless.

Jesus challenged people’s dependence on external resources. On two occasions he sent his disciples out into various villages to do some work for his Be-Attitude Revolution.

On the first occasion Jesus sent his disciples out into the world, he forbade them to take any money at all. According to Jesus money was not essential. Money was a merely a note promising to share a certain amount of commodities or services. What mattered to Jesus was, not that his disciples carried a note that held the promise of help, but that his disciples actually practised the Be-Attitudes and helped the people they met out of their own internal resources.

On the second occasion Jesus sent his disciples out, he allowed them to take a little money – but not much. According to Jesus money was never a primary source, only a secondary resource. External resources like money could be helpful as a secondary resource for community work. But, if external resources ever became a substitute for internal resources, and money became a primary, rather than secondary, consideration, then Jesus warned us, that money would destroy his Be-Attitude Revolution. After all, he said, ‘the love of money is the source of evil.’ (1 Timothy 6:10)

On both the occasions Jesus sent his disciples out to do work for his Be-Attitude Revolution, he didn’t send them out in big numbers, and he didn’t expect them to get big numbers involved. It was less a mass movement – more a micro movement. He didn’t send his disciples out in their hundreds, or thousands. But in twos. And he didn’t expect them get hundreds, or thousands involved. But one here, and one there. As far as Jesus was concerned, two meeting one, and forming a group of three, was a big enough crowd for us to begin our Be-Attitude Revolution.

For Jesus a ‘trinity’ was not so much a theological abstraction as it was a theological strategy for incarnating the kingdom of heaven on earth.  A group of three could create within themselves the stability and security necessary for incarnating a kingdom.(‘A cord of three strands is not easily broken’. Ecclesiastes 4:12) A group of three could create within themselves the subjectivity and the objectivity necessary for incarnating a kingdom on earth. (‘Let every matter be decided on the basis of two or three witnesses’. Matthew 18:16) And a group of three could create within themselves the space necessary for incarnating Christ’s kingdom of heaven on earth here and now. (‘Wherever two or three of you gather in my name’, Jesus said, ‘there am I in the midst of you’. Matthew 18:20)

Dave Andrews

From Hey, Be And See (Authentic)