When the gospel breaks out, it always brings joy and gladness in its train. Sinful and tidy-minded men do not like the kind of disorder the gospel brings, and so they bustle around trying to pick up after it. After a time, God grants their request and sends leanness to their souls, and their museum piece churches slide back into their desired quiet. But the word speaks plainly: “Wake up O sleeper, and Christ will shine upon you.”
Now of course there is a disorder that comes from the devil and overheated brains of men. There is a chaos that dishonors God because it neglects the Word of God, and what God commands us to do. But this is not our temptation. There is also an ecclesistical order that comes from the devil, the order of a crypt or cemetery. This also neglects the Word of God. Death is an enemy of God, and yet I suppose the process of decomposing back to the dust of the ground can be called an orderly process.
When the living gospel is having its living way in our midst, the result is a strange combination—the order of glad-hearted obedience as well as the disorder of forgiveness, kindness, striving for like-mindedness, keeping priorities straight, and so on. The fact that we might recoil at the thought of calling these things disorderly illustrates the latent Pharisee in all of us. True life together in Christ is the right kind of messy, and cannot be reduced the deadly order of an exhibition under a glass case.
So go and learn what this means: forgiveness is improvisation and kindness is extemporaneous. Striving for like-mindedness is well-played jazz. The sacrifices and burnt offerings that God clearly required, God did not require.