kingdom -- Coolhombres

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Subject: kingdom

Author:
adam

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Date Posted: 05:35:26 03/21/02 Thu

Jon/Micah,

Thanks for your responses...I want to affirm that the kingdom of heaven is in our hearts, but also that it is manifested in other ways. I think that there are social, cultural, political implications for the kingdom. It is not only a personal, individual phenomenon.

I do think it is important to be carefully critical. Especically to see yourself as subject to your own cynicism. In this way, we are all pharisees. But we should still work at reforming our churches and worldviews.

For me, coming out of Taylor "left me cold". I had a real problem with the version of evangelical spirituality that was presented. I was confused and frustrated. I can remember saying, "If this is Christianity, I am not sure I want it." Fortunately, I feel like my post Taylor years offered me an alternative form of spirituality that has been very helpful. This is found in the phrase, "kingdom of heaven". The kingdom represents for me a worldview that doesn't have a sacred/secular distinction. In other words, the redemption of the world is taking place both inside and outside of the church. God's redemptive work can be seen both through the church, in my own heart, in cultural forms, and through political means. Through common grace, God is bringing about his kingdom that is the redemption of the whole cosmos, "For God so loved the cosmos", not for God so loved humanity. These manifestations of redemption in the different spheres represent that the kingdom is actually something that is happening as we speak. It is already, but not yet.

Criticism without a positive formulation is cheap. Anyone can be the gadfly. Its an easy way out. I hope I don't come across that way.

Let me know what you think....

ak

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[> Subject: kingdom

Author:
Frizzell
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Date Posted: 19:50:40 03/21/02 Thu

Ah the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God or The Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the predominant term used in the book of Matthew while the Kingdom of God is used in the rest of The New Testament. There is a debate on whether they are synonomous terms but that is neither here nor there. I am going to go with the Kingdom of God.

Adam posed a couple questions: What is the kingdom? What does it look like? These are difficult questions for modern man. Indeed they were difficult questions for the apostles. I think you will be hard pressed to find a topic that Jesus spoke of so much but seems to be understood so little. However, it is evident that Jesus wanted us to focus our attention on this kingdom.

Why is there so much confusion regarding the subject? It seems that "figuring out" the Kingdom of God has been a source of much consternation for present day Christians. It could be attributable to many things. But I believe that one of them is the method in which Jesus taught. When teaching on the kingdom specifically he never spoke of it in hard themes. He never said "these are the twelve steps to taking part in the kingdom." And, as of yet, I have not seen a book with the title "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Kingdom Dwellers." No, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom he said things like "The Kingdom of God is like a pearl that you sell everything in order to buy." or "It's like a treasure that you hide in field selling everything to buy the field." It's not something that we can master and figure out. Some have tried. There was the rich man that asked Jesus what he must "do" in order get eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments. He responds by saying that he has. Jesus-seeing this coming a mile away-tells him that if he really wants to be perfect he must sell everything he has and give it to the poor. The text tells us the man left very sad. My guess is the man was sad because the kingdom wasn't something he could contol, only something he could take part in and enjoy.

Then there is the issue of the Kingdom of God "is at hand." (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, Luke 10:9) The verb that is translated "is at hand" indicates a past and completed action. Jesus brought the kingdom here for us to take part in now, but, as Adam said, not yet fully. The idea then, that we accept Jesus, just so that we can go to heaven, doesn't seem to mesh. What then would we do with the time we have here on earth? Clearly we are not supposed to live a life of hope deferred. Further, if it is here, and it as valuable as Jesus said it was, then there is more to it than what upset us at Taylor.

To me, the most potent parable about the Kingdom of God is the one where Jesus equates it to a mustard seed. Matthew 13:31. It pervades everything. Work, husbandry, friendships, recreation, etc. As Adam said we take part in the Kingdom when we live and act the way Jesus did in our various disciplines of life.

I believe that when seen The Kingdom this way we can reject the futility of life. No area of life should be seen as futile even if we are not handing out tracks, actively evangelizing, debating athiests, or leading praise choruses.

If the only thing that matters is evangelism then a lot of our lives remain untouched by the Kingdom of God.

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