Community of the Risen

Wes recently wrote a blog on the “difficulty in the terminology” for the “Kingdom of God.” The difficulty for him is the “dichotomy between what God’s Kingdom is and what it is not.” To Wes the “reality” is that “this world, all we see and don’t see, belongs to God and is under His rule.”  It is refreshing to read this blog in a world that tries to set boundaries and legalistic rules over every area of our life.  Parts of Wes’ post are unclear, but his main thesis that the movement of the Spirit is one where “the warm embrace of a kingdom” brings “all things within the reign of God.”

I’m not sure if this blog agrees or disagrees with Wes.  The task of this thought is the application of such a truth in today’s world.  Wes argues that “our task is not to decide what is and isn’t of the Kingdom. Ours is the task of bringing all things under the reign of God. This spans through, culture, through our political agendas, through how we care for the environment, and through how we deal the lady at the checkout counter. We have an all-encompassing mission.”  How exactly do we bring Christ into culture and political agendas?  How do we bring the kingdom of God to earth in all these different ways?

The simplest message of the kingdom of God is for all to repent.  This word has become a nightmare because it has so many connotations in the modern evangelical church such that it would be wise for us to inscribe our own definition here.  Repentance is a turning from selfishness that we ourselves are the center of the universe, and entering into the reign of God. The reign of God is simply this, “The kingdom of God is near.”  We must continue our thoughts on the reign of God but first I must digress for a moment back to Wes’ thoughts.

Here I must disagree slightly with Wes’ thoughts.  There are two kingdoms in this world.  There really is on this earth a “dominion of darkness” that is real.[1]  To say that there is only one kingdom diminishes the reality of this dominion.  The kingdom of darkness does not diminish the kingdom of light but the kingdom of light has not yet won the battle over the kingdom of darkness.  Christ has defeated death and has brought about a call to repentance but all men must respond to that call before the dominion of darkness is done away with.

I am currently working on my own definition of the kingdom of God based on scripture and tradition within the church.  There will hopefully be a part two to this discussion once I have finished this.    

[1] Colossians 1:13

Wes’ blog is originally found here:

http://whateverisgood.blogspot.com/2006/09/holisitc-kingdom.html

He comes walking down the footpath, each footstep erased in the sand by a slight breeze. Two pre-adolescent girls giggle softly as the eccentric gentleman passes by, not quite a stranger but not amiable enough to be accepted into this social world. He does not seem to take notice of the girls. Like a car accident on the highway people gathered just to look at his long disheveled beard. The rumors were that he had gone into a desolate tract of the wilderness and come out an altered man, a man with a delegation and a duty. The religious elite had already fated his messages saying he was a zealot stirring up turmoil and trouble. But we all know how the common peasants are; any spectacle creates bottlenecks, a strain on any ancient highway system. The result was a man who came back from the desert empowered. People came to the Jordan to hear him speak and baptize. Walking down the path he comes. Long hair. Not the best dressed. Probably not the most popular kid in school.

Here we find the man we have read about so often since we were little. But as we take a moment to reflect on what life must have been like for him we realize that he was a real man. He was not just a person in a Sunday school story, he really walked. John the Baptist simply spoke the words of the Lord in the tradition of the prophets: When the Lord comes there will be justice. There is no difference between the rich and the poor for every mountain shall be made low and every valley filled in. All mankind is going to find the answer they have been looking for. Read the words of Isaiah from whom he quotes:

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her had service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hands double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all mankind together shall see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”[1]

John the Baptist delivered his messages just like Isaiah: imminently. His orations called for an incarnation that was already beginning. John’s ministry was successful because he made the people “wait expectantly…wondering in their hearts.”[2] For John the Baptist, God is not coming in a few years; his incarnation is in church, in the world, and is taking form before our very eyes. John’s message was always imminent: Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father.[3] We must produce fruit and we cannot simply depend on tradition to create that fruit. The fruit we create must be from our own hands, not the hands of our fathers.

When John the Baptist preached in Luke there were three groups of people that approached him.[4] The first group was simply the crowd. We can all put ourselves there; we have all been part of a crowd. When they ask what they should do, John gives them a concrete answer: they should share with the poor. When the second group, the tax collectors, asks what they should do John again gives a concrete answer: Don’t collect more than you are required to. When soldiers ask what they should do John again gives a concrete answer: Do not extort and be content. When people come to Jesus, when people come to Christianity, what should our answer be when they ask what Christianity consists of? Christianity consists of concretely doing good in the world around us. Anything less than this is not Christianity as the Bible seems to put forth.[5]

[1] Isaiah 40:1-5

[2] Luke 3:15

[3] Luke 3:8

[4] See Luke 3:10-14

[5] Luke 3:10-14