Musings: Notes From My Daybook

To talk about kingdom in the 21st century is a quick way to assure yourself of losing your readers quickly. The idea of kingdom with a ruler who exercises control doesn't sound very democratic or popular or hardly anything that a North American could quickly warm up to--especially if I were to tie in the idea of kingdom to the idea of spirituality.

But I must--at least for a while use the term.

I need to use it because it represents a foundational aspect of Jesus' message and it has been used ever since as a way to identify the significant, decisive work of God. And yet, by saying "ever since" I am not quite telling the truth.

About 150 years ago, the idea of kingdom got caught up and identified with all the progress and excitement of the many technological and scientific advances. Many Christians began to attach the wide-spread hope that such advances in medicine and science would usher in a new age. That new age of prosperity and peace came to be identified as "kingdom."

A couple of things about that identification really fouled up the word. First, kingdom came to be seen as a materialistic idea, rooted in a purely human set of endeavors. Second, is that much of the 20th century has pretty well proved that progress and utopia is not nearly as close at hand as we might hope. The optimism that characterized the late 1800's has given way to a wide variety of responses. Nihlism, existentialism, Marxism, new forms of a secular utopia rooted in questionable forms of pluralism, and religious fundamentalism are just a few of the options offered.

For others, the idea of kingdom came to be unhelpful as a practical vision for life out of the aftermath of various arguements about eschatology--or teachings about the end of time. In various church debates about how the end of time would come, the idea of the kingdom came to be identified with idea of the church or the people who are identified with God.

Sadly, either way, kingdom lost any dynamic, biblical force in shaping Christian thinking.

So, if we would simply slip back and ask some questions about what kingdom meant to Jesus' message we might find out the following:
1. A wonderful announcment comes to humankind that declares that in Jesus, God and his gracious rule comes to us.
2. In particular, God's rule in the world means that the usual destructive categories of evil, corruption, and death are being subverted. A new age is dawning in the world and God is bringing a new way of living in this world.
3. The foundational elements of this new way of life is bound up in Jesus' teaching and ministry.
4. This rule of God is present with us now; as Dallas Williard would state--God is available and accessible to us.

These things remind us that God is the one who will bring renewal and hope to humankind. Reliance on human progress is short-sighted and narrow. But God's rule is not something that occurs merely "in heaven," or "in eternity." His rule is right now; he is present and at work in the world.

Such a vision of kingdom eliminates the short sightedness of secularism. To say that the future is the hope of humanity, leaves those who live in the present with no hope. It devalues the worth of the human individual to say that only in some future age that people will get it right. Ultimately, the secular person is left with nothing to live for.

Not only that, but this revitalized idea of kingdom challenges many Christian people to see that the present is the vital and active place of God's work. God has invaded the world to turn the world's values upside down. Christian people are called to join in the revolution!

To get some sense of the kingdom reading the gospels--especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke is a great place to begin. Note how often Jesus talks of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. I think that you will find that it was incredibly important to him.