“I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
What would it be like to live in “the Kingdom of God”?
As the real estate agents might say: “Location, location, location”
What does it mean for us to be “located” within the Kingdom of God?
From context of meal: the last supper
In Jerusalem… Jesus has been particularly vocal in his remonstrations toward the folks in the temple…
He has certainly gotten the attention of the Sanhedrin…
He is probably still below the radar with the Romans…
Jesus is clear eyed and committed to his mission…
He knows, as any good revolutionary knows “This is the end…”
not a hopeful time
So he toasts his friends, those students he has had for so long now…traveled so far with “ This cup, we won’t share again until we can drink it “New in the Kingdom”
What is the Kingdom…? (Any one here want to take a crack at describing or explaining “KoG”
It has been central theme of Jesus preaching
Mark’s account begins with the summary message: repent…Kingdom is at hand…!
So much of his teaching begins… “The Kingdom of God is like…”
In the last moments of his life…accused of being a king…Jesus says: “but not of this world”
The kingdom is an expectation within the Jewish Community…
It is attached to the images of messiah, of political liberation, of a warrior savior who comes to restore the greatness of Israel like when King David ruled!
For the Jews, it is a reality they wished to see perpetrated upon their oppressive captors
It is a reality for which those Maccabees and those at Masada willingly died
For us it is…
An archaic idea?
An arcane theological concept?
Simply something we don’t understand…even if we do associate it with Jesus?
Can it describe any kind of reality for us?
The kind of reality that obligates us to a particular kind of behavior?
Would we be more comfortable if we just let the image of “kingdom of God” lie unchecked as we journey along?
My first sense is that …
Kingdom language in a democratic society presents some immediate problems (I guess this emerges more clearly when I started teaching a course on democracy…!!)
There is not one of us here who has not grown up in a fully democratic society
The values of individual freedom, equality, choice through shared decisions all are implicit in our understanding of life together
This works not only with our government…where we vote
But also with our congregation…we make decisions by our shared input
But kingdom language moves toward the absolutes
The king and the king only is in charge: supreme, beyond all challenge, absolute in authority
Within the world of such language, we have but one response: obedience…obedience even toward death!
There are behaviors that must be done, in order for us to remain in God’s Kingdom…
The standard by which our behavior is judged: the teachings of Jesus…!
Do we who are used to making our own choices…
…really believe that we have a choice not to move/live toward that kingdom?
…is there really any behavior that takes priority away from this clear command to “repent” and enter the Kingdom?
If only our choices were so unambigously clear…!?!
“Religio” …
In the course I’m teaching, I want to follow the tension between religion and politics…(!)
Doing a little (!) research I read Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s The Meaning and End of Religion
There he reminds us that religio is Latin for “binding”
It is felt response of obligation to mana that is the numious, holy, other… that compells certain behaviors
It is a primal and existential response that began as humans developed self aware consciousness
It is the basic experience which makes human being “religious”
But it is this sense that compells certain behaviors: of ritual, ceremony, communalism and ethical behavior that drives us forward…
What binds us, compells us today?
Can we today identify and describe such a powerful feeling?
If the Kingdom expresses an ultimate “obedience” or “binding”…is it happening for us?
I began reading som Walter Rauschenbusch: (late 19th early 20th century Baptist theologian and pastor)
He sees the binding as an obligation to go beyond the insititution of the church and places the in breaking kingdom in the social milieau
right relationship as key
social gospel shows up with food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, homes for the homeless, and freedom for the oppressed
Rauschenbusch would agree with a later theologican (Pannenberg) that we are prolepticly involved in the kingdom
The more we are as we anticipate the Kingdom should be…the more it arrives, is near, at hand, is present
When the kingdom is present among us it is at hand and forms the relational bindings that keep us in human community
So here we see that at least part of the kingdom should show up in the real world
AND has a real world, real time political component! (the word “liberal” as it began to be used in the 20th century emerged from Rauschenbusch’s concern for social issues)
But the kingdom is deeper
In John… at trial…”not of this world”
It is religious…a binding that happens spiritually, emotionally, existentially…
Intensely personal…seeks community
The deep spiritual binding has consequences in “real time/place”
If we think about this…
One really can’t live without the other: Inward kingdom and outward right relationship are conjoined consequentially
If one is not spiritually deep, intuitively connected to the divine, the holy, the transcendent Other…
then one is capable of neither of sustaining right relationship to the divine nor of being agents of the divine in the Kingdom
Understanding this moves us toward a more wholistic sense of Kingdom.
So we can again ask:
What would it be like to live in the kingdom of God?
So as we sit here at the Ancient table, hoping that we will share a glass of wine with Jesus, “new in the Kingdom”…
How do we image, visualize such a condition?
Do we see it as a community set apart from the world?
Do we see it as a utopic vision towards which we move but at which we never arrive?
Do we see the Kingdom of God as the political alternative to a democratic govenrment? (a theocracy?)
Or do we see the kingdom as a locus for our daily lives…
worship, study, meditation, fellowship, prayer…
and engagment in the processes of this earthy kingdom/political system that seeks justice and equality?
February is the month that we ponder these questions
Next week…we try to imagine what it was like when Jesus first stepped and and confronted anyone who would listen: Repent, believe the Gospel, because “The kingdom of God is at hand!”
February 13, 2011
"First Preaching"
Mark 1:14-15
Our lesson today emergers from Jesus first preaching!
I remember my first preaching…
perhaps a bit timid…it didn’t seem to have the same impact as Jesus’ first sermons did
I don’t remember any one reacting violently
Nobody got up and walked out
Nobody questioned my parentage
Or held out great expectations for my career as prophet and preacher
I do remember one very kind gentleman saying at the door after worship…
“You might have taken more a little more time”
Seems I filled up 35 minutes…not just with the sermon but with the whole service!
Not an auspicious beginning!
But we do have to remember that when I began my career in 1971 the world’s expectation were decidedly different than when Jesus began his career something about the year 30 CE.
We (student/citizens) were expecting an end to the Viet Nam conflict
African-Americans were expecting better civil rights
Women were expecting equal pay for equal work
But no one was expecting a Messiah
But as Mark described Jesus entry into the Business…
His first audiences were full of expectation
The Jews had been under the velvet fist of the Romans for a long time…
and while they were given certain permissions, they chafed under the oppresive rule and longed for their glory days (King David!)
The people had been prepped by reading the prophets, celebrated their hoped for future at each passover and had experience the rebelliousness of the Macabees and other Messianic candidates (Jesus Barrabas?)
When this parapatetic preacher came to the towns and villages, people were ready tuned to hear his Message: “Oh they might have said, “The kingdom…here is another who announces the kingdom’s restoration. Glory for our future, like the glory of our past.”
I’m sure Jesus first audiences like his theological message
I’m sure they liked his political message
I’m sure they liked his teaching and healing.
But I’m sure that they were probably discomforted by the suggestion that they need to repent…! (personal change is challenging!)
Mark begins with this summary of the message and manner of Jesus preaching
It is delivered to the crowds filled with something between dooming despair and eager anticipation…
The latest in a series of “messiahs” and messiah wannabe’s (all failed: dead or in jail
Anticipation: an idealized future for their nation, their people…
Here was somebody…who was beginning to get some attention, whose message had some “traction”…
In this two verse summary Mark gives us a rich, deep lesson to ponder
Understanding it then, is bring meaning/wisdom and insight into our own situation today
Look at it one term at a time…
John was arrested:
For the Jews, John the Baptiszer stood in the ancient tradition of the prophets
Their role was to poke and prod, to elicit critical thought and response from the Jewish people
They could understand John as one who came in preparation for the messiah or maybe he was…the messiah…
But when he was arrested…the confusion about the relationship between Jesus and John became clearer
Jesus and John had a “good working relationship”
Their message of repentence provided the same challenge
and anticipation of God’s inbreaking Kingdom was implicit in their preaching
Galilee
This was Jesus home neighborhood
He spoke with such authority that he was clearly perceived as “different” than the institutional agents of the faith: the scribes and lawyers…
He began preaching at his home synagoge (text is in Luke 4)
He began to associate himself with Isaiah’s prophecy
And as he did, people got upset and nearly did him in…
Good News//Gospel
The Good news: God is present and active
God loves his creation, loves his chosen people
But even more than that: God loves and forgives even those who may not have known the Transcendent One, the God of History
God is acting not just for Israel, his chosen, but for all of humankind…
Love, justice, right relationship, mercy, forgiveness, kindness etc, are universal values
And this is implicit in Jesus’ preaching…from the start
Kingdom language is a strong language
Feudal is mostly unfamiliar to us…except in some movies..
Obedience as a matter of life or death
In such feudal imagery, it is the King’s will, not subjects or the slaves that determine what is done…
It is obedience that brings salvation…
And salvation here is clearly the result of keeping favor with the king (God!)
God’s kingdom is a place in which to live in security, where the king grants beneficence and protects
This is in stark contrast to the Roman monarchy and its civil institutions…!
This kingdom, Jesus is telling those folks long time ago…is near
It’s proximity is influential in the events of human history!
The power and presence of God’s active will, of the reign/government of the Transcendent One will create a future in which those who respond may enter!
Time is filled/fulfilled??
Here the concept is a very Greek one: pleroma, in the fullness of time, when the conditons are right, when all the prerequisets have been fulfilled, when the potential is greatest, when God is present…it happens!
From those first moments, all the way down to the writing of Jesus Christ Superstar in the 1970’s the question has been: why now, why at that moment…?
We can describe a few conditions (Pax Romana, limited openess of Roman culture to allow a variety of religious practices, the anticipatory agitation of Jewish patriots and zealots, the confusion or corruption of the Jewish religious establishment, a person so endowed by God as to be capable of the tasks…)
…but not the depth of the mystery…God’s moment…in God’s time
Our moment in time demands the same questions
Do we anticipate God doing something dramatic now?
Do we feel that our society needs changing? Reformation? Repentence?
Is there a figure, a person, who can ultimately fulfill the requirements of bringing and being the Good News?
Are we ready…
To Repent
As much as I would like to avoid the issue…in 38 years I’ve skirted the issue a bunch of times…
And as much as this one topic is annoying, it can not be removed from the Gospel accounts
John first, and then Jesus did not merely suggest, but demanded repentence (metanoia)
Repentence is not a simple but a complex revision of both the external and the internal behaviors of a person
Internally a confrontation with the holy produces a feeling of mysterium tremendum and a religious response metamorphs the personality
Internally a different world view emerges (not scientific but theological)
Internally different values begin to influence (not just me, but us, not just survival, but justice!, not revenge but love!)
And externally, behaviors are visibly, observably different!
Christians can eat with sinners
Chrisitans can carry the Roman soldiers armor 2 miles instead of one
Christians, can embrace the sick and confront the crazy
And “believe”
Belief is a term that we use so easily…
I believe in God
I believe in democracy
I believe in hard work
I believe my car will start
I believe my children should grow up and have good jobs…
I belive my country should stand for justice and freedom
We can run the list on and on…
But if we do not understand that “belief” is best expressed, not in intellectual propositions, but in direct and purposeful behavior, no “I believe” statement is worth any more than the old “I believe the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese”
As we consider this month, the Kingdom of God
…it behoves us to understand the radical nature of Jesus first preaching
…and to listen to it with new ears, repentent ears…
Our world like the world in Jesus day still experiences so much misery and injustice
Today’s world is just as much in spiritual need as the world of 1970 with its wars then and our wars now
With hungry people on the streets and illness rampant amongst the poor
Today God’s kingdom happens for some…but not for all
If we are to be the citizens in God’s kingdom, we have to rethink our religious and political duties
We have to be present to God in our hearts/interior places and present ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom in our public behaviors/ our manifest lives
The kingdom should not simple be near us…but powerfully flowing through us…
…manifestly expressed in our preaching…first and last!
February 20, 2011
"The Kingdom is like..."
Mark 4: 10-12, 26-32
What we first see as we approach this lesson is that
…it is set when Jesus is alone with his closest companions
the 12 and others around him
They were asking about the parables…
At first it seems his answer might be comforting to them…
“to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God…but for the rest they have to struggle with parables…parables that keep them from understanding.
Now the commentators tell us that this might be said with a certain sarcasm added by the early church in its redaction
And it is sort of jarring
But sometimes I think that we as the post modern church still talk that way
We speak in such parables and with such language that post modern people simple look at us and begin to walk away…
It is at that point that we have to ask ourselves…
Are we the ones that like the 12 are “around Jesus” asking him to explain the more difficult teachings?
…and then we have to ask ourselves…could we explain these parables to others?
As we approach this lesson, we strain to see an image of the kingdom
For here there is no political language
Here there is no territorial description, no boundaries for the kingdom
Here the Kingdom is mysterious…and growing without us?
The kingdom is like a man scattering seeds
…who goes to sleep
…who wakes to find his crop growing
…who waits until its time to harvest the wheat
What might this sound like to a person from the post modern world…?
We can read into it a bit…
The kingdom is a mysterious power, it comes without our help but anticipates our response
The kingdom is a biological mystery that God guides and controls…that moves toward a purposeful end…
Do we who are the “secret” bearers feeling that mystery within us? Does it change us?
Or again, the kingdom is like a little tiny seed…
Once planted it grows without our direction
It becomes large and encompassing and sheltering and a place for the birds of the air to build their nests…
What part do we have? Do we plant the seeds? Or are they planted within us?
Oh, the mysteriousness of it all!
God’s kingdom, is it interior? Is it a real political establishment that changes the way we are governed?
While we can intellectually investigate these teaching strategies, can we translate them into a motivating scenario for our current church in our contemporary cultural climate?
Can we share the secret?
If God’s kingdom is at hand, is it at hand in a way that will radically and dramatically change the world?
Jesus here seems not to suggest an apocalyptic ending
The kingdom comes not with clouds and earthquakes and shattering force
But with mystery and biological integrity…
God’s kingdom comes from small seeds planted and becomes an encompassing structure
I wonder…when we see the dramatic changes that are occuring across North Africa and through the middle East:
Is democracy such a seed?
Is the power and encompassing might of such freedom brought forth from democracy a part of God’s kingdom
There the idea grew quietly, secretly and then blossomed and bloomed into a place in which the many may be sheltered!
God’s Kingdom: freedom and democracy…who knew?
It might tempt us to say… “Well if the kingdom comes mysteriously, if God does this with GodSpirit, we don’t need to do anything but wait!”
I’m sure that those with Jesus, those around him with the 12, knew that this was not the way things happened
It was for them to encompass within themselves God’s creative spirit and power, ingested in the seeds of teaching, developed as they struggled with the paragles, and growing as they felt the power change them and their relatinship to the world around them
They were to become the sowers of seeds
They were to become the explainers of parables
They were to become the sharers of the secret
They were were to proclaim God’s inbreaking presence because it was growing within them
If there is one “image” central to the two parables, and implicit in the contextual narrative, it is this: growth…!
Not simply change in appearances, but the growth of structures that sustain and nourish!
The appearance and influence of organically integrated structures that prove Gods’ presence and provide for God’s creation in zesty, satisfying ways…
So as we come to the “What did I learn?” part of the lesson, we integrate our understandings:
Jesus’ main theme: the Kingdom is close, at hand
Jesus encourages our preparation for being included in that existential/ontological theocracy which now intrudes into our world:
repent, think differently,
change your worldview and your understanding of human nature,
so that you are ready, ready, to grow in relationship to others and to God
And then, we learn, God’s Kingdom comes as growth,
Socio-biologically guided by Creator/God,
a process that develops, matures and reaches a purposeful end…
in a just and peaceful society of human beings connected by Godlove/agape
What do we learn…
that God’s will will be done
That God’s kingdom will come
It began its inbreaking long ago
And continues to grow and grow
But the next great phase of its growth
Depends on its growing within us
If we don’t let God’s kingdom be our choice of governments….
Unlike the mustard seed, there is no growth within us
And without growth within us, there is no growth withiin the church
So, bottom line, lets get ourselves alone with Jesus…
Ask him over and over about these parables…
Until we feel really confident that we have been given the secret!t
February 27, 2011 Sermon Dialogue
Background:
Context: This passage is taken from the narrative in which Jesus answers many of his critics. In Mark, the first of the written gospels, the kingdom was a prominent theme in Jesus teaching. Here the shema (from OT) is repeated and a radical new interpretation is added.
A scribe is sort of clerk who help the Pharisees, one sect of ancient Judaism, in their legal interpretations of the Mosaic Law.
The text: Mark 12:28 (NRSV)
28One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
The points for reflection: Responses to the text, questions, feelings, words/images
What kind of distance are we talking about here?
If the kingdom is not far, can we see it or cite evidence of it?
When does the “neighbor” reside within God’s Kingdom?
Can we design and operate a government that is derived from these two commandments?
Context: The law and government were in the Jewish community appropriate in a theocracy. The Romans permitted many religious practices as long as the Emperor was given proper respect. Here Jesus agues a point of law.
The text: Luke 16:14-17 & 17:20-2 (NRSV)
14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. 15So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God. 16“The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. (alt. reading: is strongly urged to enter it) 17But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.
20Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
The points for reflection: Responses to the text, questions, feelings, words/images
Are there “laws” in God’s kingdom?
What in those days would be considered “good” in the Good News of God’s kingdom? Is “justice” an issue within the “kingdom?”
Is the “kingdom” a static or dynamic state? …internal or relational? …existential?
Why do the Pharisees want to know “when”? …do they understand Jesus?
If the kingdom can not be observed in “things”…how can we “know” it???
When do we feel that the Kingdom is among us? …do other’s sense it?
Context: This pericope is taken from Jesus arrest and trial. The real political charges of earthly ambition to rule are leveled at him but not proven.
John 18: 33-38
33Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 38Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
The points for reflection: Responses to the text, questions, feelings, words/images
Is Jesus a king? Do we treat him like our king?
If the “kingdom of God” is a spiritual relationship that a person has with God or others, are there secular political implications and urgent expectations for social relationship? Is a “kingdom ethic” helpful in a democratic society? …in a totalitarian society?
If God’s kingdom is not of “here”, explain it to a secular, humanistic atheist?
Where do “kingdoms” and democracies differ? Which do we prefer?
Is Kingdom language so archaic that we should not use it anymore? What kind of imagery might we use instead? (e.g. “a liberation zone,” “spiritual politics”)
Is the Kingdom near us? …is it soon? …does it impinge on us? Are we ready?