October 15 - Kingdom of God

Tonight in my New Testament class we were asked the following question and I had to write a response.  Here's what I had to say.  What about you?  Have you ever given any thought to this?

What do you think are the differences between the earliest Christians' view of the Kingdom of God and our own? What are some tangible ways that we can reclaim the urgency of the Kingdom in our own lives and in our churches?

For as much as Jesus spent time describing the Kingdom of God in the Gospels as something other than a visible kingdom, using comparisons to seed growing secretly, yeast mixed into dough and a mustard seed, it was a difficult concept for early Christians.  Jesus spent a great deal of time trying to teach his disciples about the kingdom that resides within them and in Luke 17:20 we find him telling the Pharisees specifically that the kingdom will not come visibly.

In Acts 1:6, the disciples asked again, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (NIV)  They didn’t fully comprehend his words even then. With the expectation of an imminent return of Christ to begin the work of the final kingdom, I think that early Christians continued to look for that visible kingdom. They would know of Jesus’ words in Mark 13:30 when he claimed that “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

As centuries passed, the tension between present day living and future prophecy regarding the events in the Revelation began to move away from an expectation of immediate return to an understanding of living out God’s kingdom.  And as more time passed, that understanding has gotten caught up in societal and cultural ideals, leaving us with a poor understanding of what it is to live in that kingdom.

 I remember being filled with urgency when I was growing up in the 70s.  It was a time of great discovery and revival that moved throughout the youth of the time.  We waited for Jesus’ return with anticipation (and yes, this was within the Methodist Church!).  Whenever we renew the sweetness of discovery of Jesus and our relationship with him, that anticipation grows again as he plants it in our hearts.  I don’t know that there is anything we can ‘do’ to create it, but I do know that when a church opens itself to the Holy Spirit, the movement will bring the urgency of the kingdom to the forefront.