Jesus is Risen Alleluia.
Most of us spent yesterday praising God and singing about the resurrection. But as I sat down this morning to read my Bible I was feeling a little frustrated. What happened to the kingdom I wondered? The gospels talk constantly about Jesus announcing the kingdom and even in Acts 1 we read that during the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension he “spoke about the kingdom of God.”
Why doesn’t it say any more? It would be so much easier for all of us today if Jesus then gave a ten point sermon “This is the kingdom and this is what you do about it.” It would have been so much easier to have a set of rules to live by. But Jesus doesn’t give us that.
Even what he does do during those 40 days is rather strange. No neon lights, no CNN interviews, no leading armies against the Roman legions. All we see is a man spending time with his friends – sharing meals, (even cooking breakfast for them) calming their fears, dispelling their doubts and overturning their confusion – a little like a flash back to the story of the Garden of Eden where God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. And of course the result is the in breaking of the kingdom of God as the disciples proclaim the good news and come together in love and harmony, generously sharing not just food, but homes and resources too.
So the question I am still left with is “What does the kingdom look like?” I don’t have any clear answers and would love to hear your opinions, but this morning it struck me in a fresh way that maybe the kingdom looks like a God who walks intimately with us as a friend, treating us as beloved children rather than as servants. And maybe the kingdom looks like us living as representatives of that loving God – loving others as God loved us – sharing meals and other resources, calming fears, dispelling doubts and in the process laying the foundations for a loving, caring community such as we see portrayed in the book of Acts.
Maybe the silence about what the kingdom looks like is because we cannot find it by adhering to a set of rules like the ten commandments. We can only find it by listening to the voice of our loving God and responding through our actions to what the love of God asks of us.
What do you think?
Filed under: Christianity, Easter, Images of Jesus, Kingdom of God, life, Religion, Rhythms of life, spirituality Tagged: | Easter, faith, Kingdom of God, Religion, resurrection
Christine – Like you, I see the kingdom of God existing where we live “in the way” of Jesus. In other words…I think the kingdom of God exists where and when the will of God is done on earth. It happens in the ordinary moments of our life – when we help someone less fortunate, include someone who has been left out, give someone the benefit of the doubt, see the potential in someone who has failed, provide food for the hungry, clean water for those who are thirsty, healthcare for those who are sick, promote unity instead of conformity, take care of our family, visit those who are in prison, comfort those who grieve and many more real life experiences that go on everyday. Each day gives us many opportunities to take hold of the kingdom of God – to experience it – to share it – to be a catalyst of it. Thanks for reminding me of this as it is so easy to get busy and forget about the intentionality that is needed in order to be a part of what God is doing to transform the world we live in.
Liz – I think it is the ordinariness of the kingdom that takes us by surprise. We don’t have to do anything monumental to be God’s representatives we just need to look around us and encourage the small plantings of what God is already doing.
Isaiah 65:17—and on is a good start but ‘too good to be true’ so we don’t really believe it; we see at as some ‘pie-in-the-sky’ for the never coming future. I was wondering this morning what the disciples and Mary Magdalene and all the women felt like on the first Easter monday; just imagine; EVERYTHING was new, how they felt , how they thought, how they related to the world, to themselves, to each other, to the present, to the future…….the barrier between physical and spiritual is gone…all is transformed……now, do we believe it?
Ed, Isaiah 65 17 – 25 is one of my favourite scriptures. Such a wonderful portrayal of the kingdom. but you are right – do we really believe it – our lives certain don’t seem to reflect it
Christ is risen!
The Eastern Orthodox church teaches that we are the Kingdom of God. We, the communion of the believes make up the Kingdom with Christ as our King. Unfortunately this Kingdom is no longer united, first the Oriental churches left because they do not believe in the dual nature of Christ as the Church has proclaimed it. Then the Roman Catholics left because the rest of the faithful refused to acknowledge the Pope as the sole leader of Christiandom, a view that Rome tried to put forward only 1000 years after Christ, and then the there are the Protestant churches, who have perhaps moved the furthest away the beliefs and practices of the early Church.
I think that part of the problem is that we have not only moved away from an understanding of the fact that we the followers of Christ, are the kingdom, but also from any really coherent theology of the kingdom that connects to everyday life.
Christine, I think that what you have shared is an important rhythm of our Kingdom mission. We sometimes get so focused on the ministry of reconciliation and on social justice that we forget about doing everyday stuff with fellow sojourners.
I agree – doing very easily dominates over being in our Western ways
[...] Friendship at the Margins Posted on April 6, 2010 by Christine Sine Yesterday’s post Jesus is Risen – What Happened to the Kingdom generated some interesting discussion both here and on Sojo.net where it has been cross posted, [...]