Monday, June 1, 2009

Glimpses of the Kingdom

I've been intrigued the past semester or so with the term kingdom (as in the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven). It conjures up a lot of images and ideas, but I was having trouble really understanding what this kingdom is. What is it? Why am I wanting to further it? What does it look like?

I still don't know if I've nailed it down, but I think the past week I've been getting glimpses. This Kingdom is different than other kingdoms. It doesn't rely on glorious and bloody battles to further itself. It can be seen advancing in subtle and dynamic ways. It can be seen in someone opening a door for a guy having a hard time coming out of a store with his bike, or sitting on a porch talking and sharing concerns and hope and jokes with each other. It can be seen in people sharing their food with each other without conditions. It creeps further still in conversations iniated by a book cover with a line from the Sermon on the Mount on it that makes someone say "I didn't know Jesus said that..." It can be seen in a group of people pushing a car that ran out of gas across a busy a street to a gas station for an elderly man with heart problems. It can be seen in a cop seeing them do this and coming up behind them with his lights so they don't get hit by cars. And a man being a peacemaker and defusing what could be a heated situation. The Kingdom can be seen in people devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (I had get a Pentecost reference in there plus Dr. Sanders pounded this verse into us in the Fall).
I don't think its possible to give a detailed blueprint of what the Kingdom of God is; I think that's why Jesus had to resort to parables, ...The Kingdom of God is like:
A mustard seed
A man sowing seeds
A pearl of great worth
Yeast mixed in dough
A weed bursting through pavement?

4 comments:

Foot Conditions said...

Really very nice post on the topic "A Christian On Foot".

Ryan Schmitz said...

Thanks for making us think Daniel, I'd like to see you contrast this post with a post on what is the Kingdom of Man, particularly what we see has become the Kingdom of Man within man's "church" as opposed to God's Church.

J.S. said...

Good thoughts, Dan. Strike that, reverse: excellent thoughts, Dan.

Brian Miller said...

yes.

keep writing.

and Ryan's idea isn't bad. maybe combining them (eg. line 1 - kingdom of God, line 2 - kingdom of man).