A kingdom is somewhere a sovereign leader's rule of law is in effect. Liaison between the people and the leader is also needed so the people and the leader can know each other. Leader, law and liaison - three vital components of kingdom.
God's original kingdom was as simple as anyone could imagine. The beginning of Genesis describes the ideal of closeness to God, where God is leader, his word is law, and people liaise with him directly. But human rebellion replaced God in each of these roles, swapping the law for lies, and the leadership of God for the lust of our own selfish desires.
God had an incredible plan to re-establish relationships and kingdom with us, and the Old Testament tells of this demonstrated by God's choice of a people to show what kingdom life could be like. Initially God retains the role of king in these people's eyes. Various human leaders, judges and priests act as liaison between God and people, and God's word of law starts to become a written code which can be understood and passed on.
But people remain rebellious. After Samuel, the corrupt leaders did not follow God and, instead of demanding that they should, the people looked for answers by replacing God with a human king. God provided some great leaders through Saul, David and Solomon, but each was flawed and overly demanding as Samuel had prophesied. Nevertheless, God promised that his kingdom would come through David's family.
It seemed unlikely that this would work out quickly or by human effort. Kings after Solomon were, for the most part, hopelessly corrupted by their own desires and the influences of other nations who followed false gods. People rebelled again, the country divided and eventually was conquered. God's people lost their law, leaders and priestly liaison with God. Prophecy became more common but most prophetic words were false and opposed to God's true word. The Old Testament records the few true prophets who had difficult words about the kingdom's current state, but reminders of hope for the future.
There was some kingdom reconstruction seen from the time of Nehemiah, and the nation of Israel became re-established, but we know from historical records that by the time of Jesus, God's people had once again suffered rebellion and invasion. Leadership was challenged, liaison with God was compromised and, under a number of different teachers, the law had become an unmanageable, unhelpful burden. People were deeply divided about what needed to be fixed and how. Some sects pursued politics, others religion, others isolation, and some (the "zealots") went as far as terrorism and armed rebellion in the hope of restoring God's kingdom. While no-one could agree on how it would happen, many were waiting for "messiah", a saviour promised in scripture to make it happen.
What kind of saviour would the messiah be? Scripture pointed to an unprecedented combination of priest and king (no-one had been allowed to combine these roles before) who would also be a prophet. Israel seemed to expect a remarkable person, perhaps someone as good as Moses or Abraham. Each Jewish sect seemed to expect someone like themselves. God's idea was to do things his way, not theirs. No-one seemed to expect what Jesus presented - God himself in human form. God was uniquely able to establish a kingdom which would not be like any involving merely human leadership, liaison or law. It would be a return to Eden itself - direct contact with and rule by God and, as the scriptures had long said, not just for one nation but for the whole of God's world.
Jesus demonstrated his authority as messiah, and his divine credentials, through miraculous signs, his understanding of people's true needs and his ability to show disciples how to do what he did - join in with the Father's work, empowered by the Holy Spirit. With Jesus as leader, his truthful word as law and himself as liaison, God's kingdom could be fully restored. It requires death and rebirth, turning away from our old corrupt lives and being transformed to live eternal lives in Jesus, and God has done the work to make this possible. (See more about life in Jesus in last week's session.)
In a sense, Jesus has already brought this about, but we do not yet see it in full effect. The world is not fully accepting God's kingdom rule, and sin and death still play a part in all of our lives. It was made clear to followers then, as is still the case now, that we are experiencing the kingdom in part. There is an unknown time in the future when Jesus will return, our transformation will be complete, heaven and earth will be renewed, and eternal life uncorrupted by sin will be our experience.
We looked at two ways Christians deal with this tension between the "now" and the "not yet" aspects of God's kingdom. They are important because they affect how we choose to live now, and will shape how we relate to other people who are not yet following Jesus. [These notes expand a bit on what we talked about briefly.]
"Spaceship" theology is Bern's unkind term (there is probably a less loaded word) for an extreme focus on the hope in the future to the exclusion of care about the present world except for whatever is in a church environment - as if the church were, or had access to, a spaceship to escape the earth. This can be accompanied by a focus on spiritual over material works. It is true that holiness and separation from corruption are biblically required, and remembering there will be an end to the world as we know it is important, but the down side can include an isolation from the world we are called to love and transform, and a disregard for aspects of the present environment. In some ways this thinking is more prevalent in the USA than the UK at the moment, but it is noticeable and unhelpful in lots of ways, alienating people from the church and bringing the gospel into disrepute among people who may love God's work but don't love "spaceship" church culture.
"Stewardship" theology, recognising God's ownership of and care for the world we live in now, is (in Bern's opinion) much more faithful to scripture. However, there is danger if we twist it into an extreme focus on material works or a view of the present which neglects the imminent return of Jesus and what this will mean for those who chose to follow and those who chose not to. It is dangerous to get immersed in attempts to solve human problems without recognising the special, holy and radically transformative nature of God's kingdom resources today. Simply looking after or preserving God's stuff is not what we are called to do (see the parable of the talents) - God requires repentance, faith and investment of his resources, and in return he provides spiritual fruit and new life. This is only possible in Jesus. If we resolve to do good works in the present but hold back from others our knowledge of Jesus who makes "good" possible, how good can our work be?
Trying to hold "spaceship" and "stewardship" in tension is (in Bern's opinion) not helpful. "What should I do?" is the wrong lens to see kingdom through, because kingdom is about the king first, and our actions in response to the king second. A better approach is to remember that God has done all the initiating, all of the calling and all of the enabling for us to live fruitful lives. He has given us "sonship", so that his identity would be transferred to us, and we would forever be part of his family. It is God's will for his kingdom to come into full effect. Jesus taught disciples to want this too and express this in prayer: "Our Father... your kingdom come..." In practice, that means we should remember we are God's family, loved and resourced by him to join in his work of transforming the world. What we do must follow who we are in Christ, who calls us branches in him, the vine, as well as salt and light in the world. We are made to be productive and transformative in spiritual and material ways. When we know who we are and follow Jesus whole heartedly, God will take us further than we can imagine possible. This may include serving, in Jesus' name, anywhere in the world, inside or outside of recognisable church.
Finally, we considered a "Lifeshapes" tool, the triangle, which depicts three dimensions of kingdom life - "up" (relationship with the Father), "in" (relationship with other disciples) and "out" (relationship with the rest of the world). We saw "up", "in" and "out" as essential parts of Jesus' life, as they should be for us. If we only have two out of three, we will be living in a distorted shadow of kingdom life, lacking the necessary purpose of mission, support of other believers or resources of heaven. All three are needed if we are to see God's kingdom come and his will done in our lives.
The triangle can therefore be used as a handy evaluation tool, prompting re-thinks and correction where we see distortion and problems. It's a helpful exercise to self-evaluate our lives, but even better to discuss how we are doing "up", "in" and "out" with a friend who can see our blind spots and hold us accountable where we find changes to make.
After a time of prayer for each other, we recommitted to following Jesus on mission together, certain that our lives our rooted in him. "Don't try and do this our own way in our own strength" seemed to be a live, relevant word. God is working through us, and needs us to work his way, to renew the world and re-establish his kingdom.
