Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: Kingdom of God

  • Psalm 119:162 – Rejoicing

    Psalm 119:162 – Rejoicing

    I rejoice over your word
    as someone who finds great treasure.

    I recall a small kitten who showed up at our house. She had apparently lost her mother. She was crying pitifully. When I picked her up and took her in she settled in happily. She had found a place to be safe. I have no idea how she knew I’d take care of her, but she did. I, in turn, was delighted to help this delightful little bundle of fur and life, and was able to find a home for her.

    The rescue, was a time of joy for us both.

    I’m reminded of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), followed by the lost coin and the lost son. There’s an important point in theses stories. There is seeking going on even when the person or thing sought is in no way doing any seeking. There is great joy in heaven, we are told (Luke 15:10) over one sinner who repents.

    In the similar parable of the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45), we have someone seeking, finding, and acquiring. There’s joy!

    When I was younger, I was taught that this was about how diligently we should seek the kingdom of heaven and what we should be willing to give up to get it. In this version of the parable, the kingdom of God is a sort of acquisition, or at least something I invest in because it seems to be a good idea.

    But the kingdom of heaven is both already there and is not something you can acquire. In fact, it is the kingdom (or its King!) that is looking for you, often when you’re not thinking about it at all. The one seeking the pearl is the King, and the King want’s to acquire you!

    I was reminded recently about how I came to join Pine Forest United Methodist Church (now Wilde Lake Church) here in Pensacola. I was not, in fact, looking for a church. I was not invited by someone to go to this church. It was, to all appearances, an accident. I was following the suggestion of my business partner to do something that wasn’t work. I chose that church because I could figure out how to get there, and they had a Sunday night service.

    Every single thing about that visit had the appearance of an accident. I was definitely not seeking God. I was just following a suggested plan of looking at how various churches worked to distract me from my coding work.

    Yet God and I had an encounter at that church.

    There was joy, I’m sure, in heaven. I, on the other hand, reacted with joy. I began to rejoice again in God’s Word, which had not excited me for some time. God’s rejoicing brought my rejoicing.

    I feel this verse with the Psalmist. It’s not my doing, yet I rejoice. I came upon treasure for which I was not looking.

    I was reading a quote from John Wesley in another context today, describing “preventing grace,” more commonly known as prevenient grace.

    Salvation begins with what is usually termed (and very properly) preventing grace; including the first wish to please God, the first dawn of light concerning his will, and the first slight transient conviction of having sinned against him. All these imply some tendency toward life; some degree of salvation; the beginning of a deliverance from a blind, unfeeling heart, quite insensible of God and the things of God.

    John Wesley, “On Working Out Our Own Salvation”

    What treasure will give you joy today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI. That’s quite some images the AI picked out of this post. Don’t you think the kitten looks joyful?)

  • The Kingdom of God is a Monarchy

    Shane Raynor just posted on this again, reposting his response to Brian McLaren’s article from 2006.

    I went back and checked out the article I wrote back in 2006 on this and found out that it got mangled in one or another of the moves this blog has undergone.

    I agree with Shane on this. I am all for finding new language and new metaphors. I accept gender appropriate (in my view) language in modern translations. I like engagement with the culture. But your new metaphors need to convey the right information, and the replacement metaphors for “kingdom” do not do so. Like Shane, I appreciate many of the things Brian McLaren has written on those topics.

    The nature of human kingdoms may give a negative impression of God’s kingdom, especially if one fails to look at the precise ways in which God’s rule can be compared to a kingdom. But any metaphor for God’s rule is likely to fall short.

    Quoth McLaren:

    In addition, for many today, kingdom language evokes patriarchy, chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and a regime without freedom—the opposite of the liberating, barrier-breaking, domination-shattering, reconciling movement the kingdom of God was intended to be! …

    But let me ask this? In what way does God’s rule not resemble a kingdom or a dictatorship? With whom does God share sovereignty? Certainly, I believe God ordains freedom, but he doesn’t do that by agreement with someone else. God, the imperial, royal, absolute, and final dictator ordains that the people under his rule shall have freedom. The dictator may be benevolent, but he is still a dictator.

    McLaren suggests six metaphors: the dream of God, the revolution of God, the mission of God, the party of God, the network of God, and the dance of God. All of these are good metaphors for some portion of what God is doing in the world.

    But when all is said and done, God’s dream has him in charge, God’s revolution brings us to acknowledge that he is in charge, God’ mission is to reach us and let us know that he is in charge, it’s God’s party and he can rule if he wants to (and he does), it’s God’s network and he’s in the center, and it’s God’s dance and he leads.

  • Book: Conflict Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus

    This will not even be an attempt at a full review of this book by Marcus Borg. I just want to present a few notes. Such a review would take more time and more skill that I believe I can bring to bear.

    I generally find myself appreciating the spiritual implications that Borg finds in the teachings of Jesus, but I’m not always on the same wavelength in a historical sense. After reading N. T. Wright and Borg side by side, something they have made easy to do, I often feel more in tune with Borg’s conclusions and at the same time more in agreement with Wright’s arguments. There has to be something wrong with this, and perhaps in time I’ll get more clear on the issue. I have a strong streak of agnosticism regarding the details of any portrayal of the life of Jesus.

    But Conflict is a book that will be of value to you irrespective of your position on the historical details, because in it Borg goes into detail on the background for his conclusions about a considerable number of sayings of Jesus and even a few miracle reports, especially the healings on the Sabbath.

    He contends that the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees is often misunderstood. To put it simplistically, it is often seen as one of hypocrisy vs sincerity or surface vs. heart religion. Borg sees it as two different conceptions of the identify of Israel. In supporting this position he provides some wonderful fodder even for those who may come to different conclusions. I was particularly helped by the material on the temple, the meaning of the cleansing incident, and the predictions of its destruction.

    N. T. Wright provides an excellent introduction (15 pages) to the current edition, which is valuable in pointing out where Wright would disagree. The disagreements are not extensive, however, on this topic, and Wright strongly commends the book overall.

    I am glad I picked this volume up.

    Numerical rating: 4

  • Miracles and Community

    I’ve been reading Mark through as part of preparation to resume my series on the Gospel of Mark for the Bible Pacesetter Podcast. Right now I’m listening to and then podcasting recordings of the radio program from which this developed just before we closed that program down three years ago. It’s an interesting process getting back into a series after a three month break!

    A couple of days ago I was reading the following:

    (1) And he went out from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. (2) And since it was the Sabbath, he started teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed, and said, “Where do these things come from, and what is the wisdom that is given to him, and these miracles that happen through his hands? (3) Is not this the craftsman, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” They were scandalized about him. (4) And Jesus said to them, “A prophet does not fail to receive honor except in his own country and among his kinsmen in his household.” (5) And he was not able to perform any miracle, except that he laid hands on a few people and healed them. (6) And he was amazed because of their lack of faith. — Mark 6:1-6

    That’s my working translation that I make as part of my preliminary study, so check it out in your own version. What I was asking myself as I read this was just what it was that prevented Jesus from doing as many miracles at home as he did elsewhere?
    The easy answer, of course, is that the people lacked faith. But then a second question comes up: Why could he heal a few sick people anyhow?

    There is very little said here about the causes of this story, but I often tell folks to learn from the story and not just the text, so I want to think just a little bit about this story. What makes Nazareth different? Jesus has encountered many people who believed in him, and many people who did not. He has encountered opposition as well as support. But here in Nazareth he encounters this wall of unbelief that prevents him from performing miracles, with a few exceptions.

    One cause we can see from the story is familiarity. The people cannot see how God can come to them in the person of a common person that they knew all their lives. It’s the standard problem of the young pastor coming to his home church, and being informed by various people that they changed his diapers when he was a baby. This allows them first to feel very proud of their contribution to making “a fine young pastor” and at the same time to doubt that they can learn anything real from him.

    That would certainly reduce the number of miracles. Less people would ask. Why should that little fellow who used to play in the street be able to heal me? We often diminish what we can receive from God because we despise the channels by which he sends it. God may be trying to send you peace and comfort by means of your dog. Are you ready to receive it? He can be trying to invade your life through the person who comes in and does your yard. Is that OK with you?

    Apparently it wasn’t OK with the people at Nazareth. They weren’t ready for that. But I suspect there was a bigger issue here. You see, Jesus has been preaching the kingdom of God and repentance. Repentance is often not a welcome message. It means that we’re doing something wrong, we have to acknowledge it, and get moving in a better direction. If I’m going to be put straight, I want the correction to come from someone who is both smarter than I am and more spiritual.

    In Nazareth, there was a general rejection of a message of repentance that came from the home town boy. They were amazed at what he had to say, but they couldn’t bring themselves to believe that he was the right person to say it. They couldn’t bring themselves to accept the kingdom of God in that form.

    And that’s where the miracle problem came in, I believe. When Jesus healed people and drove out demons it was a sign of the arrival of the kingdom of God. A new community was on the way, and new way of looking at one another. God was invading history and changing everything around, bringing on a new creation. Reject the kingdom, and what happens to the signs?

    I know of many churches that are longing for God to become active in their congregation and community. How can that happen? It’s the sign of God’s community. Look for the barriers to being the kingdom of God wherever you are. You can’t have the sign without the event. You can’t have the healing power of Jesus without the person of Jesus.