Over a period of several years, I have asked a wide variety of people to write down a one-sentence definition of the kingdom of God. Those asked included young and old, male and female, Afro American and Euro American from a wide variety of denominations. I also asked a group of about 100 persons who attended my "Understanding Poverty" worshop at the Pittsburgh CCDA Conference.
I discovered that there is no consensus on what the kingdom of God is; definitions were all over the place. Most were rather vague and imprecise; they tended to be future and spiritual in their orientation. The kingdom of God does have a future component; it will fully come with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Obviously, the kingdom has a spiritual component; one enters the kingdom by being born of the Spirit.
What was missing from most of the definitions was a present and social dimension, even from those involved in Christian Community Development. For example, only one in ten, generously interpreted, included anything on justice. And the Holy Spirit was seldom mentioned.
Few of the definitions had enough clarity, sharpness or specificity to challenge a person to want to commit her/his life to incarnate the kingdom of God here on earth as we are taught to do in the Lord's prayer: "Your kingdom come . . . on earth."
Why this biblical ignorance, this lack of clarity, on the essence of the kingdom of God? I myself have been on a lifelong search to understand the kingdom of God; I am now 88 years old; only in the last 20 years do I feel that I have grasped the full biblical content of the kingdom of God. Even though I had the privilege of studying every book in the Bible in undergraduate and graduate school in my younger years (no prof ever tied the kingdom to the Messianic passages in Isaiah), I was still puzzled about the nature of the kingdom.
Recently a scholar, Marcus Borg, surveyed the literature on the kingdom of God which had been written during the 20th century. He concluded that for most of the century the future and spiritual dimensions dominated the discussion. Only toward the end of the century did a present dimension begin to develop. Borg concluded that the church lacks a "clear and compelling" biblical vision of the kingdom of God. What is the consequence of this lack of a biblical understanding of the kingdom? Borg asserts that the American church is a syncretistic church which mixes Christianity with American culture. Borg states" "We live in a Babylon often declared to be Zion."
In my own personal reading of the scholarly literature on the kingdom of God, I have not found a clear and compelling vision of the kingdom of God. A Princeton seminary graduate attended on my workshops; he said the single most helpful idea was how the Messianic passages from Isaiah were central to an understanding of the New Testament kingdom of God, a perspective he did not receive at one of America's finest seminaries.
The Christian church in general and Christianity Community Development people in particular need to ground their ministries in a biblical understanding of the kingdom of God. CCDA's emphasis on the poor, justice and reconciliation is already biblical, but we need to base their ministry more specifically and comprehensively on the kingdom of God.
What should the kingdom of God look like here on earth today? Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 4:18-19 and Romans 14:17 (my paraphrase) are the best capsule summaries of the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God.
Isaiah 9:7, a Messianic prophecy about Jesus and his coming kingdom, says the kingdom will be characterized by justice/righteousness and shalom. The other Isaiah Messianic passages also highlight justice; some of these passages mention the important role of the Holy Spirit. Read 11;!-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; and 42:1-4.
I believe that Luke 4:18-19 is intended to be a summary statement, a mission statement, if you will, about the essence of the kingdom of God. Luke 4:18-19 is quoted from Isaiah 61 and 58:6. To understand this passage from Luke, we need to return to Isaiah.
In addition to idolatry and immorality, Isaiah was profoundly disturbed by social oppression/injustice targeting the poor. The phrase from 58:6 "to set the oppressed free," or "to release the oppressed," is one of several similar statement from chapter 58. The full chapter describes a supposedly spiritual people---"they seek me daily, they delight to know my ways, the delight to know God, they fast and pray." At the same time the Israelites were oppressing their workers and neglecting the poor. God refused to hear their prayers because of their social sins. Isaiah teaches that spirituality cannot be divorced from social justice/kingdom justice. My paraphrase of Isaiah 61 highlights what God desires:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the oppressed poor,
to proclaim freedom and release to those in bondage
by practicing Jubilee justice for the poor.
to bestow on the poor:
a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
These transformed poor will be called oaks of righteousness
or trees of justice.
These transformed poor will rebuild the ruined cities.
For I, the Lord, love justice."
Jesus, by reading from Isaiah 61 and 58:6, describes the essence of his ministry here on earth; and he himself modeled this type of ministry. Here is my paraphrase of Luke 4:18-19:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me;he has anointed me to preach good news to the extreme poor,
to release/liberate the oppressed by implementing a Jubilee/kingdom type justice for the poor."
As Jesus sat down, "The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. . . . All spoke well of him." The Jews from Nazareth had heard some very good news and they were positively impressed. In that synagogue congregation, there were some of the poor and oppressed Jesus had read about from Isaiah. And they knew what Jubilee justice would look like, what it would do for them. In modern lingo, they would have given him a standing ovation.
Galilee had the best farming land in Palestine (meager by Iowa standards). But this rich land was full of poor people. Why? Over the years, cruel and corrupt people had gained control of most of the good land through high interest rates, excessive taxation, poor crops, fraud or some combination of the above. So rich Jews, rich Romans and rich Gentiles got control of the land leaving the masses landless or on poor quality land. Some of the rich Jewish owners were religious absentee landlords from Jerusalem.
Judaism at the time of Christ was corrupt through and through. The leaders and the social institutions they controlled were much like they were in the OT at the time of Amos and Isaiah. The sacred temple had become a "a den of robbers," so Jesus moved in and cleansed it. Note the incredibly strong words of condemnation from Matthew 23.
Galilee was like a Third World country today---a few rich elite controlling everything and crushing the masses who were poor. Under the Jubilee/kingdom of God, the landless poor would get their land back. Then they could farm and be self-sufficient. Charity for the poor was not enough; these oppressed poor needed kingdom justice. The OT Jubilee was a set of divinely created principles to protect and empower the poor. The kingdom of God was, in part, to be a NT version of the OT Jubilee.
But another type of oppression was occurring in Galilee and all over Palestine. Some of the economically oppressed Jews were themselves oppressing others. How could the powerless poor be oppressors?
After Jesus was so well received because of his Isaiah 61 sermon in the Nazareth synagogue, the conservation continued. Jesus moved from preaching good news to meddling, or so the Jews thought. To address another type of social evil (ethnocentrism), Jesus recounts two familiar OT stories. First, "there were many widows in Israel in the day of Elijah [a time of famine] and Elijah was sent to none of them." Instead he was sent to a hungry widow in the land of Sidon. The second story: "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of [the Jewish] them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." After Jesus told these two true stories with his interpretation of them, "all in the synagogue were filled with wrath." Then they tried to throw Jesus over a nearby cliff and kill him. From "all spoke well of him," to "all were filled with wrath," in the space of a few minutes. Why this sudden change by the synagogue Jews?
The Jews were God's chosen people---chosen to be a servant people who were to bring the Messiah into the world to bless all people, Jew and Gentile. Over the years some of the Jews had corrupted their high calling. They reinterpreted their calling from being a servant people to being a superior people. They now saw themselves as a superior ethnos---people, nation, culture. Non-Jews or Gentiles were considered unclean, idolatrous heathen. God was now the God of the Jews alone. To keep themselves pure, they separated themselves from the unclean Gentiles. In a word, this distorted sense of superiority is called ethnocentrism---own-culture-centered.
In these two OT stories that Jesus summarized, he made the point that God made a special effort to reach out to Gentiles. Jesus was directly exposing and attacking Jewish ethnocentrism. In the eyes of the biased Jews, Jesus had committed heresy. So they tried to kill him on the spot.
In Luke four then, we find two social evils that the kingdom of God here on earth must confront as directly as Jesus did: 1) the oppression of the poor, and 2) ethnocentrism/racism of any kind. These evils must not only be exposed, something better must be put in their place. The oppression of the poor must be replaced by Jubilee/kingdom justice. Ethnocentrism against other racial/ethnic groups must be replaced by reconciliation and equality. At the end of Luke four, Jesus says, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose." Our purpose, our calling today is also to preach and practice the kingdom of God---the kingdom of justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The third key verse in understanding the kingdom of God is Romans 14:17. In the NIV, it reads: "The kingdom of God . . . is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." In the New English Bible, Romans 14:17 is translated as: "The kingdom of God . . . justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The Greek word dikiaosune means both justice and righteousness. The traditional English translation of righteousness is understood by most readers as: "I am made individually righteous through Christ" but it does not include the idea of kingdom justice.
So my paraphrase of Romans 14:17 reads: "The kingdom of God is . . . justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit." This paraphrase communicates that incarnating the kingdom of God here on earth is possible only through the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, that this kingdom is all about justice and shalom. The individual-in-a-church-community experiences justice and shalom (See Perry Yoder's Shalom). If a person in community experiences justice and shalom, this is solid ground for authentic joy; a person receiving only charity may experience a fleeting joy dependent on a handout.
There is more to the biblical ministry of the Holy Spirit than personal blessing. The person and power of the Spirit is essential to enable the church to destroy ethnocentrism and oppression. These social evils are deeply embedded in the cultural values and social institutions of our society. It is much more difficult to cast out these demonic values from society than it is to cast out an evil spirit from an individual person.
Often ethnocentrism and oppression are cleverly disguised in American society by using terms such as Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism; they are also portrayed as good by mixing them with the religion of society. Lee Harper said the following about her life in Mississippi: "For injustice ran deep and cloaked itself well among those things that appeared just." The supposed superiority of white Anglo-Saxons is covered by an appeal to our rich Judeo-Christian heritage. It takes divine wisdom from the Spirit of truth to sort this out. Once ethnocentrism and oppression are recognized and exposed, it will still take enormous power to destroy these negative values and replace them with justice and shalom. Here again the person of the Holy Spirit is crucial.
In summary, then, Isaiah 9:7; 61:1-4; Luke 4:18-30 and Romans 14:17 are all saying the same thing: that the kingdom of God here on earth should focus on the special needs of the poor and oppressed by preaching and practicing justice/righteousness; when the church does this it will lead to personal and community shalom. This can only be done through the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.
With this background, Acts 1:1-8; 8:12; 28:23 and 31 make more sense. Two themes are highlighted in Acts 1:1-8: the kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit. After Jesus' resurrection and before his ascension, Jesus spoke of "the kingdom of God" and "the promise of the Father---you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Howard Snyder in his book A Kingdom Manifesto, 1985, paraphrases Acts 1:6-8 as follows:
"His disciples ask, 'are you finally going to set up your kingdom?' Jesus replies,"The time for the full flowering of the new order still remains a mystery to you; it is in God's hands. But . . . the Holy Spirit will give you the power to live the kingdom now. So you are to be witnesses of the kingdom and its power from the very ends of the earth.'"
Wait until you are filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit; then you will have the power to incarnate the kingdom of God here on earth. The day of Pentecost soon came when the Spirit was poured out on the church.
What did the church do? Acts 8:12: In Samaria, Philip "preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ." Acts 28:23: Paul spoke to the Jews in Rome "testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus Christ from the law of Moses and from the prophets." Many of the Roman Jews rejected this message from Paul so he turned to the Gentiles "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ."
So the book of Acts is about the empowered church preaching and practicing a two-pronged gospel message: personal salvation based on the cross and resurrection, and a second and equally important theme---the kingdom of God as justice and shalom for the oppressed poor. The complete gospel includes both personal righteousness and social justice. Both are absolutely necessary if we are to minister to all the needs of a person and a community.
Previously from Luke four, I have identified ethnocentrism and oppression as two social evils the church must expose and challenge. If the church does not address these social evils, the church itself may become an agent of ethnocentrism and oppression. Remember that biblically ethnocentrism is a false sense of ethnic superiority; that oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslave and kills people created in the image of God.
Next, I will examine some tragic examples from the history of the church when the church itself became an agent of ethnocentrism and oppression. In these examples the church was usually faithful in proclaiming the cross and resurrection, sometimes the anointing and filling of the Holy Spirit, but failed to preach and practice the kingdom of God as justice and shalom.
The Puritans attempted to be a godly and biblical people and in some ways they were. But they did not understand that justice and shalom applied to all peoples. They saw themselves as God's chosen people, chosen to set up a Christian nation on these shores. But there was more than a touch of biblical ignorance in their sense of chosenness. After a period of relative harmony with Native Americans, as Puritan numbers grew and they needed more land, ethnic conflict developed. Increasingly, the Puritans saw the surrounding tribes as heathen standing in the way of God's will. When large numbers of Indians died from disease, Puritans often saw this as the hand of God eliminating the heathen from their midst. This religiously legitimated ethnocentrism soon led to acts of oppression---the killing of whole villages, also offering bounties for the scalps of Indians. Incomplete biblical truth---the lack of understanding that the kingdom of God requires justice for all---has had tragic consequences. The Puritans who saw themselves as instruments of God became instruments of evil. They also set in motion the ethnocentric and oppressive pattern that contaminated much of American history.
Much the same happened in South Africa. The Afrikaners also saw themselves as a people chosen to establish a Christian nation. During the time the Afrikaners governed, most Afrikaners attended church. The zealously kept the Sabbath day holy. Public TV opened with Bible reading and prayer. Abortion and pornography were low compared to the United States. At the same time they manifested this religious spirit, they treated their fellow Africans as inferior human beings. Their ethnocentrism led to inhuman acts of oppression. They did not preach nor practice the kingdom of God as justice for all people.
In the American south---the Bible Belt---ethnocentrism and oppression ran wild during the eras of slavery and segregation. Far too often, Christians and churches were a part of the problem. Only a scattered few stood for justice and shalom for all.
In Rwanda, supposedly the most Christian nation in Africa, ethnic conflict exploded between the Tutsi and the Hutu. The cross and resurrection were preached; evangelism was widespread. The Holy Spirit was present in a Protestant continuous revival and in a charismatic Catholic revival. Seemingly Rwanda was deeply Christian. But apparently there was little biblical teaching on the kingdom of God as standing against ethnocentrism and oppression and for justice and shalom. Some ruthless politicians fanned the existing embers of ethnocentrism which exploded into a forest fire which ravaged the land. The Christian church had not erected any justice barriers to stop the raging fires of hatred and bitterness. Tragically, many Christian were involved in the killings. Serious flaws in the understanding and practice of the gospel can literally lead to fatal consequences on a large scale.
One more sad event in American church history needs to be recounted. John Dawson describes the origins of Pentecostalism in his book Healing America's Wounds:
"The [1906] Azusa St. Revival was a modern Pentecost in which the outpoured Spirit broke the barriers to true Christian unity. Racial division, America's greatest problem, was swept away. The huge dirt-floor barn that housed William Seymor's [Afro American] church attracted scores of ethnic groups from their separate enclaves across Los Angeles. . . . This sincere and loving man---Seymor's friend---was afflicted with the blindness of his generation. He admired the Ku Klux Klan and believed that the besetting sin of humanity was racial mixing. . . . After denouncing Seymor, he continues in his ministry, preaching against racial mixing and proclaiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit. . . . . Pentecostalism divided into two groups, one black and one white, between 1908 and 1914. Glossolalia became the new emphasis. . . . and God's true purpose went down the memory hole."
A flawed church that preaches and practices a partial gospel leaves a spiritual vacuum. Evil floods in to fill that vacuum. In 1989, Billy Graham (Transformation) wrote: "I can no longer proclaim the Cross and Resurrection without proclaiming the whole message of the kingdom which is justice for all."
Sidney Rooy, in an unpublished manuscript entitled Righteousness and Justice, comments on the discoveries his family made as they read the Bible together in Spanish:
"Soon we discovered that righteousness and justice are universally translated justicia, our word for justice. Suddenly the bible was full of texts about justice. But why should that surprise us? Much later we learned that the English word justice does not occur in the New Testament of the King James Version. . . . To [Jesus and the apostles] it was transparently clear that justification, righteousness and justice were integrally part of the same reality [same root word in Greek]. We, on the other hand, tend to make idea-tight compartments for each."
Wolterstorff asserts:
"The God of the Bible is a God who loves justice. Injustice is a desecration. That's obvious in the Old Testament; but it doesn't change when we arrive in the New Testament. This would be starkly clear to all if our New Testament translators would follow their classical Greek colleagues and translate the frequent occurrences in the New Testament of the Greek words dikaiosune and dikaios with the English words 'justice' and 'just.'"
Jesus began his ministry highlighting the kingdom of God ( Mt. 4:17; Mk. 1:15: Luke 4:18-30). Jesus ended his ministry highlighting the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-8). In between, Jesus urged us to pray for his kingdom to come on earth (Mt. 6:10). And he ordered his followers to give highest priority to incarnating God's kingdom as justice (Mt. 6:33). Paul also made the kingdom central in his gospel (Acts 8:12; 28:23 and 31; Romans 14:17).
Marcus Borg: "The coming of the Kingdom as an epiphany [revelatory manifestation] of the Spirit creates a new way of life." "Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom calls the church to be an alternative community with an alternative lord and alternative loyalties."
Graham Cray sums it up best: "The agenda of the kingdom is justice; the dynamic of the kingdom is the Holy Spirit."
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