This post is part of an ongoing guest blogger series on the kingdom of God.
Today, we will hear from Josh Keaney:
“The Kingdom of God is God’s vision for God’s creation and this vision is bigger than the Church.” This is what I tell the youth at my church when explaining the Kingdom of God because I am a part time youth minister. It’s also based upon my experiences and observations in North America and the Middle East because I also work part time for Middle East Fellowship.
When I think of the Kingdom of God my mind immediately jumps to several things which I will list and try to explain why.
I Heart Huckabees and Talladega Nights prayer scenes. Because they reveal pop culture’s affirmation of God’s Vision for creation while criticizing what is perceived to be Christian belief & practice. What is the reality verses the perception of the church and the Kingdom? Do we believe and pray to a baby Jesus and are our prayers divorced from God’s vision for restoring all creation including the environment?
Media Eduation Foundation’s video on Edward Said & Orientalism. Beyond the role of the Church in the Middle East… Said & Orientalism should make us re-think our pre-conceived notions of what the Kingdom is (especially in the context of the War on Terror), the purpose of the Church, and most importantly who Christ is. Have we stripped the Kingdom and Jesus who established this Kingdom of political implications? Are our beliefs about the Kingdom based upon misguided, pre-conceived notions from other people who may have visited this Kingdom or upon our concrete experiences in service to the Kingdom?
Sami Awad and the work of Middle East Fellowship’s partner, Holy Land Trust and the nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation which I have had the privilege to witness and support. For example this summer’s protests against Israel stealing land near Bethlehem can be seen here. Because the Kingdom is bigger than the Church and therefore anyone and everyone can build that Kingdom including non-Christians who often understand and live like Jesus better than I do. Are Palestinian Muslims & Christians, Jews, & Internationals using their faith and non-violent resistance to oppose injustice building God’s Kingdom?
A class I took at Fuller from Ryan Bolger entitled, “Church In Mission” and a book for that class, John Fuellenbach’s Church: Community for the Kingdom. Because the Church is supposed to be a nonviolent contrast society in service to the Kingdom and because I was raised to believe the church is the kingdom and we must assimilate people into the church like the Borg assimilate people in Star Trek.
The life and writings of Roger Williams. The theologian and politician who founded the Colony of Providence, learned Algonquin, and is the reason we have a separation of Church and State. Because he gives us a window into what the Kingdom can look like in the midst of imperial colonization and because he challenges my views of the church’s relationship to the world.
Fuellenbach writes:
“The concern of Jesus was the kingdom, God’s dream for creation. To bring this Kingdom to bear on this world and to transform it into God’s final design, Jesus chose justice and compassion as his life principles. What counted was a basic human solidarity that would not exclude anyone from God’s love and would guarantee that all would be treated as brothers and sisters in the great family of God… The mission of the church must be seen and understood from this perspective: totally in the service of God’s Kingdom designed for the transformation of the whole creation. Once the church is no longer seen as the sole holder of the Kingdom, it does not have to define itself any longer as the kingdom of God under siege by the powers of this world. Since Vatican II the church sees itself more as leaven of the Kingdom or in the service of the Kingdom, which is broader than the church. In other words, a theology of transcendence gives way to a theology of transformation.”
Now that is a vision bigger than me and my religion … that the youth at my church and Palestinian Muslims can understand and live for.
Joshua Keaney (joshuakeaney@gmail.com) writes the following about himself: I wish I was a luddite, but since my work and entertainment revolves around my mac it’s only an idealistic fantasy. I love dark beer, especially anything from North Coast Brewery…and anything with Scotch, especially a Rusty Nail. The lowest point in my life was when I moved to Los Angeles after serving with the Coptic Church in Upper Egypt. While in L.A. I had no car and road my skate board to the Three Dog Bakery where I baked birthday cakes for hairless chihuahuas and watched people’s pets eat better than me. While in Egypt I discovered the thinnest place on earth is Anafora and the person most like Jesus is Bishop Thomas. I attended a private Christian college, but thankfully married a girl from the local UC who fortunately escaped Campus Crusade on her campus. Melissa, my wife would get a rating of 95 out of 100 on the amazing meter. She is in Law School now and pretty much wears the pants in our relationship which is fine because it allows me to keep my head in the clouds even though I bring home the bacon by working two jobs. I was raised in the Christian and Missionary Alliance but have settled into the Episcopal church. I have come to love Los Angeles where we attempt to make due with sharing a car and paying $1000 for a studio. We live in a primarily latin american neighborhood and Mole Enchiladas have now made it into my top five favorite foods…speaking of top fives, High Fidelity is one of my top five movies. Being raised in Redding in the 51st State of Jefferson I still don’t feel at home in the city and get away to the mountains as often as I can. I have traveled a great deal in the Middle East and am passionate and opinionated about all issues related to the region and its beautiful people. If you are ever in East L.A. send me an email and I’ll buy you a beer at Lucky Baldwins, the best pub on the planet.
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couple of questions i would like to see answered in every kingdom post are:
a) If living like Jesus is all that is necessary to become part of/build the kingdom what significance does Christs death have at all for the kingdom? Why die if imitation is all that is necessary.
b) And if all are saved by His death why did the apostles and other early christians proselytize? Did they misunderstand Christ? They never went about asking people to imitate Christ but their message was always about repentance and belief. What role does this message of repentance and belief in Christ play in the kingdom?
c) What role does the Holy Spirit have to play in the building of this kingdom? Does he have a role? Do we need the Holy Spirit to imitate Christ?
d) Every kingdom has a King and I would presume Christ to be the King because we are talking about the Kingdom of God. How can anyone who doesnt acknowledge Christ to be the King/Lord be part of the kingdom? Must not everyone in the kingdom show their sole allegiance to the King?
the moment you say non-christians you mean people who dont believe that Christ is the sole king and they His subjects. And why would anyone assign kingdom work to those who arent His. Never happens in the real world. I dont ask you to do my work because you arent my servant but if I did have a servant i could ask him. So why doesnt the same analogy apply here. Isnt it a logical conclusion then that though non-christians may be part of some kingdom they arent part of a kingdom reigned by Christ and that Christ never asks them to do His work?
e)is there any other kingdom other than the kingdom of God? if so who is their king and who are its subjects? And how does it interact with the kingdom of God?
what i find striking is that no scriptural references are given for any assertion you make. same is the case with other post. maybe it is normal for emergents but then why should i believe you when you say that the kingdom is not just about the church but much greater than that or that non-christians can build the kingdom? should i believe you because there might be many who agree with you? or because it might make me feel good?
interesting discussion. although i would like to see them go a lil in depth. maybe time doesnt permit. I obviously am coming from the conservative perspective.
Abe,
Thanks for responding.
a) My theology does not begin with the end of God’s life as a human dwelling on this earth but with the fact that God became human and this God lived a life that ended in death. As an Episcopal Priest in Pasadena would say, “this was God’s ultimate act of solidarity with God’s creation.” At minimum the example of this life and How God died is more important then the simple fact Jesus was executed. If we trace the inauguration of the Kingdom to a single event it was the Annunciation and not the Cross that radically changed how God would redeem and interact with God’s Creation.
Perhaps imitation is all that is necessary. I find imitation often creates internal change. Did the the first disciples or even us today understand or completely comprehend who Jesus was and why he did what he did? Would we ever understand and have an inkling today unless God was still moving, sending prophets, and speaking to us through the Spirit?
b) I believe we are all saved by Jesus entire life (which includes his death) beginning with God becoming one of us. You ask, Did the first followers proselytize or evangelize? I’m struggling to see the “good news” part of what your saying.
You ask, ”Did they misunderstand Christ?” The disciples and even Jesus’ parents misunderstood Christ as we do today. You expect me to believe they or us got it 100% right?
Have you read John 14? People who follow Jesus will obey his teachings. That sounds like “imitation” to me. To follow a Rabbi is to live like your teacher not memorize the Rabbi’s teachings. Repentance and baptism were connected with God’s Kingdom as demonstrated by John the Baptizer and his ministry in the Jordan River valley. It was a radical critique of the established religious order, the sacrificial system of the corrupt leaders in Jerusalem, and a call to correct living. Why was John the Baptist executed if all he was doing was dunking people under water and telling them to repent and believe differently?
c) First of all the Spirit is usually associated with the feminine so if you want to use a personal pronoun to identify the Spirit you should refer to the Spirit as a “her/she”. And to answer your question we need God (Holy Spirit) to imitate God… that’s a no-brainer. To pose a question back to you do only Christian’s “possess” the Spirit (God)? What happened at Pentecost? Are you going to put boundaries on who God works through, speaks through, and fills?
d) How black and white do you want to make things? Does that mean if I pledge allegiance to the American Flag I can’t be part of God’s Kingdom because I have to give my entire allegiance to Christ? Don’t we all have divided and competing allegiances? Does a Dodger’s or Laker’s fan have the wrong allegiance? Did Jesus make the Roman Soldiers he encountered leave the military? Did the Magi not come from a far? If a person professes to follow Christ and then orders the deaths of hundreds of innocent people really in the Kingdom or serving the Kingdom? If a Muslim lays down his life to help his Christian neighbor whose Kingdom is the follower of Muhammad (pbuh) in? Maybe God should setup a Department of Heaven Security and build a big fence to make sure that the wrong people dont get in. Everyone belongs to God and God assigns “Kingdom work” to people we think are outside what we think is a special club all the time.
I however will not assert a Manichean heresy. I firmly believe God is good, God’s creation is good, and being redeemed and the forces or powers opposed to this are NOT God and will NOT prevail. My experiences and the utilitarian need for hope in this screwed up world drive me to believe this. I believe I am a citizen of God’s Kingdom but there are days, weeks, moments, where I don’t serve this Kingdom. Does that mean I get excommunicated or my citizenship revoked? There are days I doubt and believe “unorthodox” beliefs. Does that mean Saint Paul is going to bash down my door arrest me and throw me across the Kingdom border. Are you going to call the Kingdom immigration police on me and have me kicked out?
e) There are many Kingdom’s and many wicked leaders. Are they material or spiritual or both? Are all leaders of the opposing kingdom(s) 100% evil? Do they still not LOVE but only love the wrong thing? I think Walter Wink is much more helpful than Frank Peretti in trying to figure out the seen and unseen power dynamics. We know from scripture and experience we live in an “already-not yet” world. What kind of eschatology do you have that allows you to create Kingdom boundaries when an established Kingdom has not been fully realized?
Would scriptural references have really made a difference? What kind of language game are you playing? Your question implies that my perspectives and interpretations are unbiblical and some how inferior to yours. I suppose I could counter that perhaps your hermeneutic lacks experience, reason, and maybe even tradition.
A final comment. It sounds like you are operating from a “closed set” world view in which there are boundaries and lines and people are on either one side or the other. I prefer the image of God drawing us in and everyone on a path to God. This makes where a person is located in relation to God less important than the trajectory a person and a community has set. The image the church used for itself before Vatican II was that of the Ark and that everyone had to be in the Church to be saved. Or as a ship at see dragging a net behind it and everyone caught in the net and pulled on board is “saved”. Post Vatican II our understanding of the Kingdom and the Church has shifted. Now the Church sees itself increasingly as a ship (perhaps the most important) on the ocean of this world leading the way and pointing others to God and helping others reach the common destination.
These are long posts… I wonder how many people will actually read them. It’s been fun fellow citizen and alien.
Peace,
- Josh
Adam,
I tried using HTML coding to blockquote Abe’s quotes in my post and it didnt work. So now its confusing because it’s difficult to distinguish Abe’s quote from my response.
Can you fix it?
- Josh
thnx Mr. Keaney,
will take time for me to digest all this. but it does give me an emergent perspective and yes i do intend to read all of it no matter the length of it. hope adam doesnt mind. or you can post it in your blog with a link to it.
you said
Did the the first disciples or even us today understand or completely comprehend who Jesus was and why he did what he did?
Do we need to understand everything that Christ did in order to be saved? No. Just the essentials of salvation are required.
you asked
‘do only Christian’s “possess” the Spirit (God)’?
my understanding is that the Holy Spirit is the seal of ones salvation and permanently indwells only those who are saved.
you asked
‘What happened at Pentecost?’
people who believed in Christ received the Holy Spirit. there is no indication in the NT of those who arent believers being permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
you said
‘Maybe God should setup a Department of Heaven Security and build a big fence to make sure that the wrong people dont get in.’
but the bible says that there does exist such a fence and Christ is the door. anyone who jumps the fence is a thief and if you want to enter in you have to enter through Christ. doesnt scripture support this view?
you said
‘Everyone belongs to God and God assigns “Kingdom work” to people we think are outside what we think is a special club all the time’
Scripture says that God sometimes uses the devil to do his work but does this mean that the devil is also part of the kingdom of God? God uses evil to bring about good. Does this mean evil is as much a part of the kingdom as good? No. there exists a definite boundary that differentiates them both.
you said
If we trace the inauguration of the Kingdom to a single event it was the Annunciation and not the Cross that radically changed how God would redeem and interact with God’s Creation.
redeem us from what/who? God did redeem us from something that is revolting/opposed to him. if there was nothing revolting/ungodly there would be nothing for God to redeem us from. so we should be able to draw a distinct line which divides the godly(that which has been redeemed, acceptable) and the ungodly(that which needs redeeming, unacceptable). there always exists something that opposes God and his values and it falls on the other side of this line. this is evil. this would also mean that evil has no part with God because if it did there would be no redeeming to be done.
you said
“Does that mean if I pledge allegiance to the American Flag I can’t be part of God’s Kingdom because I have to give my entire allegiance to Christ?”
when it comes to choosing between Christ and your country you would, i hope, choose Christ, right? in that case your allegiance to your country goes only as much as your allegiance to Christ would allow. one would be a subset of the other. can you still be a part of Gods kingdom if you willingly and constantly choose your country over Christ? no. doesnt this further show that there are atleast two opposing kingdoms here fighting for your allegiance? or do these opposing views still constitute the kingdom of God in which case anything would permissible. Do good and do evil will both be the rules by which the kingdom degenerates into chaos.
you said
If a person professes to follow Christ and then orders the deaths of hundreds of innocent people really in the Kingdom or serving the Kingdom?
so here we have murder of innocents as a criteria for not being part of the kingdom. another dividing factor. another distinct line that distinguishes between those who murder and those who dont. no he isnt part of the kingdom. but then what kingdom is he a part of? doesnt this imply that the kingdom of God has a spiritual counterpart, called the kingdom of (D)Evil?
you said
What kind of eschatology do you have that allows you to create Kingdom boundaries when an established Kingdom has not been fully realized?
well if God redeems us from evil then the Kingdom boundary stops where evil starts, right?
you said
‘I prefer the image of God drawing us in and everyone on a path to God. This makes where a person is located in relation to God less important than the trajectory a person and a community has set.’.
Does it not matter that this trajectory must go through Christ and Him alone or are you saying that there are more than one path to God? Didnt God say Christ is the only way to Him? Didnt even Christ say so?
you said
It sounds like you are operating from a “closed set” world view in which there are boundaries and lines and people are on either one side or the other
True. By what you have said the implication is that you dont. Your alternative would be, donno what to call it, lets say the ‘open set’ world view. So we have two world views here which are mutually exclusive. One says there is a line to divide people and the other says there is no line. one of them has to be acceptable to God and as a logical consequence the other unacceptable to God (both cant be acceptable at the same time because they are mutually exclusive). which one remains the question? if my view is acceptable then your view isnt and vice versa. if my view is acceptable then i am part of the kingdom and you arent and vice versa. our world views become the dividing line for determining who is and isnt acceptable with God. isnt this so?
i made sure that there werent any errors in my logic. if there are any, my apologies. thanks once again for reading and responding.
hi all
i’m new to this site, heard of through Emergent Village posting. Have been following the kingdom chat at JesusCreed (Scot McKay) and am generally just interested in kingdom come stuff… and learning more about blog world life… as a young-but-chronologically-a-bit-older pastor in far norheaster NY state northern adirondacks v near the quebec border boonies…
i’m trying to practice good listening and etc… (This helps me justify blog time, otherwise at the expense of something i’m supposed to be doing…)
and as a small town small church pastor it is kinda sorta always essential to be looking for ways of communicating across conservative-progressive-other types of boundaries and borders… (we all squeeze into together here of a mix of necessity and choice…)
is there a way to back up just a step or two here and click on some common ground before going back into full debate mode?
When i was an NGO campaigner (most of my previous life) before email was even invented, we did have conference calls but Most of our work was done in person, face to face and we could nuance even our strongest disagreements with a little small talk and getting to know you stuff… and at the end of the day we could often hit a pub and have a brew together (thanks for the E LA offer, Josh) and… this maybe way out… but — are there any blog equivalents? (for non-beer drinkers, and for most of us in the day anyway, coffee tea decaf whatever — )
I’ve posted just a little on kingdom at Jesus creed… about all i can say when the comments are flying over there is what about the holy mystery aspect… inherent in Jesus not spelling it all out for us… but teasing it out in parables in the synopics… teasing it out in shocking and mysterious “I Am” statements and sometimes pretty open-ended dialogues in John…
i agree w Abe that some scripture would help…. but… then some real discipline becomes necessary in a conversation like this… i think Josh was assuming everyone at this blog is at least pretty conversant w scripture. Scot McKay is going verse by verse, which is neater in one sense, but just as difficult navigationally in other senses…
There is also a conversation there (www.jesuscreed.org) on other faiths that i think is also interesting and touches on some of the issues Abe raises.
My two short posts there focus on the theology of CS Lewis in the space trilogy…
Lewis does a deep reading of natural theology and incorporates a lot of the pagan mythology that he and Tolkien were steeped in as academics and by interest. Not only does Lewis take a very generous Acts 17 approach to the high end paganism of Plato, Aristotle and the greek gods of mythology, he has druid Merlin doing alliance with house church Christians in the grand battle to save merry old england in That Hideous Strength. Lewis said the middle volume of this trilogy, Perelandra, was his own fave or one he thought was his best… in none of these three volumes does he ever mention God by any of the conventional names of the Trinity, nor refer to the bible. Yes, it’s parable and/or allegory and… it is meant to make us ponder.
enough for now. thanks for the conversation….
grace and peace
tim atwater
Tim,
Thanks for joining the conversation. My older sister gave me Lewis’s space trilogy years ago and it still sits on my shelf waiting to be read.
Abe,
I apologize for taking so long to reply. I have been thinking about what I wrote and Abe’s response the past few days. I agree with Tim and want to take a step back. The purpose of these posts is to discuss the Kingdom and I want to bring it back to this topic.
The Bible uses many metaphors for the Kingdom but perhaps thinking of the Kingdom as a family is helpful. My family has very different political and theological perspectives. Yet we still love each other and consider ourselves a family. Most importantly I see my family working toward a common purpose in serving God. My point is only that I do not see why differences should divide our family and thus I am slightly befuddled by Abe’s need to draw lines. Are we not in the family of humanity? I think of the older brother in the parable of the lost son and the story of Jonah. When God surprises us by including people in God’s plan we dont like or dont think should be included how do we respond? Do we respond like the older brother when God includes people in his plan we think are beyond grace? Do we respond like Jonah when our enemies change their trajectory which is really what repentance is about? Refering back the quote I gave in my initial post byFuellenbach, “What counted was a basic human solidarity that would not exclude anyone from God’s love and would guarantee that all would be treated as brothers and sisters in the great family of God.”
Abe where is the ability to be surprised by God? Where is the hope and optimism in your understanding of God’s dream for creation?
Abe you raised many points that we should discuss. However, what I was arguing in my initial post was that the Kingdom is bigger than the Church, the Church is meant to serve the Kingdom, and we need to rethink the misperceptions we have about the Kingdom and our relationship to this Kingdom. I found the concluding statements of your post the most interesting. Again I want to emphasize my in- ability to understand why you have to know who is “in” and who is “out”.
Abe at the end of your post you said, “if my view is acceptable then i am part of the kingdom and you arent and vice versa. our world views become the dividing line for determining who is and isnt acceptable with God. isnt this so?” Maybe my post was long and confusing but I feel like you missed the point of what I was trying to say. I completely disagree with you and do NOT see our world views as mutually exclusive and I do NOT think our world views are what determine who is acceptable to God. In all honesty Abe I want to include you in God’s Kingdom. You are “in” as far as I’m concerned despite the fact we disagree and have theological differences. I am confused why you need to draw a dividing line between us and the result is either I am a part of the Kingdom OR you are a part of the Kingdom. If this is the case we sound like disciples arguing over who gets to sit at the right hand of Christ in heaven.
I am trying to argue that we need to base our theology on experience and by getting our hands dirty. Our views of God’s Kingdom are not based on scripture alone. Luther’s “sola scriptura” is irrelevant and unhelpful today. And the same way Edward Said criticizes Orientalism we need to be critical of our view’s of God’s Kingdom because so many of us have formed opinions about God’s Kingdom that are unfacutal, inaccurate, and not based on experience. Often our views of the Kingdom are based upon reading books written by old, white, and dead, males (including the Bible). God’s Kingdom is not something we can formulate and put in a box. It’s not something we can understand and define with the hopes of controlling it. If the Kingdom is something we can control and define then the unfortunate and often conclusion is that the Church = the Kingdom. Is the hope we will study the Kingdom like we do all subjects to the point it looses all mystery and so that we can claim to have mastered it because we completely understand it? These issues of knowledge, power, control, colonization, and empire are all connected. This is why I included Roger Williams and Edward Said in my initial post and this is why emphasizing the Kingdom is bigger than the Church is so important.
For the sake of space Abe I will respond to only two of your previous responses.
First, I believe the Holy Spirit “dwells” in every person. I reject the notion that Christians or people that are baptized “have” God and others dont. Is it not possible that Baptism is a mystery where we recognize that God “dwells” in us and the response to this recognition is a commitment to serve God? People who are baptized therefore may have a better understanding of God and a deeper relationship with God because of this understanding and recognition but they do not have any special claims to possess God.
Second, you said, “well if God redeems us from evil then the Kingdom boundary stops where evil starts, right?” I think part of the problem and why we keep disagreeing is that I do not have the same view of the world as you. Let me try to explain.
I get the sense from you that you see the Kingdom of God = the Church and it is ruled by Jesus and there is a Kingdom of evil in this world ruled by Satan. You view Satan as a being or Spirit that is 100% evil and therefore Satan’ Kingdom is 100% evil. This view can be found in scripture but I am not certain its the only option or interpretation. I think the writings of Walter Wink helps us here in discussing different views of evil and God but for the sake of space I will skip this part.
I do not believe there is anything that is the antithesis of good and there is nothing that is the opposite of God. If something were to be 100% evil it would have needed to always exist and for it to always exist it would have to be a God of evil. To say such a thing would be establishing a being or entity that is as powerful as God of the Bible. As Christians we believe in an all powerful, loving, and good God. Everything God created is good. Hence who or what Satan is cannot be “evil”. All things were once good… no longer are completely good…. and God is making things right. I do not see some people as “in” and some people as “out” and I do not see clear boundaries between God’s Kingdom and a supposed Kingdom ruled by Satan. I am not an expert on Manichaeism but I am curious if you do not see hints of Manicheasim in your views.
I believe God created creatures with free will and the ability to love and love requires the ability to choose to love. Entities with free will that commit evil acts are abusing their free will and loving what they should not. Yet in the end they are still “loving”. No person and no thing is completely evil or beyond redemption and this has strong implications for how we view God’s work in this world.
Thanks for listening,
- Josh
Josh,
Thanks for putting loving words to something I sense but hardly ever express. The exclusivity of Christianity is the hardest part to support, and in fact it alienates me from church. Especially because I have a mind opened to the beauty of so many people and ways of thinking. It is hard to confront Christians who are black and white on issues (“this is the line in the sand, you are in or out”) because it contradicts my experience of relationship with God. God did not send his Son to condemn the world… None of us are entirely good or evil, aren’t the weeds that will be burned apart of each one of us? I don’t really have anything to say that someone else couldn’t pick apart intelligently because, again, I “intuit” these things and whatever has been written about it is probably more informed. But I liked what you said, and I wanted to thank you for saying it. There are little flowers popping up that promise a spring…