What is the Gospel ? Part 2
The Kingdom of God

Mark 1:15 - "Times up! God's Kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message."

Other than a passing comment referring to some ephermeral non-specific charasmatic ideology "the kingdom of God" has always a direct reference to heaven, or life after death in the circles I run in. Put another way, for the first 15 years of my life with Christ, the Kingdom of God equalled some city with gold streets where we didn't cry anymore because we were happy we weren't in hell.

Life on earth was about avoiding hell.
Life on earth was about doing good things because Jesus, God, my youth pastor or any other spiritual authority had told me to do these things to please God.

For me, Doing good was a duty.
Then I grew up and learned that it wasn't supposed to be a duty. I knew this because some guy or youth pastor etc told me that was wrong.
that that wasn't true freedom in Christ or proper believe.
so I changed my belief to the correct one.... that I was told.
I was told, duty isn't why you do good. You do good things because you are thankful.
I'm no dummy. I listened. I knew what my motives should be. that my motives should be born from my love and gratitude in Jesus.
That almost worked actually. but not really, not in a way that felt right.

Let's face it.
It never occured to me or the churches I've been affiliated with that doing good is a good idea, simply because it's good. That being a good neighbor and loving them, isn't neccesarily all that an extreme statement, because doing good is always a good idea. It's not good because Jesus said, it's just good.

What does this have to do with the Kingdom?
Last year I heard someone describe the kingdom of God as God's dream for the world. That when we pray "thy kingdom come" we are in many way's saying "Your dream come true "

When God dreams about the world, what does he dream about?

In churches where missions is going to build a house, but getting to share "the gospel" is the real reason you go, we've lost our way from the kingdom. Why don't we value the part of the gospel where building the house is good news too.
I'm not talking about making Jesus Lord.

Our misunderstanding of the gospel and kingdom of God have led to a church where people attend and learn, but rarely participate. Where evangelism is a program, trip, or something you are trained for. Where mission is a brief statement on our church letterhead. Where we are more interested in telling people the fine print of what we do and don't believe, rather than actually living out the dream of God in the world. Where we talk about the biblical community, but litter the roads with our fast food meal wrappings on our way to the next training to share the "gospel".
Where we listen to conservative radio, Rushing past people with needs on the side of the road.
Where we lambast, and assasinate the character of conservative polititians for not being loving to the world. Where we speak in tongues in our services and slander our pastors and neighbors during the week. It leaves me asking... where is the kingdom? It leaves me asking, is it any wonder the world want's nothing to do with us as the church. Why would they. They may actually be living out the kingdom of God ahead of the church. Why would the world want to know a Jesus who's followers are known by greed, a selfishly ambitious lifestyle (with Biblical support) and complacently spouting irrelvant facts about a God who seems to be happy with a church that loves itself and it's preferences for safety, comfort and of course preaching the gospel more than anything else.

just some thoughts.


posted by riddle at 1:25 PM | |