Orinda Community Church
Second Sunday in Lent, February 17, 2008
“Thy Kingdom Come”
Kirk R. Thomas, Preaching
TEXT: John 3:1-17
Continuing our Lenten sermon series about the Lord’s Prayer, this second Sunday we focus on the phrase, “Thy kingdom come,” half of a paired supplication including “Thy will be done,” which we’ll explore next Sunday. Several weeks ago when Pastor Frank discussed the kingdom he noted the difficulty of using this term in a modern society unfamiliar with that form of governance. “Kingdom” may also imply absolute sovereignty, male domination and territorial limits. The Greek term is poorly translated into English anyway, so other words such as “rule,” “reign,” “realm” or “domain” are equally correct. Perhaps the Greek term purposely reminds us of the Imperial Roman system of domination and exploitation to create a cognitive dissonance by positing a new and alternative vision of God’s rule through Jesus’ inclusive and empowered relationships. But this morning I will continue to use the traditional kingdom language.
Today, much popular discourse about God’s kingdom centers upon apocalyptic fantasies. Waiting at my dentist’s office recently, I picked up the latest Details magazine and scanned an article by Ben Paynter entitled “A New Holy War,” describing a religious crusade by evangelical Christians soldiers against “nonbeliever” servicemen. The article described a young American soldier in Iraq who feared for his life, but not from Islamic extremists. Nurtured a southern Baptist, when he realized he was an atheist he took offense at various religious rituals he encountered in which he was expected to participate while in the U.S. military forces in Iraq. After experiencing constant intimidation and oblique threats to his life, the soldier brought suit against the Defense Dept. through the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. MRFF founder Mike Weinstein has received approximately 6,000 such complaints since 2006 and estimates that religious “Dominionists” may comprise perhaps a quarter of all active US military personnel, from enlisted men to senior officers. Many in this group believe the Iraq war foreshadows a biblical “Armageddon” leading to Jesus return and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
With such a powerful influence in the most powerful military on the planet, we might do well to understand just what these Christians espouse. According to the Religious Tolerance website, Dominionists (also know as Christian Reconstructionists) represent an extreme form of Fundamentalist Christianity that believes all Christians must attempt to reconstruct society along Biblical lines, converting the laws to match those of the Hebrew Scriptures by strictly following the Mosaic law and punishments, thus creating a new Bible-based political, religious and social order. One of the first tasks of this order will be to suppress other religions by eliminating religious choice and freedom and suppressing all but strictly Fundamentalist Christianity. Nonconforming Christians would no longer be allowed to hold services, organize, or proselytize, and those advocating contrary religious beliefs would be tried for idolatry and executed. Blasphemy, adultery and homosexual behavior would be criminalized and those found guilty executed. Since they believe the moral laws given by God to the ancient Israelites reflect God’s unchangeable character (as opposed to our belief in a still-speaking God) these laws are intended for all nations, cultures, societies, religions and all eras, including the present time. They believe scripture commands Christians to bring all societies around the world under the rule of the Word of God in preparation for Jesus’ return under the “Kingdom of God,” their eventual goal. Dominionists tend toward “Postmillennialism,” the belief that Christ will not return to earth until much of the world has converted to Christianity. This will not take place for some considerable time and will be preceded by much conflict and suffering. Most Fundamentalists and other Evangelicals are “Premillenialists,” believing that almost all the preconditions of Christ’s return have been met so that Jesus’ second coming may be expected very soon. Dominionism is finding considerable support among Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations and churches.
If modern Reconstructionists hold apocalyptic fantasies of God’s coming kingdom, the ancient world was even more certain of them. In the Jewish world of Jesus’ day, the coming of God’s kingdom was a common expectation, embedded in the ritual and doctrine of sects like the Essenes, as well as in the Temple, among the Pharisees and Sadducees, and even among the common people who flocked to John the Baptist at the Jordan. Ever since the Babylonians had conquered what was left of the once great Davidic Empire of Israel, the Jewish Diaspora had longed for the restoration of their autonomy in Palestine as God’s chosen people. Except for the brief period of Maccabean rule, Jews had been a colonial people for centuries under the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and now the Romans. Herod reigned as a Roman vassal, and although he rebuilt the Temple, he was not even a Jew. The great prophets, especially Isaiah, had interpreted Jewish political subjugation as God’s discipline of His errant people. Proper contrition would lead to the reestablishment of purity and holiness in the land in order to usher in the Messianic age—the Kingdom of God.
One cannot over-emphasize the tumultuous nature of those times throughout the ancient Roman world, but especially in Palestine. At the crossroads of flourishing commerce, Jewish culture that had traditionally valued purity and separation was awash in the multicultural mix of empire and exposed to the alarming influences of social dislocation, fluidity of religious belief, and constant cultural and political upheaval. Even so, the relative stability and wealth of the Empire may have actually fomented social and religious discontent as expectations rose. The language of apocalypse—of the dramatic end-of-the-world—had been present in Jewish theology and culture for several centuries, and was increasing toward the dawn of the Common Era. The desire to usher in the Kingdom of God by purifying God’s Holy Realm on earth was gaining strength, especially in Zion—that is, Judea and Jerusalem. These increasing sentiments and official reaction to them led, not only to Jesus’ crucifixion as a perceived instigator of discontent, but to the First Jewish Revolt of 70 CE and then to the Second Revolt of 132 CE when its leader, Shimon Bar Kokhba, was declared the Messiah. Both Temple and erstwhile messiah were destroyed in the final and complete subjugation of Jewish Palestine.
These events must have seemed like a true and terrible apocalypse, just as the upheavals of war, terrorism and global warming seem truly apocalyptic today. In an ancient world that believed humans were present at the creation, and of natural and political disasters as portents of the end-times, we can understand how the Kingdom of God may have seemed imminently at hand. But our contemporary knowledge necessitates a new understanding of the metaphor of the Kingdom. Although modern humankind has existed for hundreds of thousands of years, we now realize that this is but a tiny fraction of the vast span of earth’s age, much less of the whole creation. And although we know that great disasters can suddenly engulf our societies and even our planet, we also know that such cataclysms occur regularly albeit rarely, and that both the planet and the human race can and have endured them. Such knowledge inevitably impacts the traditional view of apocalyptic thinking.
So, we what the Kingdom of God is not. The Kingdom of God is not a modern, Christian theocratic state. And the Kingdom was not to be a great apocalyptic conflict that re-established the dynastic House of David and the Israelite state in the first century or now.
There are 116 references to the Kingdom of God in the Christian gospels. Clearly, the Kingdom was at the center of Jesus’ message. In our scripture reading today, the Fourth Evangelist has Jesus describing the Kingdom of God to Nicodemus, a Pharisee appearing only in this gospel who introduces topics that Jesus explains. Coming to Jesus by night because he is still symbolically separated from God and the light of the gospel, Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus’ authority but wonders how as an adult he can be reborn into God’s Kingdom. Jesus ignores his flattery and tells him that, (1) “No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born [again]” [or, “from above”] [or, “born anew”] (the Greek word can mean any of these), and (2) “No one can enter the Kingdom without being born of water and spirit,” obviously a reference to baptism, a spiritual purification of the soul. Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus to mean physical rather than spiritual rebirth. The image of childbirth can remind us that Jesus told us that we must be as children in order to enter the Kingdom (Matthew 18:3). But I cannot help but wonder if this spiritual transformation is also a metaphor for death? Like birth, dying also may be a change into a different state, one in which we recover our original selves—beings fashioned in the spiritual image of God. Jesus’ poetic and comparative metaphor of wind and spirit is amplified by the fact that the same Greek word may be used for both (as may the Hebrew word), implying a spiritual mystery beyond human understanding. By combining rebirth with the traditional Kingdom imagery, Jesus has transformed and raised the eschatological expectation to a spiritual level. These are personal experiences, not the apocalyptic upheavals of the Kingdom fantasies of Jesus day or of today’s Dominionists.
How can we be born anew of the spirit? Perhaps by acknowledging God’s saving power over all creation, already begun by the incarnation and ministry of Jesus and, while not yet fully manifest, continued in the faithful ministry of the beloved community. Perhaps by perceiving the awesome holiness of God—the Shekinah—the wonder of God’s presence and overwhelming magnificence. Where is the Kingdom of God? Jesus accurately predicts that, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20) In other words, he says, “It’s not out there; it’s in here.” What would the coming of God’s realm be like to us modern Christians? The answer to this question is similar to the challenge I made several months ago to begin envisioning a new and updated equivalent of the metaphor of a “New Jerusalem” that John of Patmos described in the Book of Revelation. Our new mythic image would flesh out the contours of our world thoroughly transformed into a realm where God’s loving grace is a daily reality for all humankind.
Several weeks ago, Pastor Frank described our personal participation in the Kingdom, reminding us that God’s Kingdom is near whenever we act lovingly toward one another, whenever we respect the creation, or establish a relationship with God; or whenever we attend to our spiritual practice. So then, what do we seek when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come”? We seek, not the triumph of narrow, rigid, judgmental and archaic rule, but the constant revelations of God’s in-breaking justice, love and peace into our world. We seek our transformation, both as individuals and as a Christian community, not to inflict and endure suffering, but to embrace and to embody the reality of God’s spiritual realm. And we seek humble submission to God’s purpose, in a domain that will inevitably and inexorably subsume, envelope, and enfold the entire creation in God’s grace and glory.
They kingdom come, indeed! Thanks be to God. Amen.