What?!? The Christian faith is not just about going to heaven when you die? For many of us, this seems foreign and takes some mental reorganization. Even though I do believe we return home when our heart stops beating, this book attempts to realign our mission in the here and now.<\/p>\n
One of my staff, who was raised Protestant, like me, also inherited the message that the goal of Christianity is to go to heaven when you die. They have since reevaluated the idea that the kingdom of God is out there,<\/em> and we do what we do here<\/em>, so that we can go there<\/em>. This focus has huge implications for what we do with our faith and what our faith does with us. As Wright and Bird say, this can nurture individualism, and I\u2019ve noticed it can justify sitting on our hands while we wait to go to heaven, all the while judging the world from our ivory towers of righteousness. It can also cultivate a deterministic mindset that nothing will ever change with the government, the world systems, or the culture, so why get involved or even try?<\/p>\n Another strategy I became accustomed to was anticipating an apocalyptic event that would eventually erupt and change everything in a moment. During seminary, it was surprising to realize that even the writers of the New Testament had to grapple with their understanding and expectation of what the kingdom of God was as the second coming of Jesus continued to be delayed. \u00a0Thomas Keating, a well-known Christian Benedictine monk, in Meditations on the Parables of Jesus says<\/em>, \u201cSo History proves it was more subtle and gradual than many expected.<\/p>\n Tom Holland, in Dominion, a brilliant<\/em> book, discusses just how much the Western world has been shaped by the life and message of Jesus (the kingdom of God). So much so, that we might not even recognize it and certainly take it for granted. He lays a case that both liberals and conservatives, believers and atheists, theologians and humanists all stand on extremely Christian values and principles as we argue with one another. In other words, the divine plan seemed to work, and we are blind to it at times. Wright and Bird hit this cord when they defend liberal democracy and \u201cconfident pluralism\u201d as foundationally Christian. They state, \u201cWe can provide a Christian justification for \u2018liberalism\u2019 through the notion of \u2018love of neighbor\u2019. In order to love our neighbor\u2019, we must allow our neighbor to be beside us and yet be different from us\u2026Unless their happiness is to the direct detriment of our own, our neighbor is free to be who they are, how they are, where they are, whenever they are. Love of neighbor is a way to disrupt hierarchical, grievance-based, identity-ordered ways of assigning status. The natural sequel is love of enemies, and the best way to destroy our enemies is to make them our friends, our partners, our neighbors.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Liberal democracy and confident pluralism is not where I was expecting the book to go at first glance. It was a nice balance and pleasant surprise that one of the chapters, which I honestly assumed was going to bash liberals, didn\u2019t, but rather defined and identified the roots of liberal democracy and advocated for pluralism. At one point in Christian history, ushering in the \u201ckingdom of God\u201d meant government and power systems imposing their will, doctrines, beliefs, and rituals on others through force. \u00a0Christendom was known for torturing fellow Christians until they renounced beliefs that were not in step with the majority orthodox views. Some Christian \u201cconversions\u201d came at the end of a sword. [4]<\/a> That approach seemed to take the Christian faith and baptized it in the violent ethos of the powers and dynamics of that day and age. Ironically, we have moved away from that Christian conversion strategy due to Christian ethics. Go figure!<\/p>\n This book attempts to show and differentiate the kingdom of God from the \u201ckingdoms in the 21st century.\u201d The Christian faith still gets baptized in current-day identity politics, tribalism, dualism, capitalism, and nationalism. I only know to pray as Jesus did, \u201cthy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven\u2026\u201d and follow the Spirit, knowing that it may not look like I expect it to.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Wright, N. T., and Michael F. Bird. Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/em>. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Reflective, 2024, 66.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Keating, Thomas. Meditations on the Parables of Jesus<\/em>. New York: Crossroad, 2010.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-11.22.06\u202fPM-1.png\")
<\/a>hard was it for people of Jesus\u2019 time to get over their idea of the kingdom of God as a triumphant institution that even the evangelists tried to change it into something great anyways.\u201d[2]<\/a> By great, Keating doesn\u2019t mean the Kingdom isn\u2019t spiritually transformative or powerful, but it wasn\u2019t a heavenly army coming out of the sky to overthrow Rome, but rather a new Spirit that would begin working its way into the hearts of humanity like yeast in bread.<\/p>\n