Ron Cole : unplugged, unorthodox, heretic

the Kingdom is here and now...what ever your opinion is

Likely one of the best sermons I've heard on the Kingdom of God...Greg Boyd From Woodland Hills Church.

 

ONE.LIFE...the redemptive imagination of Jesus' kingdom

If your one of those people that have been trying understand Jesus and what he was all about, and you keep finding as you navigate the gospels in the midst of the blind, the lame, the sick, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, the homeless and the broken...you find Jesus talking about, and revealing the Kingdom of God. It's unavoidable...Jesus is consumed by it.

Scot McKnight in his recent book, ONE.LIFE ; Jesus Calls We Follow he says this...

The Best word for Jesus' dream is that he wanted it to go viral. Jesus launched his Kingdom Dream at a wedding with friends and family. He didn't march into Jerusalem on a white horse or sail off to Rome to topple the powers that be. Instead, he set up shop at an ordinary house at an ordinary event, and he launched the kingdom dream with ordinary people.

When Jesus launched his justice vision, he summoned the sick and the blind and the wounded and oppressed. When he called his followers to root everything they do in love, he was speaking to the ordinary relationships of ordinary life. When he launched his "community" vision, he chose to so at ordinary tables in ordinary homes. When he showed what it was like to live in and pursue peace, Jesus didn't eneter into the halls of laws in Jerusalem or reshape the law books in Rome...no, he just began living that way and asked ordinary people to join him.

Ever since Jesus, though, the church has been tempted by another way: the way of power, the way of might, the way of violence, the way of coercion. There is another tempteation as well, which is to bottle or package Jesus' kingdom dream into an institutional organization that can perpetuate his kingdom vision. But those ways don't work. The kingdom dream will not be realized by power and might and violence and coercion. That way ruins the dream. And the kingdom can't be contained in an institution or reduced to an organization.

No, Jesus wanted his kingdom to go viral. He wanted you and me and ordinary folks like us to launch the kingdom dream in our lives. One day at a time. In ordinary ways. With ordinary people.

Why do you think we are so tempted to capture the vision of Jesus in an institution, as if it can be contained? Why do you think we are tempted so easily to coercion and force?

There is part of me that wants to call Prof. Scot McKnight's ONE.LIFE  a manifesto for christian living, but that sort of sounds to in your face...I see this as much more humble. Scot McKnight writes out of a depth of experience, as a follower, a pastor, a teacher, and writer...its not a arm chair quarterback that has never been in the game.

The start of every chapter opens with an interlude where he re-boots the readers hard drive in order to synch it with the Kingdom imagination, and dream of Jesus. He encourages the reader to climb out of the rut of mere religion...to where you catually live in the reality of the Kingdom. What does it look like to follow Jesus? Find out what it means to embrace the vision of God's Kingdom in way that not only awakens your finest dreams...but changes the neighborhood, and world around you.

What I liked most about this book is it's simplicity...so many theologians, and academics tend to write at a level even Jesus couldn't understand. But Scot writes a level everyone can understand, and you sense his passion throughout the book. The book is 15 chapters in which he weaves the vision of Jesus' Kingdom into very aspect of your life, every nook and cranny.

In the end you discover what Jesus was so passionate about, a dream filled with such incredible redemptive imagination in which new creation is a reality...it is as Jesus prayed, " Your Kingdom come on earth, as in heaven." The reality is. if we dare dream, if we dare imagine...and if we dared live. It can happen now!

 

He ( Jesus ) isn't asking you to commit to a system or an idea or an ideal. He isn't asking you to throw yourself into a religion or a logical system. First and foremost, and without this the whole thing crumbles into a deconstructed myth, he wants you to commit yourself unreservedly to him.

if you give yourself to Jesus, he transforms your talents and your dreams and your abilities and yor mind and your job and your grades and the realtionships to the ones you love and your money and he converts them into kingdom explorations and kingdom challenges. When you give your life to Jesus, your life becomes kingdom life. But the kingdom life only happens when you give yourself to Jesus, and that means also his kingdom dream and to those who are in the kingdom dream already. (p.118-119 )

Christianity that saves my soul, Christianity that makes my inner filament glow, and Christianity that is personal spirituality is not the full kingdom Jesus announced. Christianity that is only about me and for me and concerns me – and in which I spend my time assessing how I am growing in my personal relationship with God – lacks central society-focus of Jesus.  That form of Christianity is not kingdom (Scot McKnight, One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow p. 34).

Scot McKnight blogs here...at Jesus Creed.

a Nietzsche moment...rethinking faith in post-christendom

 

 “All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

" We can not see the texts, through the interpretations "

I think there is profound wisdom in the Friedrich Nietzsche quotes above, especially in this place called post christendom. The biggest question, especially in North America is how do we navigate, and communicate the gospel in a land where christianity for the most part is an alien, and perceived as a threat? There are some that simply refuse to engage, still navigating with old maps, speaking a foreign langauge that most don't understand...they simple drive recklessly over the landscape taking anything out in their way. There are others, that simply watch sadly reminiscing like holding the hand of a loved one that is passing away. And others, that seem to have awakened after a deep deep sleep like Rip Vanwinkle rubbing their eyes wondering what in the hell happened.

But finding yourself on the shores of an uncharted land may not be a bad thing. It is coming to the conclusion we can't navigate with old maps, but, that is not say we through away the real wisdom that we have gained from the past. And, yes we will have to learn to communicate with the occupants of this foreign land.

I find in interesting that there are in fact wise sages doing this right now. People like Brian McLaren in A New Kind of Christianity; Bishop NT Wright in Simply Jesus, and How God became King; Scot McKnight in One Life:Jesus calls We follow and The King Jesus Gospel . These thinkers, pastors, scholars, writers...like many ordinary folks struggling with faith in the land of post christendom can Identify with Nietzsche's words. We have lost the texts underneath all the interpretations...and the interpretation that prevails is not necessarily a function of truth but power. And I think as a church, as christians we have to soul search...yes, there is some truth there.

So guys, like Mclaren, NT Wright and McKnight are digging through all the interpreations to get at Jesus and rediscover the gospel and what it means, especially as we navigate post christendom. Are they getting push back? For sure, those who are still camped out in christendom, refusing to even update old maps, refusing to rethink coordinates they have plotted out, are their harshest critics.

I for one, think we have lost the profound simplicity of the gospel. In simplicity, I mean understanding...to live out, is likely the most challenging thing we will ever encounter. We have made so much out of the gospel, and at the same time ironically, have made it so small. I'm going to stop here, and ask that you listen to Scot Mcknight as he engages the question, " What is the Gospel ", Then I'll come back and pick up the conversation.

 

Q-Ideas for Common Good...Video Scot McKnight, " What is the Gospel?"

 

 Well, what do you think? Did you feel your building locks of belief that you had nicely stacked teeter a little bit, or did they just come tumbling down and now lay like rubble around your feet?

After my year of gospel immersion, where I literally read, and reflected on nothing but the four gospels, Jesus words, his teaching, his ministry...his life and death...I came away with far more questions than answers. Now that doesn't make me a scholar, but if we can't understand the gospels with out one...we have a huge problem. But the question that consumed me the most and still does, is how did we narrow it down to decision, a transaction where we crunched and compressed it down to a statement, that I must confess Jesus died for my sin...I get to go to heaven. In the year, and in the hours of reading the gospels since I have yet to find anywhere, where anyone one made a statement of faith...even the disciples.He forgave, he healed, he invited the marginalized, the worst of sinners...and even a betrayer to his table all with no statement of faith. People just seemed to be in whether thay knew it, or even liked it.

 How in God's name did we end up putting these coordinates on map telling people this is the way?

 Now am I saying there is no salvation plan...definitely not. Maybe it's not a plan, not a formula...not a set of coordinates on a map ? Maybe it something far more redemptive, something that re-captures the imagination of what it is to be fully human? Maybe as hard as you try you can't compress it into something a small as a " get out of jail free " card...you can't.

In this new landscape of post chistendom do we have enough faith, are we willing to risk that Jesus and the gospel can stand on its own. Or, will we again put more faith in our interpretations running to Jesus aide propping him up again from all sides. The funny thing is, the more things we put around Jesus and the gospel it tends to distract, and hides Jesus and the redemptive power of his story...and really shows how insecure, and unfaithful we are.

Are we willing to think that with out any coersion, any manipulation that someone could just jump into the gospels, Jesus story and be invited to follow...and mysteriously find themsleves redeemed without us pulling strings? Can we believe that just Jesus alone could do that?

Are we willing to untie Jesus, and just let him tell is story...how much are we willing to risk that Jesus alone can re-boot the imagination of a world that longs for something profoundly more than what it lives?

loosing your religion, joining a revolution...

What Jesus was about had nothing to do with being religious. Read the gospels! He partied with the worst of sinners and outraged the religious. This is what got him crucified.

What Jesus was about was starting a revolution. He called this revolution, " the Kingdom of God."

This revolution isn't centered on getting people to believe particular religious beliefs and engage in particular religious behaviors, though these may be important, true, and helpful. Nor is it centered on trying to fix the world by advocating the " right " national agendas, theough these may be noble, righteous and effective.

No, the Kingdom of God that Jesus established in centered on one thing only: maninfesting the beauty of God's character and thus revolting against everything that is inconsistent with this beauty. The Kingdom is centered on displaying a beauty that revolts.

Jesus' death sums up the theme of his whole life. Every aspect of his life, teachings, and ministry put the beauty of God's reign on display and revolted against some aspects of the culture that contradicted this reign.

The central call of thsoe who pledge their life to follwing Jesus is to join this beautiful revolution and therefore to humbly live and love like this. " Whoever claims to live in him, " John says, " must live as Jesus did " ( 1 John 2:6 ). We're to manifest God's beauty by sacrificially loving our enemies, serving the poor, feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, welcoming the outcast, embracing the worst of sinners, healing the sick, just as Jesus did. And there is no way to do this without at the same time revolting against everything in our own lives that keeps us self-centered, greedy, and apathetic towards the plight of others. Nor is there anyway to do this without revolting against everything in society...and we shall see, in the spiritual realm...that keeps people physically, socially and spiritually oppressed.

So you see, the Kingdom has nothing to do with religion..." Christian " or other wise. It's rather about following the example of Jesus, manifesting the beauty of God's reign while revolting against all that is ugly.

It's a beautiful revolution that we are all invited to join. But to do so, we've got to loose our religion.

( Greg Boyd: Myth of a Christian Religion/ Zondervan 2009 ISBN 978-0-310-28383-6 )

Occupy the Kingdom...Greg Boyd

Greg Boyd's books are always within reach in my library when I'm reflecting and writing musings on the Kingdom. In that year I spent reading nothing but the gospels I began to see something that was obviously there before, but had missed. Part of it was in the church we don't spend much time in the gospels, or if we preach on it, we lean toward the warm and comfy spiritual stuff. But that year, the more I navigated my way through the gospels it didn't matter where I went, around ever corner I kept coming face to face with one word; Kingdom. I almost had the impression Jesus had an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder around this Kingdom thing...he couldn't stop talking about it, and couldn't stop living it. And as far as being spiritual...it seemed far more fleshy, and earthly. And that's when I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the Kingdom. As a follower of Jesus, if he's consumed and passionate about it...we should be.

So one of the first guys I started reading was Greg Boyd.  Greg’s search for a well-grounded and intellectually defensible faith led him to study philosophy at the University of Minnesota (B.A.), followed by studies in philosophical theology at Yale Divinity School (M.Div) and Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D). He then became a professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University and is currently the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

 

He is a prolific writer, and theological thinker...he continues to stretch the mind of the evangelical church with his Kingdom views. Many find him controversial, but, he has had an impact on many opening their eyes to the incredible redemptive imagination of the Kingdom. Below, is part of a post that Greg wrote in 2007 on the Kingdom...read it and you'll sense his passion.

The kingdom is present whenever people are getting their life from Christ alone and therefore are increasingly looking like Jesus, doing what Jesus did, and obeying what Jesus taught.

When people refuse to retaliate, choosing instead to return evil with good as Jesus and Paul taught us, the kingdom of God is present. When people love their enemies rather than fight them, bless those who persecute them rather than curse them, and pray for those who mistreat them rather than trying to get even, the kingdom of God is present. When people choose to serve rather than to be served and to be killed rather than to participate in killing others, the kingdom of God is present. When people choose to put the interests of others before their own, to forgive even after multiple offenses, and to invest their own time and resources in serving others, the kingdom of God is present. When people befriend the friendless, feed the hungry, house the homeless, serve “sinners” rather than judge them, and work to bring healing into people’s lives and relationships, the kingdom of God is present. And when we choose to live in a way that ascribes worth to animals and the earth rather than simply using them as a means of gratifying ourselves, as the Bible commands (Gen. 1:26-28), the kingdom of God is present.

This is what God’s LIFE looks like when it is manifested “on earth as it is in heaven,” for this is what Christ looked like when he came down to earth( Greg Boyd:Is the Kingdom Invisible 2007 )

A friend ask me a while back what Kingdom preaching looks and sounds like? Well there is no better person to listen, well other than Jesus...but Greg Boyd. This is a sermon he gave just before christmas 2011, when shopping and consumerism was at a feverish frenzy, called " Occupy the Kingdom." Enjoy!!!

 

I was so full of being right...that I couldn't see

Being right, they said, who to love,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, obey the Sabbath,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, forgive this many times,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, you can't hang out with those people,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, you can't touch those people.

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, you have to worship here, like this,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, which law,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, faith is this,

Jesus said, do what is good.

 

Being right, they said, you get eternal life this way,

Jesus, said, do what is good.

 

 

 

The people that we're struggling with faith in their every day life in Jesus day were always being bombarded by the " They said " noise that seemed to fill every space of their life, it was hard for them to get away from. I think many people come to a place where they move into the wilderness, into a closet...where the noise volume and intensity is turned down and tuned out...and you finally here what, Jesus said.

It's amazing to come out of that place and discover a faith that you can carry around in your pocket...everywhere, anytime. For a lot of people it's a bit scary to download everything into something as small as a tweet...but is so profoundly redemptive that it has the ability to change reality around you.

A song that spoke wisdom to me when I was in the midst of my transition, is " The Color of Right ", by Canada's progressive rock trio " Rush." Have...a listen.

 

04 The Color Of Right

I don't have an explanation 
For another lonely night 
I just feel this sense of mission 
And the sense of what is right 

Take it easy on me now --- 
I'd be there if I could 
I'm so full of what is right 
I can't see what is good 
 
It's a hopeless situation 
Lie awake for half the night 
You're not sure what's going on here 
But you're sure it isn't right 

Make it easy on yourself 
There's nothing more you can do 
You're so full of what is right 
You can't see what is true 

A quality of justice 
A quantity of light 
A particle of mercy 
Makes the color of right 

Gravity and distance 
Change the passage of light 
Gravity and distance 
Change the color of right

 

(Words by Neil Peart, music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson) 

I think that it was a life changing moment in my journey when I realized I was so full of " right ", that I couldn't see what was good, and what was true. It really is the quality of justice, and the quantity of light...nothing more than a particle of mercy...that helps us see good. And it's truly when we immerse ourselves into the world around us, getting close to the marginalized, the poor, the oppressed, the homeless, different faiths, gay people, differnt cultures, different races...it's when we close the distance between ourselves and others, that we increase the gravity...changing, exchanging the passage of light.

"They" will tell us a lot of things, things that are right...but Jesus said merely do what is good, and worry less about right.

atonement beyond christendom...

 

 

Anyone who has visited this space over the years knows my thoughts on atonement, I believe it profoundly more mysteriously redemptive than the myopic view of atonement being solely about Jesus' sacrifice for my sins, or your sins. As Eugene Peterson muses in the Message in Colossians 1;

^15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

^18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

Even through reading all four gospels we are hard pressed to draw that conclusion when the redemptive imagination of the Kingdom consumes the story from beginning to end. There is many who have not awakened that we are living in a post-christendom era. I don't know why, but these same people clutch with absolute fear, hanging on for dear life to this one theory...even if it means the death of christianity itself.

David Fitch ( is doing a Ph.D at Northwestern University, b.) teaching in a large city church, c.) leading a small intentional community in the city of Chicago, and planting a missional church, Life on the Vine Christian Community in the northwest suburbs of Chicago ) says this around atonement in a recent blog post around some recent comments by Mark Driscoll .

1.) The Focus on the Substitionary Atonement. Towards the end of the interview, Driscoll asks Brierley if he believes in the penal substitutionary atonement. When Brierley affirms it as one of many ways to view the cross, Driscoll suggests he’s being cowardly about it.  Driscoll then insists on singular commitment to penal substitutionary atonement is essential to the success of the gospel.

To me this speaks to the singular focus on the penal subtitutionary atonement that is central in many parts of the Neo-Reformed matrix regardless of contextual considerations. Am I right? Driscoll is blind to contextual considerations concerning salvation. In other words, the atonement is many faceted (read McKnights Community of Atonement for example). One size does not fit all. It could be argued that penal substititionary atonement makes the most sense in Christendom, amidst a culture shaped under Medieval Catholicism, it’s theology and penitential system (Driscoll grew up Catholic). Moral guilt, you could say, was (and is) the singular Christendom condition into which Reformed theology was born. It is not however as universal in the West as it once was. If we insist on being locked into this one view of the atonement, we will in essence be narrowing our context for mission.

The atonement is wider, bigger and more multitudinous than substitionary theory. And the hurts and pains of the world we are engaging cannot be put fit into this one theory. I believe in the substitionary theory of the atonement. But it is limited. The work that God is doing in the world includes reconciliation, healing, restoration, justice, and the victory and authority of Christ over Satan, evil, sin and death. It is in short God at work through Christ making all things right.  A narrow focus on substitionary atonement disables the church from engaging the world outside Western Christendom culture. It discounts the manifold ways God in Christ has come to set the whole world right. Mark Driscoll can’t understand this. And so when he enters a post-Christendom context he gets frustrated.

Does not Drsicoll’s frustration then reveal the atonement myopia at the heart of the Neo-Reformed movement. Does it not reveal the weakness inherent in Neo-Reformed theology for those of us minsistering in post Christendom contexts (like Brierley’s Britian)? Does not his whole fiasco reveal how the singular focus on subtititionary atonement hinders missional engagement? Yes? no?

I think David reveals some deep honest questions that many on the fringe of church are struggling with, along with many who have left the faith. We live in a world to put it mildly is creeping closer and closer to extinction...environmental collapse, economic collapse, societal collapse, poverty, war, injustice, fundamentalism...the list goes on. If the best the gospel, and Jesus has to offer is forgiveness for sin...it is like throwing a band-aid to a world that is hemorrhaging it's life away.

In this post modern, and post christendom context...christianity needs more than ever the " mind of Christ "...to plumb the depths of the gospels to re-imagine a redemption that will not only glorify God, but also honor and recapture the mind of " ALL " humanity.

I encourage you to read the rest of David Fitch's post where he addresses other Neo-Reformed theological issues such as ; Hierarchal Authority and Male Dominated Preaching. You can read the rest...here.

the kingdom...have we forgotten it was revolutionary

When we are dissatisfied with things as they are, the status quo, the injustice, the oppression we see in the world, we begin to imagine what the world would be like if things were different--if there were no hunger or thirst and all tears were wiped away (Rev. 7:14). Creative redemptive imagination reaches toward God, and glimpses a new heaven and new earth are realized as potentially real...the kingdom. The new reality has nothing to do with the present order. In fact, the one who responds to this new imagination seeks to put something more beautiful in the place of what she sees. This is where the friction and fight begin.

Martin Luther King was not killed because he had a dream. Dreamers are easily dismissed. He was killed because he sought to introduce into the political arena what he saw with his heart and mind...I have a dream. The same was true of Gandhi. The same was true for Jesus, who dreamed what the prophets dreamed, he reimagined the world a new...and lived in the reality now. On earth, as in heaven...a cosmic collision of redemption in which the kingdom comes.

As Jesus made clear his solidarity with the poor and his vocation to engage them in a liberating process of the Kingdom, he came into confrontation with entrenched political and religious powers. As suspicion of him turned to resistance and then to hatred and fury, he began to prepare his disciples for what he would have to suffer. Peter immediately took Jesus aside to protest his continuing on what was surely a collision course....

Where is the church today...in this process of liberation, proclaiming, revealing and building the Kingdom of God...on earth as in heaven? If it is nothing more than the forgiveness of sin we haven't even scratched the surface of the redemptive imagination of the parabolic kingdom.

 

 

I wonder if we really fathom the profound mysterious reality of what was happening on Palm Sunday. It's as if the earth was starting to wobble, and any precieved stability was suddenly an illusion. The power of the kingdom confronting the principalities and powers of darkness...the king of a kingdom, meeting the ruler of an earthly empire. Where is our allegiance today in this meeting? Who have we allinged ourlives with?

From the east, amid whispers of revolt, Jesus rides in on a donkey, proclaiming the empire of God. He called it the “kingdom of God.” Hearts pounding with fear, his companions follow in disorderly formation. Hopeful peasants, spoiling for a fight with “the man,” cheer them on.

From the west, amid rising dust and the thunder of cavalry hoofs, soldiers march in, visible and audible even from a distance. This shock and awe battalion is led by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who is rolling into town to assert the authority of the Roman Empire. He will answer any insurrection with an iron fist. Pilate, and by extension Caesar, is greeted by the upper crust of Jerusalem. If this were a Hollywood movie, ominous music would swell and dark clouds would rumble on the horizon.

Jesus’ “triumphant” entry into the city is a planned, orchestrated political and religious statement. It is dangerous street theatre. Code words are exchanged between disciples and clandestine followers of Jesus. A donkey is turned over to the disciples. The action begins.

Jesus rides into town on the donkey, a brazen nod to the prophet Zechariah and his well-known prediction that a king would come, humble and riding on a donkey, to liberate the city. But there is already a governor: Pilate. And there is already a “King of the Jews,” a title given to Herod. And there is Caesar, known far and wide as the “Son of God.” The palm parade is the counterpoint, parabolic reality,a non-violent mockery of the Roman military parade, and pious religiosity on the other side of the city.

We’ve kind of let the air out of that about-to-burst tension that is Palm Sunday. We’ve made it soft, safe and fun. Or put it on a string for the boys and girls like something that floats above a summer midway. Robbed it of insurrection, as though it were not something that was about to explode. We’ve done our best to domesticate this revolutionary gauntlet thrown down to the Roman Empire. Who knew the sanctuary parade was, in fact, practice for non-violent civil disobedience? 

Does the church understand this tension in which it should be living...confronting the powers of the day, there role in the injustice...revealing the flip-side...the kingdom Jesus imagined ?

Maybe our church has done too much mixing of the empire of God with the empire of Rome since then. Maybe it is less clear to us than it was to our earliest ancestors in the Way which parade we are marching in. Christendom has cut a lot of deals with “Rome” since that first Palm Sunday. We’ve accommodated the Caesars and compromised with the Herods of the world. 

The church needs to renew its concsiouness to redemptive imagination of Jesus and his kingdom. We can continue to forgive sins until the final curtain falls on the stage humanity lives out life...and there will have been no new creation, no liberation...having done nothing on our part to bring heaven to earth. Perhaps, in the end, our greatest sin will have been to do nothing. 

re-think church

A friend commented in a previous post ( compost, garbage, scraps...kingdom planting future faith ) I had put in my status on FB. Only on facebook I had it under the heading of " future church." He is a leader of a church, and his comment to the post was, " sounds convincing, but unscriptual."

I think the problem is in the tension between the " church ", and the " kingdom." I suggest reading the Gospels and see how many times " church " is mentioned, as compared to " kingdom."

The terms "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God" are New Testament terms and they do not appear in the Old Testament. Jesus said "The Law and The Prophets (i.e. Old Testament Scriptures) were until John (the Baptist); since that time the kingdom of God is preached ---" (Luke 16:16). The word "KINGDOM" appears in the New Testament 158 times in 150 verses, including the times it appears in the terms "kingdom of heaven" and "kingdom of God". The Term "KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" appears 33 times in 32 verses - all in the Gospel of Matthew. The term "KINGDOM OF GOD" appears 70 times in 69 verses; 5 times in 5 verses in the Gospel of Matthew; 15 times in 15 verses in the Gospel of Mark; 33 times in 32 verses in the Gospel of Luke (the same as does the Kingdom of Heaven appear in Matthew); 2 times in 2 verses in John...church is mentioned twice, once in Matthew 16:18 and twice in Matthew 18:17.

Even in the the original Greek language the word "ekklesia " has been substituted for " church ", In classical Greek the word "ekklesia " meant an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly. The word as used in the New Testament is taken from the root of this word, which simply means to "call out." In New Testament times the word was exclusively used to represent a group of people assembled together for a particular cause or purpose. It was never used exclusively to refer to a religious meeting or group.

Now I'm not church bashing, I'm just pointing out that perhaps our present day understanding may have morphed from an " ekklesia " whose sole purpose was re-imagining, and rebuilding the present day world into the Kingdom that consumed Jesus passion and life...to our understanding as a religious meeting, or church as the building.

Yes, I know you can haul me into Paul's letters and find lots and lots of reference to church, structure, doctrine and business practice. But, I think if we want to understand Jesus, and understand what he was so passionate about...the we have to keep going back, and back, and back to the gospels. Jesus dreamt, imagined and lived in the reality of the Kingdom.

So back to my original post, so maybe it doesn't look like our understanding of church today because you say it is unscriptual...but does it matter? Can we agree that it embraces the meaning of " ekklesia ", and that it is passionate about what Jesus was passionate about...proclaiming, revealing, building the Kingdom, here, now. Jesus said this at the start of his road trip in to the surrounding neighborhoods...

God's Spirit is on me; 
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, 
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, 
To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

and...

The blind see, 
The lame walk, 
Lepers are cleansed, 
The deaf hear, 
The dead are raised, 
The wretched of the earth have God's salvation hospitality extended to them.
"Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!"

Now, I really have to ask everyone, does it matter what kind of box I put that in? If I can find an " ekklesia " a small band of followers of Jesus to live out the proclamation, the redemptive imagination of Jesus Kingdom...is this any less than your scriptural interpretation of the church?

I guess that's the difference when you can formulate a church, some how where it can come down to ( A + B + C + D +Y = CHURCH )...you have something you can contain and control. When it comes to the Kingdom it is un-containable, and un-controllable. It is the passion, the imagination, the power, the profound mysterious reality of the Kingdom as small as a mustard seed that we plant in the world.

Maybe it's time to really re-think church...and think, imagine with the mind of Jesus the mysterious reality of the Kingdom now, on earth as in heaven...and not be so wrapped up that everyone has to do it with the one size fits all formula.

the parable of the muslim...and the beaten gay man

There once was a gay man, that everyone in the city knew, who was travelling from James Bay to Oak Bay. On the way he was attacked by thugs. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily a Pentecostal Pastor was on his way travelling down the same road, but when he saw him something popped into his head...and he quickly swerved to the other side of the road. Then a Baptist pastor showed up, he looked at the human wreckage on the street, and something crossed his mind...and quickly he did a 180 and back tracked.

Finally a visitor, a muslim man, dressed in the clothing of his tradition came upon the beaten gay man. When he saw the man he was moved, his heart was filled with compassion. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and wrapping his wounds. He called a cab, and took him to the Empress Hotel. He left his credit card with the manager of the hotel telling him to take good care of him...give him anything he needs, or asks for. If it costs anymore, I will settle my bill later. ( my postmodern paraphrase of Luke 10:30-36 )

What do you think?

Remember at the start of Jesus' parable the religious scholar stands up and ask Jesus, " what do I need to do to get eternal life?" He answers his own question, " That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence...and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."

This parable is about the radical scandalous redemptive parabolic imagination of the Kingdom. Kingdom living is life beyond religion...it is navigating life with your heart. Instead of Jesus letting religious people of the hook because they are " right " or because they have followed scripture word for word...he drowns them in the deep waters of love. It is the challenge of levite and the priest...who were not to defile themselves with a dead body. They were " right " to make their " right " turn. In the redemptive imagination of Jesus, they weren't right enough.

The muslim man in my parable above, is actually more right than the believeing, professing pastors. The muslim man was " right " because he was consumed with loving God and neighbor...and he lived it out beautifully at that moment. It all comes down to love. It's Jesus  taking us into the midst of life, in real life events, crisis where we are left holding two things; all our scripture, the laws, the church dogma and doctrines and church rules in one hand...and to Love God, and to Love neighbor in the other. To live in the Kingdom is to drop the heavy load and just go with...the profound mystery of loving God, and neighbor with every part of your life. That's faith in the reality of the Kingdom.

Could the Muslim man be in the Kingdom? I reflect deeply on Matthew 25, I think of the Kingdom, it will, and is filled incredible beauty, and a diversity of people that will blow our minds wide open.

What do you think?