The Forever Kingdom

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44.

In his Great Courses lecture series Religions of the Axial Age, Dr. Mark Muesse explains that between the years 800 and 200 BC, many of the major religions began or developed independently around the world. In China we find Confucius and his followers creating the foundations of that culture's religious, philosophical and political thought. In South Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism were being born. In Iran, Zoroastrianism was becoming the state religion. In Greece, philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were teaching. And in Judah, prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah were shaping Judaism. Dr. Muesse gives several reasons for these separate explosions of spiritual creativity, including more people moving to cities and the rapid social and political changes that go with that. But the Axial Age was also a time of wars and upheavals. China was coming off the Period of Warring States. In the West we have Alexander the Great conquering an empire that reached from Greece to Egypt to India. Rome and Carthage were fighting the Punic Wars. And the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC and their top people were taken into exile. Later the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC and while in exile they collected the writings which became the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament. So everywhere there was turmoil and change and people were looking for peace and stability.

While Isaiah's time as prophet fell between the exiles of Israel and Judah, it was nevertheless an anxious time. Various empires rose and fell to the north and to the east and Egypt was a constant threat from the southwest. The value of the land of Israel was that it was a crossroads between Africa, Europe, Arabia and Asia. That's why the surrounding empires wanted to conquer and control it. The two Hebrew kingdoms prospered when those empires were in decline. Whenever an empire expanded, however, they started looking at the area where God's people resided and made plans to invade.

So the prophesy in our passage from Isaiah was comforting. There will come a day when people from all over will flock to Jerusalem, not to conquer it but to learn God's ways. The word of the Lord will go forth. But more than that, God will be active in bringing peace to a troubled world. “He will judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

War always starts with injustice. While St. Augustine may have laid out the Just War Ethic, participating in a war can only be just for one side, ie, the one defending itself. If no one attacks, there is no war. But usually one nation wants what another has—land, resources, a market for its goods, a strategic position—and it just takes what it wants. Or a nation retaliates for some incident it regards as an injustice—a raid, a terrorist attack, a diplomatic insult, etc. Sometimes a country just comes up with a flimsy pretext or an outright lie in order to start a war that it wants for other reasons.

And war generates further injustices. In his book Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, Matthew White found that, not only are 4 out of 5 of these mass killing events wars, but that wars kill more civilians than soldiers. Think about it. A soldier is armed and surrounded by fellow armed soldiers. He can call up planes and tanks to help. A civilian is not usually armed. And even if he is, all the guns in the world are useless against a bomb dropped on your house. Thus in World War 2, the biggest mass killing event in recorded history, 20 million soldiers died but more than twice as many civilians—46 million—were killed as well.

God cares about justice. Isaiah starts off with a speech in which God says he doesn't respond to empty worship that does not result in acting justly towards others. He says, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.” He goes on to say, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow.” (Isaiah 1: 15-17) Violating the second greatest commandment—to love one's neighbor—invalidates efforts to obey the greatest commandment—to love God. Because God loves your neighbor.

And lest you think this is only about domestic problems and not war, consider this: war makes children fatherless and women into widows. And it leads to oppression. The winning side oppresses those they vanquished. There is a specific instance of this stemming from the Second World War. When the Nazis conquered Norway, Himmler, head of the S.S., extended the Lebensborn program to that country. The purpose was to increase the number of pure Aryans. German soldiers were encouraged to impregnate Norwegian women without the need to marry them. Maternity homes were set up. The children and their mothers received the best care. If the women didn't want the children, they were sent to orphanages or to be adopted by families back in Germany. Between 8000 and 12,000 children were born in this program. After the war, however, these women and their children were ostracized, persecuted, bullied and even raped by angry Norwegians. The government of Norway tried to deport the children. In 2008 a group of aged Lebensborn children brought their case for compensation for their treatment to the European Court of Human Rights, only to have it dismissed as having happened too long ago. The Norwegian government did offer each of them $20,000 for their terrible experiences. Apparently Norwegians didn't see the irony in the fact that they persecuted these people simply because of their ancestry, the same way the Nazis did to the Jews.

So you can see why the idea of God judging between nations and peoples is attractive. We need someone objective who can weigh all the factors and deal with all the injustices. And as we've seen, we humans are not very consistent in meting out justice.

Of course, this will not be done perfectly till Jesus comes again to set up his kingdom and we don't know precisely when that will be. So should we just wait for him to do it?

No. As we pointed out a few weeks ago, Jesus said, just after today's gospel reading, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” (Matthew 24:45-46) We are not to slack off but put into practice what Jesus commanded us to do.

That's true even if things aren't perfect. Jesus tells 2 parables which reveal that in this life we will not see a pure manifestation of the kingdom. In one he compares the kingdom of God to a field in which a man sows seeds for wheat. But at night an enemy sows weeds in the same field. Rather than let his servants try to pull up the weeds and probably pull up some wheat as well, the owner says to let both grow together until harvest. That will be the time to separate the good from the bad. (Matthew 13:24-30) A few verses later, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a fishing net. It scoops up all kinds of fish. Only when it's full do the fishermen pull in to shore and sort the good fish from the bad. (Matthew 13:47-50) In neither case are we supposed to stop because everything, including the people involved, isn't perfect at present. We are to keep tending the wheat and catching the fish. At the proper time God will sort them out.

Of the 40 recorded parables we have from Jesus, at least 17 are about the kingdom of God. So, in view of the fact that last week we looked at the king, Jesus, let's see what else we can learn about his kingdom.

Besides it being a kingdom of justice and peace as Isaiah describes, the kingdom of God also expects its citizens to forgive one another, as illustrated in the parable of the unmerciful servant. Though forgiven a huge amount of debt by his master, the servant is merciless towards a fellow servant who owes him a little bit. So the master reimposes the original debt on the unforgiving servant. As Jesus says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35) If we want forgiveness, we must give forgiveness. Because God wants forgiving and merciful people in his kingdom.

It is also a kingdom of grace. In one parable, a landowner must get his harvest in. Every hour or so he goes to the marketplace and hires more day laborers. The last batch is hired just an hour before quitting time. When it comes time to pay the laborers, he starts with the last hired. They get the same pay he promised the first ones hired. So those who worked all day hope to get more. But he pays them the perfectly fair wage they originally agreed on. They get angry but the landowner explains that he has not given them less; he just gave the latecomers the same amount. He has a right to be generous. (Matthew 20:1-16) Justice is getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you couldn't possibly deserve. God is gracious and generous. He offers salvation to all. It is not earned.

What should our response be to God's gracious and generous nature? In the parable of the great feast, a man sends his servants out to let those invited know the banquet is ready. But everyone is too busy with their own matters to come. So the man sends his servants out to bring in “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” to dine with him instead. And when that doesn't fill all the seats, he has them grab anyone on the streets and bring them in. (Luke 14:15-24) The point is when God invites us into his kingdom, we need to accept his invitation, drop everything and go.

And we are expected to invite others. Martin Luther said that spreading the gospel is simply one beggar telling another when to go to get bread. In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Jesus says the seed is the word of God. When it is cast about, it will come in contact with various people. Some of them will not be receptive, forgetting it immediately. Some will receive it gladly at first, but the minute things get hard, they lose faith. Some will let “life's worries, riches and pleasures” choke the life out of their faith. “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:5-15) We don't know who will be receptive so just spread the “message of the kingdom.” (Matthew 13:19)

And Jesus assures us that the kingdom, though it starts out small, will grow. He compares the kingdom to a tiny mustard seed, which grows into an enormous plant, and to yeast, a pinch of which causes dough to rise. (Matthew 13:31-33) And, like a plant, the kingdom's growth may be so gradual that we don't notice it at first. (Mark 4:30-34) That's not our problem. As Paul said to the church in Corinth, “I planted, Apollos watered but God caused it to grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) Paul's job was to plant the seed of the gospel, his colleague Apollos' job was to nurture it, but the results are up to God. Which takes the pressure off of us to try to make every convert a Francis of Assisi or every church a megachurch. And not everyone spreading the gospel needs to be a Billy Graham. We just need to plant and water the seeds.

God will supply what we need to do this. In the parable of the talents, a man is leaving town and gives each of his 3 servants different amounts of talents, which were a type of coin. When their master returns, the servants tell him how well they did investing the talents. Whatever return they get is fine with their master. The only servant who is scolded and fired is the one who buries his one talent in the ground and does nothing with it. (Matthew 25:14-30) The point of the parable is not that each servant has to make the same amount as the others. They are to use what they have and do as well they can. Today the word talent means a gift or ability one has. God gives us all certain talents. Don't compare yours to those of others or your results with theirs. God is pleased simply with our willingness to use the gifts he's given us to do the best we can.

Of course, this all depends on our actually doing what God wants us to do. Jesus talks about 2 sons whom their father asks to go to work in the vineyard. One says, “No” and the other says, “Yes.” But it is the son who said “No” who changes his mind and goes into the vineyard, not the one who told his father what he wanted to hear. (Matthew 21:28-32) God doesn't want “yes-men;” he wants followers who do his will. It is not sufficient to pay lip service to God; we are expected to follow through.

Isaiah envisioned a time in the future when everyone will go to Jerusalem to learn from God. But we don't have to wait for that time, nor buy airline tickets to experience that. Jesus said, “Look, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) If Jesus is ruling in our lives, the kingdom is wherever he leads us, just as God was with the Israelites leading them through the wilderness.

Jesus also said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) Just as there are ex-pat communities of Brits or Venezuelans here in South Florida, wherever a group of people come together to follow Jesus, the kingdom of God is there. Which leads to another way we spread the kingdom: by showing the love of God in our lives. Again, as Jesus said, “Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

I think this is another axial age, an era when the history of humanity is making some big turns. We are living in a time of war and chaos and rapid changes in society. People want stability and justice and peace. And the only place to find that is the kingdom of God. In his domain there is also forgiveness and grace. In his realm God is invested in growing our talents so that we may be wise stewards of his gifts, making sure all are fed and cared for. And unlike the kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of God doesn't have borders or boundaries. God reigns wherever we go and this is most clearly seen when we show love for one another.

So any place we meet is an embassy for God's kingdom and we are all ambassadors sent by Jesus to establish outposts in every area of human life. Wherever he puts us, we are to invite others to enter his kingdom, whatever their ancestry, race, language, or past. And that's how God's kingdom grows, person by person, till, as it says in Habakkuk, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)