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Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth he proclaimed the coming reign of
God—good news for the poor, liberty for the captives, healing for the lame,
sight for the blind. Yet, he has now been crucified and raised from the dead
and the hungry are still hungry. The broken hearted are still broken
hearted. The weeping still weep. So it is no surprise that the apostles come
together and ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the
kingdom to Israel?” “When is this kingdom you described going to come into
being? We are yearning and longing for God to change the world, and you
promised just such a change, when is it going to happen?” I have to say
that 2000 years later I find myself asking exactly the same question: “God,
it has been 2000 years, when are you going to fix things? The poor are still
poor, the hungry are still hungry, the weeping still weep, the humble have
not been exalted, the exalted have not been brought low, the rich have not
been turned empty away. Isn’t it about time that you recreated the world?” I
know that I yearn and long for the kingdom of God to come and perhaps you do
too. When is the world going to be recreated in the way that Jesus
described? Was Jesus wrong? Had he miscalculated? Was his vision too
idealistic or too all encompassing? Darn it all God, why won’t you give me
an answer?
Over the past 2000 years, Christians have tried to answer the question
about why God has not made His kingdom fully manifest on earth. But I have
to say, that I have not found most of these answers very satisfying.
The most common answer that Christians have given is that Jesus was not
referring to life on earth, but about life in heaven. His descriptions of a
world in which the hungry are fed and the sick are healed is a description
of utopia. He didn’t intend for things to change on earth, he was simply
telling us what it would be like after we died. The fact that nothing much
has changed on earth is not a problem, just get through this life and the
suffering that it brings and you will be rewarded in heaven. But, if you
postpone the reality of the vision to the future or elevate it into heaven,
serious consequences result for the way we understand the Christian message.
The main task becomes to tell people about the heavenly kingdom and how
Jesus told us it was there and made it possible for us to enter. We then
don’t have to concern ourselves with any change for the poor and hungry, the
humbled and the broken spirited. Sometimes Christians have gone so far as to
say that it is good to suffer because in embracing suffering we will build
up for ourselves a better life in heaven, though usually this is rich
Christians telling poor Christians to accept their lot in life. Postponing
the vision to the future or relocating it from earth to heaven fails to take
seriously the down to earth character of Jesus’ promise. It doesn’t make
sense of Jesus’ claims that the kingdom of God could break into the world
right here and right now in the acts of his ministry amongst people.
Others have answered the problem of the delay in the coming of God’s
kingdom in another way. These people say that the kingdom of God is not
limited to a future event or a heavenly place which we enter after death but
instead the kingdom of God refers primarily to the spiritual dimension in
people. This answer internalizes and spiritualizes the vision. Jesus’
promises to the poor and the hungry become promises to the spiritually poor
and the spiritually hungry. God’s new creation in this answer refers only to
the salvation of the soul. There is no pain in the vision of Jesus not being
fulfilled, because the vision has been narrowed to the spiritual life of the
individual. These people say that there is a little bit of heaven, the
kingdom of God, in each of us and the world we live in is simply something
to be survived, to be lived through. Again this doesn’t take seriously the
very real ministry Jesus did with the powerless and the oppressed. Jesus
didn’t just heal people spiritually, he healed physically sick people. He
didn’t just feed people spiritually he fed physically hungry people.
A third group has said that the Church itself is the kingdom of God. The
Church is the promise. But for me this answer can only be accepted if I
naively imagine that the institution of the Church is a little bit of
perfection on earth. There are a lot of good things about the Church, but I
have never found it to be perfect. The Church possesses all the flaws and
frailties that the individual humans that make up the church possess.
None of these answers satisfy me. From my perspective they are all an
attempt to water down the pain we feel when we see the distance that still
exists between the world as it is and the world as it could and should be
that Jesus described.
Jesus proclaimed good news to a people living in poverty and oppression,
broken in spirit both spiritually and materially, both individually and
corporately deprived. This was not just a heavenly hope. It was not just
hope for the end of the age. It was not just hope for spiritual renewal for
individuals and communities. It was not just hope for material well being
and social justice for individuals and communities. It was all of these in
enjoyment of the reign and presence of God. This was real hope. And this is
what I cry out daily for God to bring to earth, right here and right now.
And like the apostles I have not been given an answer to my question, I am
no closer to understanding when God will restore the earth than the Apostles
were 2000 years ago. That is just as much a mystery to me today as it was to
them then. And it seems that having an answer to this question isn’t what
really matters.
Listen again to Jesus’ answer to the apostles’ question: “It is not for
you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own
authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.” What seems to be important is that we live
with the pain that remains as long as the vision of God for the world is not
fulfilled and that we give witness to God’s vision
for the world to the world.
We are to show the world the pain that exists because of the gap between
what is and what God intends. We are to proclaim
the coming kingdom of God and we are to be
the kingdom of God. We are to pray “your kingdom come” and we are to let the
vision of God’s kingdom set our agenda. We are not to sit around waiting for
God’s kingdom, working to qualify ourselves for some future entry into that
kingdom. We are to live out the life of the kingdom, to let God reign right
now, and to allow that life and love to extend to the ends of the earth, to
all people right now. We are to allow the pain we feel about the gap between
the world as it is and the world as God intends it to energize us to be
God’s kingdom to those around us right here and right now. We are to use the
energy that this pain releases to feed the poor, release the captive, heal
the sick, lift up the lowly, comfort those who weep, put the broken-hearted
back together. We are to do all this even if the world has not yet been
re-created by God.
I’d like us to end by praying together a prayer attributed to St.
Francis. You can find it on page 833 of the Book of Common Prayer. Let us
pray.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us
sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to
understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it
is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to
eternal life.
-- ©Suzannah L. Rohman, Associate Rector
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 What
seems to be important is that we live with the pain that remains as long as
the vision of God for the world is not fulfilled and that we give witness to
God’s vision for the world to the world.
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