A different kind of kingdom

...your kingdom come,... (Matt 6:10)

The “kingdom” is very prominent in Jesus’ teaching, but the concept is not unique to Jesus. He is interpreting an important Old Testament theme that developed over the course of the history of Israel. The story begins in Genesis.

Most of us are familiar with Noah and the ark (Genesis 6-9). This ancient tale tells of a time when God responded to evil in the world by sending a great flood to drown just about everyone. – Apparently fish were relatively well behaved in those days. – Noah, his family, and a mated pair of each kind of animal and bird were spared. (Actually seven of some animals, but that’s a detail that never quite makes it to the story books or nursery wall).

Now, children’s picture books and full colour murals notwithstanding, this is actually a pretty gruesome story. And by the time it’s all over even God seems to have decided he doesn’t ever want to go through the experience again.

"Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." ...

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ..." Genesis 8:21-22; 9:12-13

The rainbow, hanging in the clouds, is like an armistice memorial. It is a unilateral declaration of peace; God will not make war upon the earth again. But peace is war by other means, and the rest of the Bible is the story of the development of a new plan to deal with evil in the world. And that plan is the kingdom of God.

In chapter twelve of Genesis, God chooses a man named Abram (exalted father) and over the course of the rest of Genesis he slowly refashions this chosen one into Abraham (the father of a multitude). In other words, the begetting begins. Despite his old age, Abraham begets Isaac, Isaac begets Jacob, Jacob becomes Israel (man who struggles with God), and begets twelve sons (the original children of Israel). Their descendants become the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, then the twelve tribes in Canaan, then the nation of Israel, then a captive nation in Babylon, and finally a nation under the rule of succeeding foreign powers.

It’s through this process of disempowerment and marginalization that the idea of God’s kingdom emerges. This people, who began as just another tribe steeped in violence and competing for space and resources, slowly becomes a people of a very different kind, a people dispossessed. So, when Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi of first the century, living in Roman dominated Israel, takes up the term and speaks of his Father’s kingdom, he is speaking of a kingdom without power to wield or territory to defend. -- During his trial Jesus is asked about the charge that he had claimed to be a king. He replies "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." (John 18:36)

Jesus envisions a people who are in this world the way yeast permeates a loaf of bread (Luke 13:20-21), or light shines in a dark place (Matt 5:14-16). Yeast is not really part of the loaf the way flour is, but it makes an amazing difference. Light is not part of the dark room or street in which it shines, but without a sound or the fury of battle it drives out the darkness, permeates the world, and makes it a very different place.

So, when we pray for the coming of God’s kingdom we are praying that God’s rule in our lives will be increased and, so, his influence through us in his world, i.e., your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt 6:10) Jesus is reminding us, therefore, that prayer is primarily about God’s influence on us and, through us, on his world. Prayer is like the flowers turning toward the sun, not that they might influence the sun, but that they might be influenced, and through the influence of sunshine become humble, local, unassuming examples of what the sun can do.