Thank you to Chris, for this post with the following piece that raises the quesiton about the role we play in “participating” in the Kingdom.
I would like to challenge all of you to put faith in the kingdom of heaven. It’s a concept that becomes more and more cartoonish with every Left Behind book that comes out. We associate the coming of God’s kingdom with the end of human history, a kind of apocalyptic final scene in the grand movie of existence, where the Giant Fighting Robot Jesus with Laser Eyes battles the forces of Satan. But for many Christians, the kingdom of heaven is more closely associated with Royce and King’s idea of the beloved community—an apocalypse that is not a discrete event, but the realization of complete reconciliation across humanity.
Obviously the complete realization of this ideal has to lie outside human history. But a more immediate question is—can we actually take substantive steps toward realizing it? Do we have a basis for believing that, in King’s words, “the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice”? I do not think this hope for progress is unrealistic. Thomas Kuhn talks about progress as becoming better than we were, not moving closer to a particular immutable goal. I think there is reason to believe we have succeeded at this over the course of human history, even if we take tremendous steps back from time to time. Our governments are increasingly participatory, humanity is more capable of obtaining information through numerous media than ever before, and there is a resurgence of interest in questions of spirituality and connection to a greater whole.
“the realization of complete reconciliation across humanity” is what stirs me. I believe that as well. I consider myself deeply shaped by the vision and life of MLK, of Gandhi, and the vison of a Peaceable Community to whcih the church is always called to embody and live before the world. It is to offer the world a better alternative; it is to point to the truth from which the world strays in its glorification of violence.
I do belive that although, as Chrisr says, we have succeeeded over the course of time, there are also, as we see now, perilous dangers that can build and take power if we are not diligent. The way in which these in office have taken power and the way in which they wield it is the stuff that lead to perilous conflicts, and nigtmarish violence worldwide. It is now that ALL of the voices which clamor for peace and the hope and reality of a world increasingly open to the ways of the Kingdom that Jesus announced as arrived. I also agree that this vision of a reconciling humanity and world is neither a conservative thing or a liberal thing. It is of an entirely different order, and those who truly yearn for peace are the ones who “get it”.