Kingdom

(This article originally appeared on One Flew Over the Church)

"The Kingdom of God is like unto a church sanctuary, filled with the souls of all the people who came forward to the altar during the invitation and recited the 'sinner's prayer' with the assistance of an altar counselor. They are all gathered together in one big church service forever and ever, singing and glorifying God".

Notice that there is no Scriptural citation with that verse. It seems that this can be found nowhere in Scripture and yet you can hear this description of Heaven in churches throughout the United States every Sunday morning. Try sharing that description of Heaven with a person on the street and see if they are ready to sign up for your brand of Christianity. I would hurl a resounding "NO" in your direction before brushing you off.

And what is it about our understanding of "Heaven"? Ask your average Christian and you might get an answer like "The place where God lives". So I have to ask, where exactly does an omnipresent God live? Jesus offered an answer of sorts to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”.

Jesus wanted Pilate to know that His Kingdom was unlike any kingdom that he had ever seen. It was a completely new concept. Jesus and John the Baptizer had already heralded this new Kingdom about three years earlier and informed the people that would (or could) listen that it was "at hand". If this Kingdom was present. yet different than any other, maybe we have misunderstood the Kingdom entirely.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He shared with them a template, constructed in the form of Old Testament style poetry where one line is modified by the next line. He taught them to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven". It seems as if He was telling us that His Kingdom comes any time His will is done on this Earth. And if part of His will is to redeem us and reconcile us with Himself, then that is a manifestation of the Kingdom.

With that in mind, look at what Peter had to say about the people of God - the "citizens of the Kingdom", if you will:

I Peter 2:4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵ you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“ Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“ The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”

⁸ and
“ A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

As Jesus said in Luke 17: "²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” So each and every one of us is a block that is used to construct the home of God, the Kingdom. We are the Kingdom, not made of physical brick and mortar but of something a little more real than that. We once were not a people. We were murderers, homosexuals, adulterers, worshipers of idols. We were drunkards, thieves, liars. We were everything that is wrong with this fallen world. The only difference now is the grace provided by Jesus Christ that has made us "the righteousness of God".

And still the natural eye still shows no evidence that we are "a people". We are African, European, Asian, Australian and from the Americas. We are unbelievably rich and helplessly poor. We are tall, short, thin and fat.

And were are everything in between.

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that you have to look past the natural: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We make up the Kingdom and we are like the wind - therefore, so is the Kingdom. You can't see the wind - the trees rustle and objects move but no one can see what is causing it all. So it is with the Kingdom - the sick are healed, the hungry are fed, the low are uplifted, the widows and orphans are cared for, the lost are reconciled but it is not immediately apparent why. You can see the effects, but not the cause.

And just as the rock, cut out without hands, in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the Kingdom started small - one man and his insignificant band of ruffians - and has grown. Although there is still much darkness and much world to do, this Kingdom is slowly, but surely, consuming the Earth. Not with armies with weapons and flags but with truth, peace and love. The Kingdom began on the hillsides of Judea and has spread to every corner of the Earth. We can be found in Times Square, Trafalgar Square, Red Square and Tienamen Square. This Kingdom will contiune to grow and flourish, unseen and yet coexisting with the kingdoms of men until the stone becomes "a great mountain and fills the whole earth".

The Kingdom is at hand. It isn't the natural revolt against the government that the Zealots wished for. It isn't the culture war victory the Pharisees wished for. We can't go hide in some secluded compound like the Essenes. We have to do His will on Earth as it is in Heaven. We have to seek the Kingdom first and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. We have to stop looking forward to Jesus establishing His Kingdom and notice the wind blowing all around us.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

(This article originally appeared on One Flew Over the Church)

A bright spot. Well, sort of. I have recently been able to exchange correspondence with someone that I find completely fascinating. I have seen a movie about and have even sought out some of the real-life facts about a man that is, in my humble opinion, an excellent example of the works that we learn about in James 2:19 & 20 "19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

The man I am referring to has some of the most unorthodox methods of medicine you can imagine. He believes that "healing should be a loving human interchange, not a business transaction" and with this belief backed with works, he provided free medical care for 15,000 patients between 1971 and 1983. His belief is that his institute is "an experiment in holism with a medical focus based on the belief that one cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, and the world. (It) is a sociopolitical act that grows out of a deep concern for the quality of people's lives in a world dominated by the values inherent in greed and power." I thought this sounded a lot like the descriptions we at One Flew have sought for church and faith, including treating people as people and not as checks or numbers.

So, seeing works and wondering about the impact such methods could have on the Christian faith, I sent off a letter to Dr. Patch Adams. I asked him for advice on how his philosophies and approach to medicine could be translated to use in ministry and what roles Christianity could play in reforming our health care system And shortly thereafter, I received the following response, handwritten in the margins of a photocopied magazine article that helped answer a lot of the questions I was asking myself.

Dear Sam, Thank you for your inquiry. Actually never in my life have I had a religious or god thought. I am very well read (my library is 28,000 books - all important - no John Grisham) and can speak of the massive murder and injustice done in their name to have an aversion to it. I have seen a level of hypocrisy all my life, to tell a "Christian" audience it would be nice if you were. I met a (sorry couldn't make out the word) Christian (Buddhist, Muslim, etc) that actually lives their faith and am tickled to meet them. Politically, Christ was a communist (acts) and I like to let Christians know. Bush said he was a Christian and to me he was a fascist mass murderer.

Christ's mandate is get off your ass and serve humanity. If you have any excess, use it to help others. I'm motivated by my love of humanity that I got from my mother. There are religious people in our work - we like it all - if your presentation of self is happy, funny, loving, cooperative, creative and thoughtful.

If one loves Christ, they must work for peace and justice or they are not Christians.

I love Walt Whitman, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf, Faulkner, Dickens and a thousand more. I am a nerd. I've never read about or discussed with anyone that help me make any sense of god. It makes only sense as an invention of men (I think to ease their fears and for social control).

I don't use computers. I am happy for you to put what I say on your website. Please discourage people from writing to convert me. I am totally clean.

In peace, Patch

Now, to say that I agree with what Patch said word for word would be a bit of a stretch. But I have learned a valuable lesson in the last few years. If you don't immediately dismiss people who have an opinion different than your own, you just might learn something. So I looked past the man's religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and looked at his works. I can't say that anyone in my (former) denominational circle has provided free medical care for 15 people, much less 15,000. I have a lot of evidence that shows that there is a staunch belief that "eternity is all that matters" - make converts and get them in here. I have seen that influence is relative to giving potential and not spiritual maturity or works. Excess is rarely focused on the needs of the community or even the less profitable members of the congregation. Instead, any excess is spent on bigger, newer buildings or other amenities for converts. I want to honor Patch's wishes and discourage "Patch-centered evangelism" by saying that this man has works that are a reflection of his beliefs and considering how lacking the modern American church is of these works, let's not ruin his passion and hard work by trying to make him like us.

So, what is a dissident to do?

I can continue to stand in the street and scream about the injustice and inhumanity of the modern church or I can, as Patch so eloquently put it, "get off my ass and serve humanity". Since I don't color inside the lines, I'll choose both. So, now that my platform is back, I'll be "doing unto the least of these" as I try my best to fight for justice and peace in an organization that is supposed to be a model of those traits. And until it does, I guess I'll look to atheists to demonstrate some of the standards that should be embraced by believers.

"On Writing" Review

(This review originally appeared on One Flew Over the Church)

Since One Flew Over the Church has such a contingent of writers, both as contributors and as users, I thought that a review on a book about writing was appropriate for the site.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of "On Writing" by Stephen King. It came with a recommendation from my wife, an English and writing teacher and a pretty good writer, if I do say so myself. She mentioned this book in the same breath as "One Writer's Beginnings" by Eudora Welty. If you knew how my wife feels about Welty, you would know what an endorsement this was.

I had already heard of the quality of the work from a good friend who is also a writer. He had shared the recommendation with a mutual friend of ours who was trying to get started in serious writing. Having heard recommendations from two people who I respect as writers as well as being good friends, (yes, I'm one of those guys who considers his wife to be his best friend. And after reading this book, I'd say that Stephen King feels the same way about his wife, Tabitha.) I just had to check this one out for myself. So, I borrowed my wife's personal copy and dove in.

More often than not, the name Stephen King on a book is a big enough endorsement to judge the quality of a book by it's cover but this was non-fiction. I was interested to see what King was going to do in the real world and away from horror and fantasy. I was not disappointed.

King starts out his book with an excellent autobiographical piece that provided answers to the question that I have always had when enthralled in one of his plots - "What kind of sick, twisted nut case would even think of such things?". Well, now I know. His candor about several events from his childhood, college years as well as adulthood gives the reader an insight into the mind of this genius. It was enlightening, if not encouraging, to see the difficult time that he had trying to just get his early work published.

After the reader gets to know King a little better, the author then opens the door of his study and offers a glimpse of the process he goes through to go from a simple idea for a story all the way to walking to the mailbox to get the royalty checks as they begin coming in. There is advice on the writing process, editing, building a respectable writing resume, finding a literary agent, seeking a publisher and how to get their attention. There is even a writing exercise and an example of King's own editing process - his actual manuscript and editing notes from the opening of "1408".

King makes enough references to "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E.B. White (yep, that E.B. White) that if you have a copy, it can almost be used as a companion piece. Strunk and White, as well as several other people who impacted King's writing, receive grateful appreciation for their contributions throughout the book.

The autobiographical portions of the book are very interesting and a good read. The writing portion of the book is a little more work to read but delivers information that makes the effort worthwhile and King sticks to his promise to keep this portion brief.

So, now you are thinking "Wow, Sam, are there any negatives to the book?" And my answer to you is "That depends on you". Let me say it this way. If you are a person that cannot look over or tolerate profanity, save your money. If you a not willing to "read a lot, write a lot", give up a little TV, and aren't interested in a sideline career as an adverb assassin, you are wasting you time reading this book. If you are not interested in writing, the writing part will not be enjoyable.

On the other hand, if you can let the "F-bomb" go in one ear and out the other (with any luck whacking Sister Bertha Better-Thanyou upside the head), if you love to read and love to write, if you think the book is better than the movie and you are willing to seek out and kill adverbs without mercy or remorse, then by all means, get to a library, a book store or your favorite on-line book seller and get your hands on a copy of this book.

Stephen King

On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft

ISBN: 0-7434-5596-7