Living in Two Kingdoms - Meg's Homework Ramble

Our Sunday school class just finished a John Piper video series in which Piper explained that Jesus is a lamb-like lion and a lion-like lamb. He expounded on that, of course, but I think the phrase pretty aptly summarizes what he had to say.

We're now beginning a new series entitled "Living in Two Kingdoms." I'm not sure if this is another tape series of someone speaking or if this is something Don has put together himself. But he sent out some homework questions for us to answer before we show up tomorrow. I thought I'd "think out loud" here with my answers.

1. What is the Kingdom of God?
The obvious first part of that answer is that the kingdom is the domain of God. And God wouldn't be god unless everything was in his domain -- from atoms to the universe, if it weren't all God's to rule then he really would be more of a demi-god or a sub-god than an almighty god.

But I think there's more to this answer than just the easy bit. The Kingdom of God encompasses all of this substantial world, but it also refers to a realm that overlaps with ours but that is distinct from the earthly/human world.

The book group that I'm in recently finished a book called The City & The City (by China Miéville) in which two distinct nations overlapped each other geographically, but were entirely distinct otherwise to the point that people in one nation learned to "unsee" people in the other nation. In order to "see" the people in the other nation you actually had to go through customs  to socially and politically enter the other nation, at which point you'd have to "unsee" the people that you had seen all the time back in your old nation. In other words, you could live right next to people in another nation and never interact with them, or even acknowledge them, because they technically lived somewhere different from where you did. It was a trippy book, but an interesting concept.

I think the Kingdom of God is similar to Miéville's story in that we live in an overlapped situation. But it differs in terms of interaction. We daily walk in both nations, as opposed to only in one or the other. But I think many people who call themselves Christians live only in one nation and believe that the other nation, the heavenly nation, is a subset or part of that one nation. They spout "God and country" in a way that clearly subjects God to the designs of the country. I think they miss "the Kingdom of God" in its entirety - or else severely misunderstand it.

I still don't think I've answered the question, though. The Kingdom of God is a political entity that defies all other polities. It is an eternal kingdom ruled by God, with characteristics unlike any other nation, and yeah, I'll cop to it, it's a utopia. It is the glorified, unified,

2. What are the characteristics of God's kingdom?
The Kingdom of God is characterized by love. In fact, love is the characteristic that governs every other characteristic in this kingdom: forgiveness, unity, kindness, faithfulness, caring, gentleness, mutual submission (looking out for each other's best interests), compassion, meekness, humility, self-control, selflessness, trust, patience, contentment, peace, equality of worth, hopefulness, truthfulness, generosity, perseverance, righteousness, readiness, holiness, prayerfulness,....

3. What features of U.S. culture are explicitly biblical-Christian?
I think this is the hardest question of the bunch. Maybe that's because I'm reading into it. I expect this question to be, "What features of U.S. culture are explicitly inline with features of the Kingdom of God. But I suppose that's not necessarily what it's asking.

I suppose the first part of this question is "What are the features of U.S. culture?" Individuality, selfishness, strength, craving entertainment, ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit, risk-taking, creativity, consumerism, untested trust, arguing, hatred (that Westboro Baptist Church comes to mind), insensitivity, callousness, overload, brilliance, diversity, acceptance, .... This is a really hard list to come up with. There is obviously kindness in America, but is kindness a feature of U.S. culture? It doesn't strike me as being integral to our culture. Then again, if I were looking just at our neighborhood, or more likely, in a rural American neighborhood, then perhaps kindness would strike me more as being a feature of the culture. Maybe the first part of the question isn't "What are the features of U.S. culture?" but "What is the U.S.?"

OK, so to take a stab at answering the original question here, I'd say that diversity and creativity are explicitly biblical-Christian. There's probably other things. But I'm still caught up in "What is the U.S.?" and "What are the features of her culture?" to see them.

I'll be really eager to hear Sonia's thoughts on this question. She probably sees American culture with different eyes than we do.

4. How do we live in God's kingdom and earth's world?
Fully.

What? Is that cheating? I can't just answer with one word? *sigh* I'd say it's very easy to live in the earthly world. And those who like to point out the most loudly that they aren't living according to the culture or values of this world are often the very ones who hold more tightly to nationalism and cultural values of anger, hatred, and individualism more tightly than most. I think it's important that we're aware of how we're embedded in this world. What values have we taken on that are distinctly worldly? (Not just American, since not all Christians are Americans (*gasp* I know. For some I'm speaking heresy here.) but of any human culture.)

We are humans and therefore we cannot not live within human culture. It's impossible. Even when we try to steep ourselves in godly culture, we build within it so much human culture of our own making that we are no longer in godly culture. (The Pharisees and Westboro church are poster children here.) We do best to be aware of that in which we reside, to use well that which is good of our own culture and to disengage from that which is bad.

And we need to steep ourselves in the culture of heaven. Church should be our proving grounds where we test forgiveness and unity and kindness and.... It should be a safe place where we learn to put on heavenly culture and where we can safely mess up and try again. It should be a place where we experience godly culture, where we are helped to grow in it, where we have partners who grow with us. And it should be a launching point for carrying God's culture with us out to the world, loving the world and all her people, enabling those not of God's kingdom to experience the culture of God's kingdom and inviting them to join in it with us.

Dual Citizenship?

Lois and I were chatting in the car today on the way to Bible study. She teaches music classes on Thursdays and we often talk about what she plans to teach for the day. Today she was going to focus on music in America from the 1920's and 30's. The theme for the music she had picked was "Dual Citizenship." In other words, she was going to talk about how as Christians (she teaches in a Christian school) we are citizens both in heaven and of America.

That got me to thinking. Are we dual citizens? If so, then what about the verses that talk about being sojourners? I BlueLetterBible'd the verses that refer to sojourners and found out that for the most part, the term only comes up in the OT and it primarily refers to strangers that are living among the Israelites. But there is a verse in the Psalms that's intriguing:

Hear my prayer, LORD,
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger (sojourner), as all my ancestors were. (Psalm 39:12)

I don't know that that verse says a whole lot to the topic, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see what you all think. Are we sojourners here on earth? If so, what does that say to our local citizenship?

First plant the sapling

"If you should have a sapling in your hand when they tell you that the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go to greet the Messiah." 

-- Yochanan ben Zakkai (as quoted by Rabbi Nathan, Abot, 31b)

I came across this quote while reading Stuart Sacks' book, Hebrews Through a Hebrew's Eyes, and found it intriguing. Stuart used the quote to show that "the idea of Messiah's priestliness has not been part of Jewish thought." (page 54) I looked the quote up online and came across various other interpretations including the idea that the quote was indicative of a cynical attitude regarding the number of pretenders claiming to be the Messiah. 

I've never heard of Yochanan ben Zakkai before and I really have no idea where he was really coming from when he made this statement, nor do I have any sense of the context. But I really like the quote itself. 

In my mind, making a statement such as this points toward an understanding that the Christ is not coming to take us "away from it all," but he's coming to restore not only us but the world in which we live. 2 Peter 3:13 pops to mind in which the "new heaven and new earth" are mentioned. I would still plant the sapling not because I want to delay in seeing the Messiah face to face, but because I understand that the new Earth is a part of the plan. God is bringing about a restoration of not only our souls, but of our bodies, of the earth, of all of creation as well. 

I suppose I also like the quote because between Mary and Martha, I've always seen myself as a Martha. Martha would plant the sapling. Mary would throw it aside and run on to see Jesus. Perhaps Mary was the one that did right when she sat at Jesus' feet while Martha worked in the kitchen. But it was Martha who understood that Jesus could raise her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. Mary had already forgotten the bigger picture of who Jesus was. Planting the sapling seems to me to be an action based upon seeing the bigger picture. 

How about you? Would you plant the sapling or toss it aside at the news?

Waiting for the Lion's Roar

I came across another old notebook from 1996. It had several poems in it, most of which were rather drivel-ish. But I still rather like this one.  I assume the lion mentioned is Aslan. 

Waiting for the lion's roar,

  we go about our business.

Occasionally we remind ourselves

  that the roar is coming.

But we must continue to live

  until it comes. 

And we get caught up in the living.

I wonder if there is a way

  to be always expectant

  and always living.

Farewell Our Lizard Queen -- Do Animals Have Souls?

Nathan's nearly 3 year old anole lizard, known as Queen Lizard, passed away yesterday. This came soon after a sunday school class in which one of the elder's of our church announced emphatically that animals do not have souls and therefore do not go to heaven. The statement brought tears to the eyes of the girls during Sunday school, and made Nathan's grief just that much more yesterday afternoon. 

Which got me to thinking about animals and souls.  DO animals not have souls?  What IS a soul anyway?  Where in the Bible does it say that animals do or do not have souls?

The scripture passage that the elder referred to resides in the first chapter of Genesis where the writer states that "God created man in his own image."  (Genesis 1:27)  But if you look at the context of that passage, it's very clear that being made in God's image means that humans have been made to rule over the earth.  The poetic excerpt regarding being made in the image of God is neatly nestled between two prose passages that describe the role of mankind on earth.  (Adam and Eve were set in the garden "to work it and take care of it" as is described in chapter 2.  (Genesis 2:15)) There's no reference to souls anywhere in that chapter.  

On the contrary, when the Pharisees had a cow over the fact that Jesus's disciples were praising him during the triumphal entry (Luke 19:37-40), Jesus replied that, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."  If the stones can cry out praises to God, then what is it in them that is doing the crying out?  I'm not trying to imply that there is "a piece of God" inside everything.  I don't subscribe to that form of theology.  However, I do think it's a fair question to ask, "How do we know that animals won't be in heaven? Why is a soul necessary and how do we know that animals don't have them? If God's creation can shout out in praise to him, then why would this creation be barred from residence in God's heavenly kingdom (or in the New Earth at the very least)? (2 Peter 3:13)"

Shown to the upper right are Queen Lizard and her original companion, Little Green Riding Hood, who passed on (to who knows where) about a year ago.