To help us out, we looked at 2 parables Jesus tells about the nature of the Kingdom. In Mt. 13 he describes the Kingdom as a mustard seed and yeast. We determined that although there is human involvement, the Kingdom grows and spreads all by itself. For this reason some would believe that we have no involvement in God's Kingdom coming - our only job can be to pray and to wait.
We decided, however, that our role is one of embracing and collaborating. We are called to embrace the reality of God's Kingdom and then collaborate with what God is already doing in the world to build His Kingdom.
We usually talk about the Kingdom in terms of building it, or advancing (in fact, this is often how I have talked about it). However, the implicit posture behind language like "building" and "advancing" is that the Kingdom is up to me. It is a prideful, and selfish way to live - to believe that I, with my own hands, can build God's Kingdom. As though it were up to me. Lord, forgive us when we believe that we are responsible or powerful enough to build your Kingdom by ourselves.
So, how can this truth be applied to our lives? What does it mean to make the shift from building to embracing; from advancing to collaborating? How do we discern the areas in which God is at work so we can join that work? What further questions do you have about the nature of God's Kingdom? Use this space to allow this discussion on the Kingdom to continue.
1 comment:
I'm so sorry that I had to miss this week. I don't know whether or not anything I have to add was shared or not, but here are a few thoughts.
I believe God has called us to be a part of building, advancing, spreading his kingdom. We fulfill this call in many ways. As Kailin pointed out in the prep section of this blog. The kingdom of God is in us. I believe He calls us to live in the "already". To live our lives as though the Kingdom of God were fully realized. But we live in the "not yet". I think that this is where this line of the prayer comes in. We petition God to help us live in His Kingdom while we are surrounded by the "not yet". Then by His grace we are the yeast spread throughout the dough.
I apologize to whom this may offend. I have this image of a scientist looking through a microscope at a tiny organism. He takes a picture and labels it "Kingdom Virus" warning highly contagious! It is the little things that make me smile.
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