As you can see from my "reading" list, I'm reading "The Secret Message of Jesus" by Brian McLaren at the moment. In it, McLaren writes about how the imagery that Jesus uses of the Kingdom of God may not be as helpful for us, because Kingdoms are largely irrelevant to us, so he lists a number of alternatives that he's been pondering.
The one I love the most is the idea of the Dream of God - stronger language than the "wish" of God - so when Jesus says "the Kingdom is at hand", we could interpret that as "the dream of God is at hand". Because I've done a reasonable amount of thinking on the Kingdom, I hadn't connected the truth that for Joe Public, this is probably a foreign concept - I think I've actually been interpreting "Kingdom" along the lines of "dream", but haven't had the words to explain it.
I also love the idea of the network of God, and the dance of God - again, very powerful images which help me as I consider what it means to live according to "Kingdom values".
Nath, the suggestion of different terms for "kingdom" is exciting. Like you, I think that "dream" is very helpful. I have heard about, and come to appreciate, "tapestry" (which is God's weaving of different threads, colours and textures into the reality that is His creation), and I like the idea of "garden" (where all kinds of plants are nurtured and pruned, and where plots of earth are designed and redesigned, for fruitfulness and pleasure - which of course is Jesus' suggestion in John's Gospel.
ReplyDeleteThat then causes me to think of St Paul's and St Peter's image of the building ("living stones").
And then the "King" becomes the Weaver, the Gardener, the Builder, and though we can never be kings, we can participate in God's work as dreamers, weavers, gardeners and builders.