The Kingdom of God and Institutitions

The post yesterday, about the Kingdom of God, ended on a note that mentioned that I don’t believe the Kingdom of God is found in the Institutional church. This, (heavily influenced by Moltmann) is kind of a continuation of that thought, and the converse: that being members of the Kingdom doesn’t mean we ignore institutions.

This does not mean we are not to engage with institutions at all.   Jesus practiced civil disobedience towards the Sabbath laws of the time, gathering grain and healing as he followed the Will of his Father.  Jesus acted against institutional power when he ran the money changers out of the temple. A whole economy operated out of the temple, which could be thought of as a “modest shopping mall.” (Kraybill, The Upside Down Kingdom, p. 57)  The temple was the center of commerce, religion and government.  Jerusalem was New York, Rome and Washington D.C. at one place for the Israelites.  But the people exchanged money and sold the necessary sacrifices at airport-level prices, making a profit off of God.  When Jesus chased them out, he shut down the temple, the economy of Jerusalem for a moment. This was the equivalent of throwing everyone on wall street out for the day.

Said another way, we see that Jesus called us to live together in community, the function of us as gathered people provides its own power and leverage in any system. God did not call us to live alone as believers, knowing that every belief has social implications. Anyone living in a family knows that a job loss does not simply affect the breadwinner, but the entire family.  Rarely do personal consequences apply only to one person.

So again, how do we “go out”?  How do we stop responding to the world, not claiming the responsibility of stewardship as God gave us? We will never fix these evils forever.  We have a lot to lose and little to gain or make right for God.  Our best intentions may even go wrong and cause harm, as we have seen come out of early missions and the destruction of culture, or when we offer food-aid to countries that makes it unprofitable for people to grow their own grain. We can start with the Lord’s prayer.  We can start with scripture.  Scripture tells us to take care of the earth.  Scripture tells us to love our neighbors. Scripture tells us to feed the hungry.  Scripture tells us to forgive the people who owe us money. Consider forgiving money you lent a recognition that it was never yours in the first place, simply God’s to take care of. Everything God has given you is a tool to use for his Kingdom. Job understood this. If God removes those tools, whether it be house or car or health or life itself on this world, we still praise him as Lord.

Everything has been a gift. Praise God.