... What is the Kingdom of God?

(Sorry for the absence in blogging (my longest since starting this thing). Many things happening, long weekend, we’re going on vacation in a few days, so maybe a few posts this week.)

In part of N.T. Wright’s new book, Simply Christian, he challenges his readers to more fully explore what the church is here for. He goes on to explain:

“The point of following Jesus isn’t simply so that we can be sure of going to a better place than this after we die. Our future beyond death is enormously important, but the nature of the Christian hope is such that it plays back into the present life. We’re called, here and now, to be instruments of God’s new creation, the world-put-to-rights which has already been launched in Jesus and of which Jesus’ followers are supposed to be not simply beneficiaries but also agents. This provides a new way of coming at various topics, not least prayer and Christian behavior.”

What do you think? Some of this is relatively new to me, especially the part where we have an obligation to affect the world around us here; now. We’re not in this to save ourselves but to change the world for Christ, because of Christ. The kingdom is a whole lot more than the place we reside after we die. I believe Jesus said to everyone around him, answering the Pharisees question about when the kingdom would come, that the kingdom of God was “within them” or “among them”. It is here; it is now. What do you think?