I am in a Sunday School class on the Kingdom of God. We watched a video of Scot McKnight on the topic, and I marveled at how precisely he captured what seems to have slipped in our understanding and identified where we need to start and how we need to proceed from here. It was not this video, but this is an Asbury one like it.
Yet I was "unmoved" somehow, as I said in the class, and am not sure how that is. I like precision and summary, after all.
I despaired of it all and thought I would just tell stories, as Jesus did. Maybe that will work better - for me, anyway.
Jesus’ Parables in Chronological Order ~
Scripture Parable #1 — Matthew 9:16 — New Cloth Patch on an Old Coat
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk [new] cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.”
Parable #2 — Matthew 9:17 — New Wine in Old Wineskins
“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Parable #3 — Matthew 5:14-15 — Lamp on a Stand
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”
Parable #4 — Luke 6:46-49 — Wise and Foolish Builders
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
3 comments:
Poetic descriptions can have multiple meanings. Another take on "Kingdom of God" I've heard is that this refers to the royal nature of God, and the Kingdom is the domain in which His nature is manifested--most particularly (aspirationally) in us.
Yes, I learned the obvious from McKnight. If there is a kingdom, it has to have a king.
I think “Kingdom is the domain in which His nature is manifested--most particularly (aspirationally) in us” hits pretty close to what McKnight was aiming at. Kings have a realm over which they govern, that space where their will is done. In typical kingdoms, that’s a land. In the case of the Kingdom of God, that happens in his people, when they choose to align their will with his, and their actions with his law.
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