The Kingdom of God (10)
“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’” (1:15)
Meditation about the topic of “the kingdom of God” should be finished today. The kingdom of God is the foundation of Christian faith as well as its goal, so furthermore we should discuss. And more discussions should be added to the before-mentioned topic like the resurrection and the kingdom of God, and relationship between the kingdom of God and other religion, and also we should deal with the problem between peace, one of the characteristics of the kingdom of God, and violence in today’s world. There must be lots to talk about the kingdom of God and ethical problems, too. Would it be necessary for sex in the kingdom of God? What about relationship between the kingdom of God and the aliens? Judgment and the kingdom of God as well as salvation and the kingdom of God, all of these could be topics for the kingdom of God. But for more study of Mark’s Gospel, let us put them off, and as a final discussion, think about the kingdom of God and building up a welfare country.
If it might be possible to keep on living just like here, what kind of living could it be in the kingdom of God? Life in the kingdom of God should be the most desirable in a completed well-being condition. To use a common word, it is a state of eating well and living well. In the kingdom of God, no one is sick, lonely, and sad. That state could be described a perfect well-being condition. But think about it. Does it mean a perfect life if you could live in the perfect welfare? Nobody agrees to this idea. Already in this world we have experienced that it is not true. Welfare could improve our quality of life, but not change fundamentally. It is like using a washing machine, being replaced hand wash. Of course by using a washing machine, our quality of life could be changed, but it could not guarantee a perfect life. On the opposite, it must be a mystery of life that foundation of life could be collapsed, when we focus just on the welfare of life. Only when we could taste a mystery of life not to be solved by the problem of well-being condtion, we could taste just a little bit of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God oriented churches should focus only on mystery of life, that is through Jesus Christ they should pursue mystery of life.
But today’s churches are moving on the opposite way. Mega churches and medium size churches are doing competitively lots of social activities for well-being condition. Long time ago they had been competing to build up education center and cemetery for the church, but now for the welfare center. Of course in the early churches they used to have tradition to help widows and orphans, so we cannot regard welfare activities as only in a negative way. Furthermore, it is impossible for the government to help all of the handicapped people, alien workers, not fed children or old people, so that the church must do something more actively.
But also the church should have a theological insight for these activities. Without consideration why the church should do this kind of things, it could be a big problem if they do because of other churches’ social activities. Theologically speaking, the social activities for well-being state could not be fundamental purpose for the church, but instead they are symbolic movements for change into the horizon for the eschatological kingdom of God. The welfare should remain a symbol. If it comes into the center of the church, it could lose the foundation of the church.
The church is not pursuing salvation through welfare. For welfare has only relative value. The church should do their best to hold an absolute life. Absolute life means the kingdom of God. It means God’s reigning. The most precious job the church should carry out is to proclaim that the kingdom of God is coming to us. Everything except that is just appendix. Which shall we rely on for the future of the church?
Lord, how could we send a message about life in the kingdom of God in this world, just pursuing the well-being state first? Give us wisdom. Amen.
“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’” (1:15)
Meditation about the topic of “the kingdom of God” should be finished today. The kingdom of God is the foundation of Christian faith as well as its goal, so furthermore we should discuss. And more discussions should be added to the before-mentioned topic like the resurrection and the kingdom of God, and relationship between the kingdom of God and other religion, and also we should deal with the problem between peace, one of the characteristics of the kingdom of God, and violence in today’s world. There must be lots to talk about the kingdom of God and ethical problems, too. Would it be necessary for sex in the kingdom of God? What about relationship between the kingdom of God and the aliens? Judgment and the kingdom of God as well as salvation and the kingdom of God, all of these could be topics for the kingdom of God. But for more study of Mark’s Gospel, let us put them off, and as a final discussion, think about the kingdom of God and building up a welfare country.
If it might be possible to keep on living just like here, what kind of living could it be in the kingdom of God? Life in the kingdom of God should be the most desirable in a completed well-being condition. To use a common word, it is a state of eating well and living well. In the kingdom of God, no one is sick, lonely, and sad. That state could be described a perfect well-being condition. But think about it. Does it mean a perfect life if you could live in the perfect welfare? Nobody agrees to this idea. Already in this world we have experienced that it is not true. Welfare could improve our quality of life, but not change fundamentally. It is like using a washing machine, being replaced hand wash. Of course by using a washing machine, our quality of life could be changed, but it could not guarantee a perfect life. On the opposite, it must be a mystery of life that foundation of life could be collapsed, when we focus just on the welfare of life. Only when we could taste a mystery of life not to be solved by the problem of well-being condtion, we could taste just a little bit of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God oriented churches should focus only on mystery of life, that is through Jesus Christ they should pursue mystery of life.
But today’s churches are moving on the opposite way. Mega churches and medium size churches are doing competitively lots of social activities for well-being condition. Long time ago they had been competing to build up education center and cemetery for the church, but now for the welfare center. Of course in the early churches they used to have tradition to help widows and orphans, so we cannot regard welfare activities as only in a negative way. Furthermore, it is impossible for the government to help all of the handicapped people, alien workers, not fed children or old people, so that the church must do something more actively.
But also the church should have a theological insight for these activities. Without consideration why the church should do this kind of things, it could be a big problem if they do because of other churches’ social activities. Theologically speaking, the social activities for well-being state could not be fundamental purpose for the church, but instead they are symbolic movements for change into the horizon for the eschatological kingdom of God. The welfare should remain a symbol. If it comes into the center of the church, it could lose the foundation of the church.
The church is not pursuing salvation through welfare. For welfare has only relative value. The church should do their best to hold an absolute life. Absolute life means the kingdom of God. It means God’s reigning. The most precious job the church should carry out is to proclaim that the kingdom of God is coming to us. Everything except that is just appendix. Which shall we rely on for the future of the church?
Lord, how could we send a message about life in the kingdom of God in this world, just pursuing the well-being state first? Give us wisdom. Amen.
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