The Kingdom Story

You know how sometimes something goes round and round inside your head for a very long time, and you wonder if the matter will ever come to rest in any good place?  While you're thinking, you can't excuse yourself from business as usual, and figurative bruises and thumps on the head and raps on the knuckles and punches to the stomach seem more plentiful than affirmations and progress.  I feel that the past year or so has been like that for me in one particular perplexity--trying to identify what constitutes Kingdom business.  Other kingdoms seethe and bubble so energetically that the oil of the Heavenly Kingdom often seems shot through with contamination from below.

The lead-in to the 2016 presidential election was a toxin-contaminated brew.  Unfortunately the pot could not be pulled off the fire, and as surely as labor pains intensify before they subside, this pot boiled all the more furiously as 2016 lurched along to November.

I absconded on November 1 and stayed out of the country till November 13, sequestering myself in a country 50 hours of flights and airports from home.    I saw first-hand the betrayal the Bangladeshis felt when a country they admired elected a leader who had publicly castigated their kind of people.  They didn't seem angry, just sorrowful and perhaps a bit fearful.

I felt betrayal too--not so much by the outcome of the election, but by the behavior and accusations of some of my fellow Anabaptists.  What were they thinking?  The more I heard what they were thinking, the more dismayed I felt.  If they ever understood the historic position of their religious tradition, they weren't affirming it now.  The new position seemed to have been formed without reference to the priorities of the Kingdom of God.  The needle on the moral compass seemed loose and wobbly at its pivot point.

Unfortunately I found it far easier to see what was wrong than to discover what was right regarding these matters.  My father's death made me feel more disoriented than usual. I could have counted on his caring and wisdom if I had been able to talk to him.  Feeling snowed under with work at school, with little time to think didn't help either.

The understandings that have brought some sense of resolution seem so simple to me now that I wonder why I didn't think of them a long time ago.  I'll start here by sharing something along the same lines as what I passed along to my language arts class (going from memory).  At the center top of a paper I wrote "Kingdom of God."  Under it I wrote a term that is often used interchangeably, "Kingdom of Heaven."  Further descriptors followed:  "More powerful than all other kingdoms, Everlasting, Operates by love."

Along the left margin below this I wrote "Kingdom of Satan," followed by synonyms "Kingdom of Darkness, Kingdom of this World (singular)."  Then these descriptors:  "Less powerful than the "Kingdom of God, More powerful than kingdoms of this world (plural), Steals, kills, and destroys, Will be destroyed by God.

Along the right margin at the bottom was another category:  "Kingdoms of this world (plural)."  "Earthly governments" is synonymous.  These kingdoms operate by force.  Here not everything is completely clear to me, but I do know that God is sovereign over these kingdoms.  I know also that earthly kingdoms (or nations) may operate in a stealing, killing, and destroying mode at times.  At other times the principle of love (or goodwill at least) is in evidence.  A nation  never operates entirely according to the realm of God's kingdom or Satan's kingdom, as long as individuals within those nations are not entirely loyal to God's kingdom or Satan's. Earthly kingdoms are mixed kingdoms.

Now, back to the right margin near the top of the page:  "Schleitheim Confession" is the subject of a paragraph there.  Schleitheim is a city in Germany.  The first formative document written by a group of Anabaptists was written there in 1527.  Michael Sattler was the main writer.  In this document, Anabaptists reject involvement in any activity that relies on the use of force.   Quote:  "He [Christ] Himself forbids the (employment of) the force of the sword . . . Christ has suffered (not ruled) and left us an example, that ye should follow His steps."   The contrast could hardly be more stark.  Earthly kingdoms seek to bring about change through the use of force.  In the Kingdom of God, change is accomplished through suffering love.  In the Schleitheim reading, for Christians to seek power in an earthly government is a serious compromise.  It is to walk in darkness.   Quote:  "They wished to make Christ king, but He fled and did not view it as the arrangement of His Father. Thus shall we do as He did, and follow Him, and so shall we not walk in darkness." 

On my "Kingdoms" paper, the first line connected the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of Satan.  Along this line I wrote that Christians must maintain a complete separation from the Kingdom of Satan.  I stated further that all Christians agree on this, in principle at least. Another line connects the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world and runs right through the Schleitheim Confession paragraph.  My conclusion is that if I wish to follow in the way of the the Schleitheim Anabaptists and prioritize the Kingdom of God as they did, I will also choose the way of suffering love and never seek to align myself with the forceful methods of the kingdoms of this world. This carves out an honorable place of rest for me.

That's Part One of my "Kingdom" story.

Schleitheim Confession