Pentecost Perspective: Seeking the Kingdom

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Seeking the Kingdom

[Jesus] said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing...  For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

Luke 12:22-23,30-31 (NRSV)

They say in Heaven love comes first

We'll make Heaven a place on Earth

From "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of human needs.  Maslow argued that one's more basic needs must be met before one can even begin to realize one's higher needs.  The most basic human needs, according to this hierarchy, are physiological needs like food, clothing, and shelter.  Beyond these needs are safety needs like security and health.  Next is the need for love and belonging.  Beyond this is the need for esteem, which includes both self-respect and the respect of other people.  The highest need on this hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, in other words, the need to be everything one was created to be.¹

Jesus once encouraged His audience not to worry about meeting their basic necessities like food and clothing, needs that Maslow would place among the most basic of human needs.  Jesus then said that there is more to life than food and clothing, hinting at a higher purpose for existence.  I think that Jesus would agree with Maslow that we all need more than merely what is required for our survival.  Jesus went on to encourage His audience to strive for the Kingdom of God, assuring them that their basics needs would be met.

I suspect that the conventional interpretation of this particular teaching of Jesus is that, if we simply trust in God, we will not need to worry about our basic necessities because God will provide for us.  I won't deny the truth in this understanding, for Jesus himself points out that the same God who feeds the birds and elegantly dresses the flowers already knows exactly what we need.²  I do believe that there is perhaps another dimension to Jesus' teaching.  Notice that Jesus does not encourage us to just seek God but rather encourages us to seek the Kingdom of God.

So what is this Kingdom of God about which Jesus so often spoke?  Jesus never explicitly defined the Kingdom of God: He only described the Kingdom, often through the use of parables.  Perhaps the Kingdom of God is something that cannot be adequately defined using human language and concepts.  According to Francis Spufford,
The kingdom, [Jesus] seems to be saying, is something that can only be glimpsed in comparisons, because the world contains no actual example of it.  And yet the world glints and winks and shines everywhere with the possibility of it.³

As undefinable as the Kingdom of God seems to be, I cannot help but notice that its very name implies that it is a place where God is king.  Some describe this reign of God as both "already" and "not yet" - something that already exists but has not been fully realized.  When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave them a model prayer that contains what I think is another clue about the Kingdom of God:

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.⁴

Perhaps these two seemingly separate requests to God are actually inextricably linked.  Perhaps the Kingdom of God, the place where God reigns, is the place where God's will is done as in Heaven.

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After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He stayed with the Disciples for forty days, teaching them about the Kingdom of God, until He ascended into Heaven.⁵  Ten days later, on a holiday called Pentecost, something amazing happened while the Disciples were gathered together.  They suddenly heard the sound of a mighty wind that blew through the whole house.  Then fire filled the house, and a tongue of fire descended on each of them.  The Disciples ran out of the house, speaking in languages they did not previously know.  People from many different nations, who were living in Jerusalem at the time, could hear them speak in their own native languages.⁶

Jesus had told the Disciples that, after He returned to His Father, He would ask His Father send them another "Companion" who would remind them of what He had already taught them and would go on to "guide [them] into all truth."⁷  The phenomenon the Disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost was the arrival of this Companion, the Holy Spirit.

On that day, Peter proclaimed the message of Jesus Christ to the crowd that had gathered around them, and three thousand people were baptized and became followers of Christ.  These first Christians formed a community.  They frequently met together, ate together, learned together, and prayed together.  People of wealth sold their possessions and shared the proceeds so that nobody among them would be in need.⁸  Perhaps this community formed by the very first Christians was the natural outgrowth of the Spirit's leading.  Perhaps this community is yet another earthly glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

Perhaps Jesus said that, if we seek the Kingdom of God, we will not have to worry about being in need because Kingdom people take care of each other.

Not long after leaving the pastorate, Rob Bell was asked, if he were to plant another church, what form that church might take.  Taking some cues from the early Christians, he replied that any church he started would be structured around Holy Communion and that, when the congregation was gathered around the table, before they shared in the sacrament, they would first make sure that everyone's bills were paid.⁹

Once during Sunday school, as the class discussed the early Christians, a friend of mine remarked that some people might compare their way of life to communism.  If you have ever been drawn into a political argument with someone, then you know that an easy way to totally dismiss something is to compare it to communism or socialism.

In a society that values individualism and personal freedom, more collective or communal forms of society can seem threatening.  That said, I think that there is a reason that Jesus coupled His proclamation of the Kingdom of God with a call to repentance.  The Greek word metanoia, which is translated into English as repentance, describes a change in mind that results in a change in behavior.¹⁰  To participate in the Kingdom of God, we must change both the way we think and the way we live.  It is utterly arrogant to assume that God's dreams for the world are the same as our own.  I suspect that, no matter how godly we think we are, the coming of the Kingdom of God will mean some growing pains for all of us.¹¹

Please realize that a community like the one formed by the early Christians is not a place where "takers" can live easy lives at the expense of "givers."  For such a community to work properly, all members must be, in the words of St. Paul, "of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind," living in the same self-sacrificial way that Jesus lived and keeping at heart the well-being of one another.¹²  I have little doubt that the early Christians kept each other accountable as they met each others needs.

Jesus teaches us not to worry about meeting our basic needs, but rather to strive for higher things, particularly the Kingdom of God.  We do not need to worry about meeting our basic needs because God gives us the ability to provide for ourselves.  If, for some reason, we are unable to provide for ourselves, we still do not need to worry, because God offers us Kingdom community through which our needs may be met.  With each other's help, we can become all God created us to be.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: Maslow's heirarchy of needs
2. Luke 12:24-30
3. Francis Spufford.  Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense.  2014, Harper One.  p. 123
4. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
5. Acts 1:3-9
6. Acts 2:1-13
7. See John 14:16, 14:26, and 16:13 (CEB).
8. Acts 2:14-47
9. Rob Bell, Tripp Fuller, and Bo Sanders.  "Rob Bell, that new show with Carlton Cuse & Post-Mars Hill Goodies."  Homebrewed Christianity, 10/10/2012.
10. Wikipedia: Metanoia (theology)
11. Please do yourself a favor and read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis.
12. Philippians 2:1-11 (NRSV)

The diagram of Maslow's heirarchy of needs was created by Wikimedia Commons user FireflySixtySeven and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  The creator of the image is in no way affiliated with this blog.