I have recently become familiar with a little book by Nick Earle, titled provocatively “What’s Wrong with the Church?” (Penguin Books, 1961). Nick is an Anglican; he is thinking of the Church of England – and the church of the 1960’s, a long time ago. But his observations seem appropriate today, as well.
At one point Earle refers to the Kingdom of God. We have sometimes misunderstood the concept altogether, Earle contends. “The Kingdom itself is not something to be ‘furthered’ or ‘built’ by men’s efforts. It is something which we are invited to recognize as already present, after a manner, in the life and work of Jesus. It is something to be inherited or entered into by those who believe. The task of the Church, in other words, is not to set the stage for a better world than this one but to draw the curtain from it, to reveal something that is already there.”
The Kingdom of God is not about patches of real estate or specific human institutions. It is not about denominations, either. The Kingdom of God is God’s own rule. As Luther explains in the Catechism, “[God] desires to rule us as a king of righteousness, life, and salvation….” And the Kingdom is not about human values, opinions, or ambitions, either, however passionately we may feel them. It is the Kingdom of God that defines what is valuable, true, and just. We do not “build” the Kingdom; the Kingdom builds us.
Nick Earle is correct: we discover the Kingdom in the life and work of Jesus. The Kingdom is given to us by simple faith in the Savior. We do not create or introduce the Kingdom of God in the world – as if it required our own special insight or energy to spring into being. We “draw the curtain” from the Kingdom, as it were, and affirm that God Almighty is at work – through Word, and faith, and Sacrament – in the world of human beings.
I have recently seen the Kingdom at work, right before my eyes.
In December, I was privileged to visit our church and mission colleagues in Chiclayo, along the northern coast of Peru. I was invited to participate in the ordination of a pair of young pastors serving in the Chiclayano suburbs of Las Lomas and Las Brisas. (See “LeagueLight” on this month’s cover.) I witnessed the Lutheran church of Chiclayo “draw the curtain” from the wonderful thing God is doing among them. The gospel is proclaimed. Men and women are coming to faith. The flock of believers is encouraged and is organizing for service and ministry. Let me tell you: this result was not engineered by the World Mission Prayer League. This is the work of God.
Nick Earle finds something “wrong with the church” when we presume upon the Kingdom of God – as if the Kingdom were all about us and our programs and efforts. But we can get it right, too. We get it right when we pray, day by day, “Thy Kingdom come.” We get it right when we yearn, as Luther advises in our Catechism, to “remain faithful and grow daily” in God’s Kingdom of grace. And we get it right when we pray, as Luther advises further, that the Kingdom may “gain recognition and followers” throughout the world, “that many may come into the kingdom of grace and become partakers of salvation.”
God himself is building his Kingdom. Let his Kingdom come!