About 8 years ago one of my esteemed seminary professors was preaching at our church and he asked the congregation this question: “What is the central message of Jesus?” The answer: “The Kingdom of God.” I remember feeling about 6 inches tall in my pew that day, not because there was anything that rubbed me wrong about that true answer but because that would have not even been on my list of possible answers. The Kingdom of God? Really? That’s what Jesus is all about?
That day began a journey for me in trying to understand, see and live out my life in the Kingdom of God – with that as my ultimate vision or telos for life under the sun. I have had times over the last 8 years where I have grasped it in new ways and have been thrilled and motivated by it’s boundless revelation for this cosmos and my life. And then there have been times where I forget – where I seem to lose it all together – where life becomes so one dimensional and flat and shallow.
Also during this journey I have attempted to communicate the vision for the Kingdom of God to our church with decidedly mixed results. I’ve learned that it’s sometimes hard to communicate in concrete ways. It’s a nice thought but so what? How does the Kingdom motivate me when I’m so tired and overworked? How does the Kingdom help me when I’m stuck in this abusive relationship? How does the Kingdom matter when I’m stuck here changing diapers all day long?
“If only,” I have often bemoaned, “we had a stronger desire for the Kingdom! Then we might see its relevance and live our lives out of its grand and glorious vision!” And into that prayer comes James K.A. Smith’s book, Desiring the Kingdom: a book with the stated goal being “the formation of radical disciples who desire the kingdom of God.” (p. 19). Amen!
Foundational to Smith’s book is his thesis that “Being a disciple of Jesus is not primarily a matter of getting the right ideas and doctrines and beliefs into your head in order to guarantee proper behavior; rather, it’s a matter of being the kind of person who loves rightly – who loves God and neighbor and is oriented to the world by the primacy of that love.” (pp. 32-33) We are created as people who love, first and foremost (vs. people who think or believe first and foremost) and so what we love ultimately will be the thing that governs how we live our lives. And so if we love, ultimately, the Kingdom of God our lives will be oriented and directed by its grand vision for the redemption of the cosmos.
But how? Smith doesn’t stop at theory. The aim of this book is to give a practical pathway to a Kingdom driven life. So, he says, a desire for the Kingdom “becomes operative in us (motivating actions, decisions, etc.) by becoming an integral part of the fabric of our dispositions – our precognitive tendencies (aka habits) to act in certain ways toward certain ends.” (p. 55) So, when the Kingdom gets into our souls it begins to form habits of action which become part of our dispositions. Whew! OK, then but how does the Kingdom get into our souls? Ah – here is where the rubber meets the road. Smith’s take is that it happens through liturgies.
Let me explain (or at least try): The world is full of liturgies – these repeated stories, mantras, visions that fill our senses and drive us to love and worship. If these are things like the mantra that we need to be accepted (told to us by marketers of fashion, body image, etc…) we will worship the mall or the gym, etc... The more we feed our souls with these liturgies the more they will drive us to our ultimate love – acceptance – and then our lives will be oriented to that vision/telos. Conversely, if our lives are filled with the liturgies of the Kingdom, they will drive us toward that ultimate love – and then our lives will be oriented toward its vision. Smith then goes on to give practical help to educators/pastors on how to develop and deliver these liturgies to God’s people.
I was greatly helped by this book, so much so that I’m asking some of the leaders in our church to interact with Smith’s ideas and to think through integrating them into liturgies that make sense for us. Some of his directions – at the end – did seem like they came out of the Kingdom liturgies that make sense to him/that he likes and therefore didn’t leave much room for those who do church differently or in very different contexts (like ours). That said, though, the ideas are a very helpful launching pad for us to work through those contextualizing questions for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment