The first podcast from the 2007 Emergent Theological Philosophical Conversation, featuring Jack Caputo and Richard Kearney, is now available at Emergent Village. I attended this event and blogged about it here and here.
Lately I’ve been working my way through the book Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger. They say:
In the past, a strong commitment to social action all too often degenerated into a human activism in which those involved believed they were building the kingdom. This overlooks the fact that it is God’s kingdom. It is something only God can bring into being. As Jesus reminds us, the kingdom comes unexpectedly as a gift and a surprise. The popular phrase ‘building the kingdom’ does not occur in the New Testament and is alien to its understanding of the nature and dynamic of the kingdom (p. 140).
They immediately follow the above with: “Kingdom activity must never be divorced from its roots and nourishment in the gospel. It takes place only through the operation of the Spirit of God through, although at times in spite of, God’s people.”
Applied to more than just “social action” but to following Jesus generally, this seems to suggest that “building the kingdom” may actually be “much ado about nothing.” It reminds me of Debbie Blue’s rejoinder that being born again as a metaphor for being initiated into right relationship with God (I’m paraphrasing/interpreting) is something God does- not something the one being born does, just as in the case of a baby and its mother.
So if I can’t go out and get “born again,” and I’m not supposed to be running around “building the kingdom,” what the HELL (he he) am I supposed to be doing? Am I just supposed to love people? Is it really that simple/simplistic?
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