This is an excerpt from A Conspiracy of Love: Following Jesus in a Postmodern World / Second Edition.
© 2024 Kurt Struckmeyer

the kingdom of God

At the heart of the gospel of Jesus is the kingdom of God. This one phrase sums up the entire ministry of Jesus and his whole life’s work. As we read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that every thought and saying of Jesus was directed and subordinated to one single thing: the realization of the reign of God’s love, compassion, and peace within human society. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God more than any other subject. His number two topic was the danger of personal wealth and a call to radical generosity with those in need.

Although Jesus spoke in Aramaic—a Semitic language similar to Hebrew—the New Testament gospels and letters were written in Greek. The Greek word which we have translated into English as kingdom is basileia (bas-il-EH-ah). Jesus would have used the Aramaic word malkutha (mal-KOOTH-ah). Both basileia and malkutha share the same meaning: kingdom, realm, reign, or rule. The expression kingdom of God—basileia tou theou (bas-il-EH-ah too THEH-oo) in Greek and malkutha d’elaha (mal-KOOTH-ah dehl-ah-HAH) in Aramaic—points to the ruling activity of God over human social relationships.

Herod the Great had the title of basileus (bas-il-YOOCE) or king. So basileia has to do with who governs the common life and what kind of government they establish. When Jesus used the term kingdom of God it was a vision of the kind of government or social contract that God desired for humanity. And Jesus declared that this new form of compassionate interdependence was rapidly coming into being. He urgently announced to his contemporaries, “The kingdom of God is at hand!”

The phrase kingdom of God occurs nearly eighty times in the canonical gospels. There are four references in Matthew (his distinctive variation kingdom of heaven is used another thirty-four times). Fourteen references are in Mark, twenty-two in Luke, and two in John. Outside of the four gospel accounts, the term kingdom of God is not very common in the New Testament. The expression is used six times in Acts, eight times in Paul’s letters, and once in Revelation. In the Hebrew Bible, the specific phrase does not occur at all. The concept of God as the true king of Israel was widespread, but references to the kingdom of Yahweh—malkut Yahweh (mal-KOOT YAH-way)—are rarely found.

how would God govern?

Biblical scholars generally agree that the kingdom of God is not a reference to a geo-political area like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Kingdom of Bahrain. Instead, the biblical concept of basileia tou theou (bas-il-EH-ah too THEH-oo) has to do with the activity of ruling and the people who are ruled, but not a specific territory ruled. In other words, Jesus was talking about what we might call God’s kingship or lordship (to use Medieval terms) over a group of people or the ruling activity of God in their lives, rather than God’s kingdom as a geographic area with a capital and borders. Thus, we often see the rule of God, or the reign of God used as synonyms. Empire has been sometimes used as a substitution for kingdom in translating the words of Jesus for a contemporary audience. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar have translated the kingdom of God as God’s imperial rule, providing us with a verb. It nicely contrasts the idea of God’s ruling style over against Caesar’s imperial rule of the Roman Empire.

a new community

The kingdom of God as preached by Jesus is a vision of a profound transformation of human beings and human institutions—social, political, economic, and religious—to a form that expresses the character and nature of a God of love. It combines elements of personal and social transformation in the spiritual and political realms.

According to Jesus, God’s new order is something of great value, yet it is often hidden from view by the overwhelming presence of injustice and violence and must be uncovered or recovered. It is something that has been lost and must be found again. It is something we have long believed is impossible but must now struggle and hope for again. The kingdom is something that cannot be seen in and of itself, yet its effects are plainly visible. To enter the kingdom, in fact to even see the kingdom, one must experience a dramatic change—a reorientation, a rebirth. So just what is the kingdom of God as preached by Jesus of Nazareth?

I contend that the kingdom of God that Jesus described in metaphors and stories was the action of a social-political movement led by the God of love to restore what Jesus believed to be God’s intention for humanity from the very moment of creation. Rather than the Jewish dream for restoration of political and religious power through external divine action, Jesus painted a vision of God changing the world from within through the creation of a new community bonded together in egalitarian social relationships. Jesus described what would happen when love finally broke through the hearts and minds of people to transform their actions and relationships into a society based on compassion, generosity, and equality. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom had already arrived and could be clearly seen and entered into if a person underwent a radical transformation of the beliefs and values of power and success that conventional wisdom has implanted in their hearts.


See my blog post The Kingdom of God: an Introduction.


a vision

The kingdom of God was the metaphor Jesus used to describe his vision of the way things were meant to be in human society—how things could be dramatically different within us and among us—and to understand Jesus you have to understand the nature of a vision. It is reminiscent of Bobby Kennedy’s phrase, “Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?”

Visions always deal with the future. Indeed, a vision is where tomorrow begins, for it expresses what those who share the vision are working hard to create. Since most people don’t take the time to think systematically about the future, those who do, like Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr—and who base their strategies and actions on their visions—have inordinate power to shape the future. They each had a passion for an ideal which they expressed as a vision and inspired others to respond. Dutch futurist Frederick Polak (1907–1985) described how charismatic leaders influence the future through a vision.

Themselves under the influence of that which they envisioned, they transformed the nonexistent into the existent, and shattered the reality of their own time with their imaginary images of the future. Thus, the open future already operates in the present, shaping itself in advance through these image makers and their images—and they, conversely, focus and enclose the future in advance, for good or ill.

If the governing style of God is understood as a vision for our corporate life together, then we can begin to understand how it can be both present and future, because that is how a vision operates. The power of a vision is that while it describes the future state to be achieved, it begins to immediately shape the present. One author has said that “the right vision is so energizing that it in effect jump starts the future by calling forth the skill, talents, and resources to make it happen.” A community or organization doesn’t wait for a vision to magically happen, they work together to make it a reality. Jesus chose to take the long-awaited dream of a just and compassionate society, and by articulating and acting on it, made it a vision that would lead to the transformation of the world.

When people embrace a vision of the future, they begin to live it out in the present. The main course may take a while to prepare, but we’re eating the hors d’oeuvres right now and setting the table for the soup, salad, entrée, and dessert courses. In liturgical language, we are enjoying a foretaste of the feast to come. But the reality is that the final consummation of the vision may never come about completely in human history. And it may never come about, as many imagine, at the end of human history. We have no indication that the vision of Jesus will ever be completely fulfilled. But the dream is that it can be fulfilled, even partially in the present, through the power of transforming love, compassion, and nonviolence, and it is worth struggling to achieve. The reality is that if no one acts upon a vision, it only remains a dream. The proclamation of the reign of God by Jesus is a call to action. The vision of God’s new order is an invitation to a journey. The destination is hoped for, but not assured. If we choose to follow Jesus and contribute to making the kingdom of God a reality, we are called to spend our lives in the pursuit of this vision.

A vision is like a seed that is planted in the hearts and minds of people. When it takes root and is nourished, it can grow to accomplish astounding results. Jesus used this imagery with the kingdom of God. It is like a mustard seed, about the size of a grain of sand. Just as an invasive mustard plant thrown into a well-tended garden, the reigning style of God has been rooting itself in the domination systems of the world and continues to spread its subversive message, even to our day. For most of us, the kingdom of God is an obscure concept. We don’t know where to start looking for it.

where the kingdom is found

Let me offer my own biases about where the kingdom is most likely not found. The kingdom is not found in personal isolation. It is not found through spiritual disciplines. It is not found in ritual worship. It is not found in corridors of power or success. It is not found amid wealth and possessions. If we search for the kingdom in these places, we will not find it. It will only be found on a very narrow road—one less traveled.

Jesus gave us some clues where to find God’s new order in the way that he lived. The kingdom of God is found in community. It is found where people are hurting and suffering. It is found where people are engaged in healing, caring, and sharing. It is found where people are working for peace and justice. The kingdom of God is found in the world in simple everyday acts of kindness, compassion, and reconciliation. Look for it, seek it out, search for it. Like leaven in bread dough, we cannot observe it working, but we can see the results of the transformation it is causing.

Jesus’ revolutionary movement

The reigning of God is about a radical shift in human life that stirs the political wind. It is the understanding that a new regime is about to change everything. This is not the old style of change in which one despot is replaced with another. This is about the end of despotic rule entirely, replaced by new social relationships based on equality, compassion, and liberation. This is an announcement that something dramatic is happening in the world. Ancient dreams are becoming a reality. A movement is forming and people are joining. Freedom is coming. Justice is arriving. It is chaotic, but it is exciting.

The leader of this movement is not visible, but the people are—seen here and there engaged in work for change. Some actions are small, under the radar. At other times the results of the individual and collective work for change becomes readily apparent. There isn’t any central coordination, just a common vision guiding the work of many people. Occasionally, a prophetic voice is raised and the powerful take heed.

Yet the challenge is huge. The rule of the rich and mighty is the normal state of civilization, and the old systems refuse to change. Many people benefit from the current situation and the status quo. The purveyors of self-interest and greed are frightened that a different world may no longer favor them. And the economic powers who rule the world’s nations are not about to give up their power and privilege and wealth without a fight. They have laws and police forces and armies at their disposal. They show little hesitation to use armed violence, imprisonment, torture, and capital punishment to maintain control. The powerful dominate our information through news media that are controlled by wealthy corporations. For the people of Jesus’ revolutionary new movement in any time or place, it is always a season of challenge and danger and risk, which calls for great personal courage, sacrifice, and faith.

finding new metaphors

Sometimes the metaphor gets in the way of the vision. As a metaphor, the kingdom of God does not work very well in present circumstances, nor will it conceivably work any better in the future. Kingdoms are diminishing around the world. Democracies are rising. But no matter what form governments take, domination systems abound. So, it would be helpful to find a new metaphor that people can better understand and connect with in the twenty-first century. We need a fresh language that will better describe the vision of Jesus and our role as his followers in a postmodern world.

Brian McLaren put it this way:

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, his language was charged with urgent political, religious, and cultural electricity. But today, if we speak of the kingdom of God, the original electricity is largely gone, and in its place, we often find a kind of tired familiarity that inspires not hope and excitement, but anxiety or boredom . . .

For many people today, kingdom language evokes patriarchy, chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and a regime without freedom—the very opposite of the liberating, barrier-breaking, domination-shattering, reconciling movement the kingdom of God was intended to be! . . . If Jesus were here today, I’m quite certain he wouldn’t use the language of kingdom at all, which leaves us wondering how he would articulate his message.

McLaren proposes six alternative metaphors for the contemporary world: the dream of God, the revolution of God, the mission of God, the party of God, the network of God, and the dance of God. Each one captures a bit of the essence of what Jesus was talking about.

the revolution of God

McLaren’s suggested phrase the revolution of God implies the radical nature of the change that Jesus envisioned.

This metaphor claims that we human beings have created a totalitarian regime—a regime of lust (where too many people are reduced to sex objects or hyped into sexual predators), a regime of pride and power (where some thrive at the expense or to the exclusion of others), a regime of racism, classism, ageism, and nationalism (where people are identified as enemies or evil or inferior because of the color of their skin or the physical or social location of their birth), a regime of consumerism and greed (where life is commodified, where people become slaves to their jobs, where the environment is reduced to natural resources for human consumption, where time is money, which makes life become money). This regime is unacceptable, and God is recruiting people to join a revolutionary movement of change.

the network of God

Brian McLaren’s term network of God works well in this context because it is not identified with a particular people or community but suggests a broad, informal, and global social network like those created today through Internet connectivity. Jesus is reported to have said, “The kingdom of God is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”

A modern parallel of this kind of network might be the extraordinary internet community that helped elect Barack Obama to the American presidency. Millions of people, often working in anonymous isolation yet united around a common mission, were able to create astonishing results. In the Arab world, political and social revolutions have been fueled by cell phone and internet connectivity which has produced mass demonstrations for regime change and reform in a matter of hours. The Occupy Wall Street movement in America used the same technological interconnectivity to organize their local and nationwide activities. In nearly every instance, it is difficult to pinpoint a movement leader, and often specific proposals for change are lacking. But these movements all reflect people united with a vision of a different future. And they are actively working to make it happen, sometimes putting their lives on the line.

Walter Wink described the kingdom of God as God’s domination-free order. It always stands in opposition to systems of inequality, exploitation, and oppression. Therefore, the people who engage in God’s revolutionary activity for a domination-free order can be envisioned as an invisible and intangible global network engaged in small, individual, and anonymous actions of compassion, generosity, and justice on a daily basis. But these small acts must be oriented toward fundamental change of the governing system, not just charitable activities toward victims of the status quo. Working toward the realization of the kingdom of God requires a dedicated resistance movement.

the conspiracy of God

I am beginning to gravitate toward the conspiracy of God as a new metaphor for what Jesus was describing, especially in light of his parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, which have conspiratorial elements. McLaren’s metaphors of the dream of God (the vision), the revolution of God (the activity), and the network of God (the people) all come together for me in the conspiracy of God. I see the conspiracy of God as the subversive activity of a people focused on Jesus’ vision of a better world—a world governed by love.

The word conspiracy derives from the same root as spirit. The Latin root spirare (SPEE-rah-reh) means to breathe. For example, the word respiration is to breathe again, and inspiration means to breathe in—to be filled with the spirit. To conspire normally connotes agreement or unity in an activity, but it literally means to breathe together. Those engaged in a conspiracy are so united around an idea or action that they are seen to breathe as one. I believe that Jesus called his followers to engage in a conspiracy of profound personal and social transformation that will undermine the global domination system in every family, town, and nation. And when two or three people engage in this task, they become co-conspirators in a vast conspiracy network inaugurated and led by Jesus. He suggested that this kind of conspiracy would create a manifestation of his ongoing presence—a sign of resurrection, a sign of new life, a sign of dramatic change in the world.


See my blog entry on God


God is love

In my opinion, one does not even have to believe in God—at least not in the traditional sense of a supernatural human-like being—to be part of the conspiracy of God. A remarkable document in the New Testament—the First Letter of John—introduced a completely different way of thinking about God.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

As far as I know, the New Testament has only three definitions for God: God is spirit, God is light, and God is love. The first definition comes from the gospel of John and the second two derive from the First Letter of John. So, these metaphors may derive from the same community. But of all these definitions, love represents the highest, deepest, and most powerful force in human life. It is the energy that fosters human growth and change. Love is the impulse behind empathy and concern, and the fuel that drives compassion and justice. In Greek, God is love is theos ein agapē (THEH-ohs ayn ag-AH-pay). Agapē (ag-AH-pay) is one of four different Greek words which we translate into English as love. Philia (fil-EE-ah) refers to loyal friendship or a brotherly love; eros (ERR-ohs) is used to describe passionate, erotic, or romantic love; and storgē (STOR-gay) is used in relation to the natural affection of family love, like the love of a parent for a child. But agape implies a selfless love, a self-giving love, often an unconditional love. It is a love directed toward others, putting the needs of others ahead of oneself. This is the kind of love people saw in Jesus. And for the early Christian writers, it described the love of God.

When the Bible declares that God is love, it means that these two language symbols—God and love—are identical. If God is love, then the converse is also true: Love is god. Therefore, the word God is a name we give to the spirit of selfless love found at the depths of our humanity and experienced in the relationship of human love toward one another. Thus, God can be seen as a language symbol that personifies compassionate love as a divine entity. For millennia, humans have projected this image of God onto a supernatural being. However, according to the First Letter of John, God is not a loving being. God is love itself.

Love, bound up in human flesh, is the manifestation of God in the world. This is another way of looking at divine incarnation. For the early church, Jesus embodied the image of a God of love, revealed in his words and deeds. Therefore, some saw him as the incarnation of God on earth. However, the radical message of the New Testament is that God is no longer an external being who dwells in heaven; God has come to dwell among us, not just in the person of Jesus, but within every human being. Indeed, God has always—and only—been a part of humanity, located deep within human consciousness and projected as a divine actor in the human story. God, in the form of compassionate love, is a latent presence within each of us, but this God remains hidden until humans outwardly express love toward others. Loving one another is the full expression of God on earth.

No one has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and God’s love is brought to full expression in us.

If you don’t believe in the reality of God—particularly in a traditional, supernatural, theistic image of God—you can still affirm the power of love as a dynamically transformative force in the world. Love changes people, and love has changed societies through nonviolent action for freedom and equality. Whether God is real or imagined, it ultimately makes no difference. Acts of love make the God of love present among us.

the kingdom is for everyone

This equation of God and love opens up the kingdom of God to everyone, no matter what their image or their understanding or their definition of God, because it can be understood as the kingdom of love, or the reigning of love, or the ruling style of love, or the governing mode of love over against our domination systems. It answers the question “What would the world be like if unselfish love ruled our families, societies, and nations?” The reign of love involves love for the victims of oppression and love toward the perpetrators of injustice. It is a movement of love that wants not only transformation of the system itself, but a transformation of those who control the system.

the conspiracy of love

So, I have now begun to favor the phrase the conspiracy of love as a new metaphor for the reign or reigning style of God that comprehends a vision, a transforming activity, and a people committed to change. It suggests that the governing style of love is the vision that guides us, but that the daily work toward that vision is in the form of conspiratorial action. The conspiracy of love is a movement to disturb and confound the domination system and its rampant politics of selfishness with a new possibility—a domination-free society based on love, compassion, equality, and community. That was the message and mission of Jesus.

 

 

nine key teachings of Jesus