Marginal Christianity

Usually the kingdom of God Jesus announced is presented according to an “already/not yet” scheme. It “dawned” or was “inaugurated” by Jesus’ earthly ministry but is not wholly present at this point. The fullness of the kingdom will become present when Jesus returns in glory at his second coming. Two scholars have recently challenged this usual way of understanding the kingdom. And their views are well worth considering. -the first scholar to consider is Andrew Perriman. In his book Re: Mission and a host of articles on his blog Perriman makes the case that the kingdom of God is a political term denoting God’s rule over his world. This happened in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Through him God reasserted his rightful but usurped rule, first over that portion of his people who remained resistant to and rejected Jesus. The judgment for their perfidy was that Israel as a nation defaulted on its commission to be God’s Abrahamic people through whom God would bless the world. This judg...

Emboldened by Jesus’ announcement of the coming of the kingdom of heaven (4:17), his direction for living through this period of crisis and judgment (chs.5-7), and a litany of ten demonstrations of power by Jesus proving his authority to act as the Messiah and agent of God’s coming kingdom (chs.8-9). Now we come to his transferal of his own authority to his disciples and sending them out to spread the news of the coming kingdom throughout Israel (ch.10). It is crucial to read this passage in light of this 1 st century context. Jesus explicitly delimits this mission to Israel: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’” (10:5-7). This inter-Jewish mission is a key component of Jesus’ effort to regather and reconstitute Abrahamic Israel under the shadow of God’s coming judgment of his people. Unlike the so-called Great Com...

Four Triads on Living in the Presence of God (Matthew 6:1-18) The first six triads of the SoM dealt with the practices that God’s people in the midst of the crisis for their life in the 1 st century. Jesus unveils ways for his people to survive and even thrive amid this crisis. We also saw some analogies between the church’s situation in that 1 st century and the North American church’s in the 21 st and made Jesus’ teaching to them reach across the centuries to us in spite of the differences between our circumstances. The next four triads of the SoM reveal Jesus’ teaching on how in such a crisis (or a different one, or, indeed, no crisis at all) to relate to God. Giving Alms (6:1-4) 1 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2  “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be ...