Final in a series on Mark.

Today ends an historic two-week conference here in
Melbourne. The ninth international missionary conference organised
by the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism saw (and
heard) 500 delegates and consultants from 85 countries. The first
of these conferences was held in Edinburgh in 1910. It was historic,
in many ways. Its rallying-cry: "The evangelisation of the
world in this generation". It was the beginning, too, of
the modern ecumenical movement.

The Melbourne conference was convened under the theme
"Your Kingdom Come". There were four sub-themes: (i)
Good News to the Poor ("To what extent are the struggles
of poor people for subsistence, for freedom, for human dignity,
for security, signs of the coming of the Kingdom?") (ii)
The Kingdom of God in Human Struggles (Here there are five contexts
for discussion – countries struggling for liberation and self-determination,
or where governments grossly violate human rights, or where there
is a strong revival of institutional religions, countries with
centrally planned economies, and finally countries dominated by
consumerism and the growth of big cities) (iii) The Church Witnesses
to the Kingdom (the church’s evangelistic role expressed in worship
and sharing) and (iv) The Crucified Christ Challenges Human Power.
(The theme "Your Kingdom Come" is about power – God’s
power – which is saving and humanising, and rejects the glory
and wisdom of this world).

When we pray in the "Lord’s Prayer" Your
Kingdom Come, to what was Jesus referring? The phrase "the
Kingdom of God" (or its equivalent "the Kingdom of Heaven"
which Matthew especially uses for reasons of reverence) occurs
103 times in the first three gospels. It’s really the major theme
there.

The Kingdom is a gift of God, which we accept or
reject. Earlier in this century Christians thought they could
"bring in the Kingdom" as a kind of Utopia. They had
an optimistic notion of inevitable progress. Helmut Thielicke
preached on this phrase in the choir area of a church building
that had been reduced to pitiful ruins in air raids. He says,
in The Prayer that Spans the World: "We must not think of
it as a gradual Christianisation of the world which will increasingly
eliminate evil. Such dreams and delusions have vanished in the
terrors of our man-made misery." No, the Kingdom of God is
not a secular kingdom which man brings in by his efforts.

On the other hand, other Christians believe that
God’s kingdom hasn’t got much to do with this world at all. "Your
Kingdom Come" means for them a wistful longing for a new
age, or heaven, or a life which moves to a happier goal after
death. Or else, for some, it’s a 1000-year reign of Christ on
this earth.

For the Jews of Jesus’ day, the phrase meant something
else again. The zealots believed the Kingdom of God would be inaugurated
by heroic violence, when the Romans would be thrown out of their
country – God’s country – by force. Jesus wrestled with this temptation,
and one of His disciples was called Simon the Zealot. Today there
are "Christian zealots" who believe that violence and
bloodshed in wars against godlessness are inevitable. John Huxtable
describes them as "trigger-happy in the cause of righteousness."

The Pharisees also detested Roman tyranny, and said
the Kingdom of God would come when His people kept His law perfectly.

But there were some faithful people – like Anna and
Simeon – who had a different view. Their piety was warm and eager
– not violent like that of the Zealots, or legalistic like that
of the Scribes and Pharisees. Simeon and Anna believed God would
act to bring in His kingdom, and saw this fulfilment in a baby!

Right at the beginning of Mark’s gospel Jesus came
preaching "Good News from God". "The right time
has come," He said, "and the Kingdom of God is near!"
He was really saying to His fellow-Jews: "OK, you’ve wanted
it; you’ve yearned for it; you’ve prayed for it; you’ve wondered
if it would ever happen. Right! It’s happening now. It’s time!
The Kingdom of God has come upon you. It’s here – within you,
among you!"

Jesus was actually proclaiming Himself as the King.
The great day had dawned – in Him!

Well, what are people to do? Go for their swords
– or their law-books? No. "Turn away from your sins and believe
the Good News!"

You see, the "Kingdom of God" isn’t geographical
– like the United Kingdom. The real meaning of the phrase in the
Bible is rather the "kingship" of God, the "reign"
of God, God ruling in the lives of His subjects. It’s doing what
our Lord and King wants us to do.

Well, what’s that? Is it being sorry for our sins,
and asking Christ to forgive us, then abstaining from things like
gambling and smoking? Unfortunately many "evangelicals"
have seen Kingdom-behaviour in these purely moralistic terms.
For Jesus, the Kingdom was much more than that. Is it, as our
WCC friends have emphasised, an attack on the injustices of our
world, against the oppressive structures that inhibit certain
people’ liberation? Yes, but it’s much more than that, too. Some
people pray "Your Kingdom Come" with folded hands. Others
pray it with a placard in a protest march. One emphasises faith,
the other works. One’s relationship is more vertical, the other
horizontal. One pietistic, the other radical.

In Mark 10:13-31 there are two stories which illustrate
Jesus’ holistic view of the kingdom. For Mark it was important
for these two stories to be placed together. First, Jesus blesses
the children – a passage which has been called the Magna Carta
or Bill of Rights for children everywhere in the world – their
right to be appreciated, and loved and cared for and valued highly.
The disciples thought Jesus needed to be protected from these
bothersome kids. But Jesus got angry with them – really mad, according
to the strong Greek word. He said it’s the other way around: children
need protection from stupid adults. So He says to the adults:
"Don’t stop them. Get out of the kids’ way. Let them come
to Me!" Jesus and children were made for each other. He must
have had a kind face, and a welcoming attitude: and kids respond
to that. They know when they’re loved, and when they’re not. George
MacDonald once said that he for one doesn’t accept a man’s Christianity
if the children are never to be found playing around his door.
The thing adults must never do, Jesus says, is to live in such
a way that children are prevented from coming to Him. What an
awesome ministry parenting is!

But He went further: "The Kingdom of God belongs
to such as these." "Whoever does not receive the Kingdom
of God like a little child will never enter it." What did
He man? Yesterday I conducted some research into this, at my daughter
Lindy’s sixth birthday party. Children are uncomplicated and frank.
They love simple joys (running relays around a hall hitting a
balloon!) They don’t hide their emotions, like adults are supposed
to do. When one little girl got trodden on, she bellowed! When
Lindy walked into the wall in blind man’s buff and hurt her nose,
she let us know! When kids want to eat, they tell you; when they
want to sleep, they drop off to sleep. When they want love, they’ll
run into your arms. When they have a question, they ask you. They
tell you what they think ("Gee, you’ve got a big nose!")
They have a beautiful imagination and sense of wonder. We were
driving down an avenue once and one of our kids said: "Look
how the trees are kissing each other!" Children are humble
and teachable. They recognise their need of adult help. They are
dependent little people. They feel secure when they are trusting
grown-ups who can cope better than they can. When a loving adult
asks a child to do something, the child’s natural instinct is
to obey (yes, you heard that right – and I’ve been a schoolteacher!)
Children haven’t yet learned to be proudly independent. They accept
authority – indeed they need loving, firm authority for their
security. Children have confidence in others – which means that
they will make friends with perfect strangers. And, finally, children
have a short memory – they haven-t yet learned to bear grudges
and harbour bitterness. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is populated
with those who have these traits.

But then there’s a contrasting story, about a "rich
young ruler" (Matthew and Luke tell us he was a wealthy aristocrat).
Imagine it! This privileged man "who had everything"
actually runs to a penniless peasant prophet and falls at his
feet. He was probably a man about town (he was a synagogue ruler),
a community leader, and a "winner". He’d made a lot
of money, had climbed to the top of his profession, and was highly
thought of by everyone. But obviously he’d found himself asking:
"Is this all there is to life? Is there nothing more to look
forward to? Do I have to spend the rest of my days with boring,
plastic, but so-called successful – and yet empty – people?"
Perhaps he’d heard Jesus talking about being like a child to enter
the kingdom and was asking "Well, how do you do it?"
He had some of the right qualities: he was direct, and apparently
teachable. So Jesus asks: "Are you obedient?" "Yes
– from childhood," he replies. Jesus could have said, "Are
you keeping something from me?" but He didn’t. Jesus accepted
his response, and looked at him with love. Then the crunch: "Do
you have a child-like obedience? Go, sell all you have, give the
money to the poor … and come, follow Me."

Poor rich man. He needed his money to give him security,
to eliminate risk and uncertainty from his life. For this man
going and selling and giving would have freed him to be a member
of the Kingdom. Every person has to give up some selfish thing
to enter the kingdom. It may – or may not – be wealth (Jesus didn’t
give the same instructions to Nicodemus or Zaccheus). Idolatry
is working for – worshipping – anything that is not God. When
money becomes an "end" rather than "means"
then such materialism is deadly and destructive. Affluence creates
a concern for secondary values. It destroys one’s teachability.
It enslaves. Riches are "deceitful", creating illusions
that are unreal, and emotional deprivations that are often worse
than material poverty …

To whom does "God’s Kingdom come"? To those
with childlike humility and trust. And whose concern is for radical
obedience to Christ the King, and the alleviation of others’ needs.
A member of the Kingdom believes in Christ and commits himself
to his Lord and King forever. But this is also a "belief
that behaves …!"