Advent 3: The Kingdom: Near or Here?

Isaiah 35.1-10
Psalm 146.4-9
James 5.7-10
Matthew 11.2-11

Think for a moment about your dreams, your hopes, your ambitions. Those of us who are older, think back to how you imagined your life – your future – when you were young. How did you imagine your life turning out? How did you imagine things turning out by the time you were thirty or forty or fifty, or even sixty? And now today, how often do you return to those dreams? Today are they still a source of excitement and encouragement; or do they point the accusing finger of disappointment and missed opportunity? Are they today dreams fulfilled or mere childhood fantasies, brushed aside yet quietly lamented? All of us carry with us memories of how we wanted our lives to turn out. We all have past constructions of a future which should have informed or be informing our present. There is in all of us a little bit of Scarlett O’Hara who, after the physical and emotional ravages of the American Civil War, when Ashley Wilkes comments that she’d hardly changed since before the whole ordeal began, says to him sadly, “That girl doesn’t exist anymore. Nothing’s turned out as I expected, Ashley. Nothing.”

When John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea he came not so much preaching a new message, but rather something quite old. He came reminding the Jews of the dreams they had had when they were a young people. He came in the shape and voice of the prophet Isaiah and brought to the communal mind that vision the prophet offered the Chosen people when they were a much younger people dreaming of a future beyond their captivity in Babylon. Isaiah helped them to dream of a future when “the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom” (Isaiah 35:1); when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; [when] the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (Isaiah 35:5-6); when the “ransomed of the Lord…shall obtain joy and gladness.” (Isaiah 35:10) In his person John brought all this to mind and called the people to task. In the midst of the Roman occupation, the oppression of absentee landlords and a collaboratist Temple hierarchy he reminded the people of their earlier years as a people, their dreams for the future and he pointed the accusing finger which asked the embarrassing question: ‘”What happened? What happened to the dream?” At the same time he proclaimed to the people that it was not all too late, that what had been envisioned by their ancestors was still possible, that it was still a future held out to them by God. He preached that the kingdom of God was near; yet while near it had not yet come; and he called people to conversion, metanioa, repentance, literally a turning around, a turning back to the vision that they had in their younger days. He was still very much in the cast of the prophet.

And then came Jesus who approached the whole thing in a completely new way. While John preached the imminent coming of the kingdom, the imminent realisation of the ancient dream, Jesus proclaimed that it was already here. In his words and actions, he encouraged the people to stop dreaming the dream and to begin to live it. He did not just talk about the ancient prophetic vision, but gave it hands and feet in his own body. So when John’s disciples come to ask Jesus if “he is the one who is to come” (interesting that they are still speaking in a future tense), Jesus responds by showing how he is living out the earlier vision right here, right now: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11.4-5) For Jesus there was no tomorrow, only today and today and today; and he would have agreed (at least on this point) with the apostle Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians: “now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Dreams for the future remain only ever dreams unless one day – today – someone – you – begins to live them. And Jesus did just that. Jesus consistently told parables about what living the dream was about and what it looked like – those parables about the Kingdom – but the fact was his whole life was a parable of the Kingdom. He didn’t talk about a future time of forgiveness, he forgave and he told others that they had to as well. He didn’t simply offer a vision of a future when the hungry would be filled, but he shared food as if there were enough and – lo and behold – there was; and he commanded his friends to do the same. He didn’t just preach about a future when all people would without division come to the mountain of God, but he lived that as a present reality, disregarding the social, religious, economic and political divisions which so characterised the world in which he lived, and he told others that if they wanted to be a part of the kingdom they had to live inclusively also. For Jesus, there was no future that was going to magically appear, but only one which must begin to be created and lived in the present.

John the Baptist preached a kingdom that, while coming very soon, was not here yet. Jesus lived a Kingdom that was already in existence, inherent in each of us and for which we must take responsibility: “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed;” he said, “nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among (or within) you.” (Luke 17.20-21) In a very real and practical sense, there is only now, there is only today. In fact, we can say that what is not being done today is never being done. Scarlett’s dream for her future self was someday to be like her mother: kind, compassionate, dutiful, a pillar of society. However, each time she encountered a crisis she dealt with it in a way which was hardly congruent with her dream, and each time she lamented it and brushed it aside: “I can’t think about that today. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” And at the end she has to admit that nothing’s turned out as she expected. Nothing. It is not enough to simply dream a dream or carry a hope of the future. Jesus’ life teaches us that the future begins now. Had there been no Jesus and only John, how far would the Kingdom movement have gotten? If all that had been done was a recalling of the ancient vision, would there be a Kingdom people today? Most probably, not. What are your dreams? What is your vision for a better life, for a better world? And what are you doing about it right now?

With the rest of his fellow Jews, Jesus shared a common vision for the future, the vision which the prophets had offered; but he didn’t just have some vague hope for tomorrow, he didn’t just believe a promise. He dared to live the vision, he dared to stop waiting for tomorrow, but instead to begin to live as if tomorrow, with its vision and promise had already arrived. For him the Kingdom was not simply near, but it was here. What you would you do, what would we do, if we actually believed that too?