What then is the kingdom of God? Where is it found? It is found every time an offense is forgiven, every time a stranger is made welcome, every time an enemy is embraced, every time the least of us is lifted up, every time the law is made to serve justice, every time...
The Gospel must not only offer a personal salvation in the future life to those who believe; it must also transform all the relationships of life here and now and thus cause the Kingdom of God to prevail in all the world. from The Deeply Formed life: Five...
So what are we inviting ourselves and others into? For those who’ve been out for a while, what are we inviting them back to? ...When we can step out of our institutional concerns, reconnecting with the essence of our faith, we remember the Way of life to which Jesus...
You're all into the 'born-again' thing. And that's great -- Jesus said that to a man named Nicodemus, to enter the Kingdom of God you need to be born again. But if you tell me that I've got to be born again, I can tell you that you need to sell everything you have and...
Social justice is not the totality of the Gospel...but the Gospel without a commitment to neighbor, the vulnerable, justice, and the common good (aka social justice) is not a faithful Gospel. The Gospel not only saves but also pursues the Kingdom of God on earth as it...
One thing healthy religion does is challenge us. I don’t mean the strident castigations of the street preacher or even the social justice rally-er. Great traditions excel at the soft challenge, the friendly nudge, issued predominantly through the mode of story....
We must proclaim the truth that all life is one and that we are all of us tied together. Therefore it is mandatory that we work for a society in which the least person can find refuge and refreshment. . . . You must lay your lives on the altar of social change so that...
The stories of the Resurrection, as hard as they are for modern ears to comprehend, mean that the life Jesus lived and the project he pursued (the Kingdom of God) did not perish at the crucifixion, but continued in the lives of those who carried on what he had begun....
Jesus' procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city. Pilate's procession embodied the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus' procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God. This...
Salvation is personal, but this hardly needs emphasis... What does need emphasis is that Salvation in the Bible is also social. Ancient Israel's story is a story of the creation of a new people, a nation, a community. Salvation is about life together. Salvation is...