The United Kingdom of God
by Terril D. Littrell, Ph.D.

The revolutionary news about Jesus Christ was that His Gospel was for all people. He proclaimed that the kingdom of god had come and that it was open to everyone. For the first time in human history came word of a "catholic" religion. For a Jew, this was a revolutionary thought because the Jewish person had no responsibility to non-Jews. Therefore, Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan as neighbor was revolutionary talk to pious Jewish ears (Luke 10:30-37).

In describing the kingdom, Christ used many comparisons, but perhaps the most memorable was the parable of the mustard seed. "What can we say the kingdom of God is like?. . . It is like a mustard seed which . . . is the smallest of all seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade" (Mark 4:31,32).

The Birds of the Air

The image is active: the tiny seed shrubbing forth and all the birds nestling in its shade. "The birds of the air" was a fairly common literary device used in Jewish literature of the first century to refer to non-Jews--the Gentiles. Christ declared that His religion was open to, and would be the salvation of, not merely the Jewish people, but all people. St. Paul, Christ's missionary to the Gentiles, summed it up rather neatly when he said to his converts in Galatia: "All baptized in Christ, you have all clothed yourself in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galations 3:27,28). One wonders if St. Paul's declaration of the end of distinction between "male and female" was not perhaps the first blow struck for women's equality in the church.

Our Present Concern

Yet this kingdom, this religion of Jesus Christ, as we see it at work in the world, is divided and at odds. We believers should give serious thought to this scandal of a divided Christendom. That Christianity, the kingdom of God, has split into hundreds of different persuasions is an affront to the integrity of Jesus Christ.

The word ecumenism has at least two different meanings. One denotes the organic union of two or more religious bodies. This sort of ecumenism may have run its course, however. The urge to merge is declining. The other use of "ecumenism" refers to good will, dialogue, and cooperation between two or more religious bodies or traditions. This kind of exumenism is generally admirable. Ecumenical efforts to defend religious liberty and church-state separation, for example, have been notably successful.

Even when religious bodies are so dissimilar that union could never be possible or when they hold positions that cannot be reconciled, there remain areas in which dialogue and cooperation are possible and desirable.

In our view, the ecumenical spirit means understanding, dialogue, mutual respect, and cooperation when possible. It does not mean the surrender of principle. By all means, let us continue to advance interfaith dialogue and cooperation, especially for the defense of our basic liberties.

Christian Unity is Important

The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world, and its very dividedness is a hindrance to its mission in that world. Christians have been given the gift of unity on one body of Christ so that we might witness to God's purpose of reconciliation for all creation. God desires the unity of the church. No one can be denied a place because of race, gender, disability or ethnic origin. The Holy Spirit gives to all in the church a variety of gifts so that if any are kept out, the whole body is deprived, and all suffer accordingly. But, no church has been fully obedient to this "criterion of faithfulness."

The Christian church has made progress in its pilgrimage toward inclusiveness, but there is still much more to be done, both within and between the denominations. The goal of covenant communion is a new community in Christ, in which differences are affirmed, accepted, and celebrated as gifts of God for the common good. Our denominations have never formally acknowledged each other as part of Christ's church. Through covenanting, we affirm that together we are the one church of Jesus Christ and are called to act accordingly.

Our denominations have not explicitly judged other communions to be less than Christ's church; however, we do, by our actions, give that impression. To "recognize" means to see in others what we believe ourselves to be: the true church of Jesus Christ. This element reminds us that we are all part of Christ's church and that together we are more fully the church than any of us are separately. That means taking the other with as much seriousness, trust, and responsibility as we take ourselves.

The reason this element is here is not to claim that any one of us is already the one church. Rather, it is to remind each other that all of us are part of Christ's church and that none of us needs to be "set right" by the other.

Claiming Our Unity in Faith

The Lord's supper "is a sign of the church's unity in Christ." But our divided practice today is a painful witness to our separation. How is it that we can remain divided despite the power and unity made real through this sacrament?

As Christians are unable or unwilling to celebrate the Eucharist todether, they are acting in contradiction to the gospel of unity. All who are baptized into Christ are members of Christ's ministry through the people of the one God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Worshipping together will show anew that the Christian community will be experiencing reconciliation. The present divisions of the churches is most visible through worship. The separated gatherings of the people of God, each in their own buildings with their own liturgies, is scandalous. To be united in worship is to be together at the very center of the church's life. God is calling for strong leadership today to bring us together. Are we listening?

In covenant communion the gospel will be proclaimed more credibly to the church and to the world because we will be living out a unity that God gave to us. When membership and ministry are one, when the Lord's table is open to the people of God from any church, when the joys and burdens of any church are experienced, then proclamation of the gospel will be that much stronger and persuasive to the world. Common action in mission and shared service to the world will grow out of the shared communion. The greater, visible unity will be a sign of God's redemptive work. That will be cause for celebration of how God unites all things in Christ.

The Work of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the ground of the church's unity (I Corinthians 12:32, Ephesians 4:3,4). This unity seems to have expressed itself primarily in sharing. The early Christians made a brief attempt at sharing their possessions, but problems arose, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-ll). They tried eating together as a form of remembrance, but Paul found the practice filled with hypocrisy and discrimination (I Corinthians ll:20-22). Only as they shared the Holy Spirit did they find themselves in one accord.

Ephesians declares, "There is one body and one Spirit . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all" (4:4-6). The power of the church is impossible without such unity, and there is no unity outside of the Holy Spirit.

The Rev. Terrill D. Littrell, Ph.D., is an educator and a United Methodist Church pastor. With over thirty-five years of experience in teaching and ministry, he is a positive, Biblical and evangelical minister who focuses on Christ crucified, risen, and coming again. Based on the Judaic model of acceptance and affirmation, he is a positive ecumenist in the best sense of the word, promoting an atmosphere in which Christians can grow and thrive together. Terrill and his wife, Chloe, live in Bluff City, Tennessee.

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