Kingdom of God, Insurgency of God, Party of God, The Eco-system of God, The government of God, the dance of God...

Jesus is born into a context of Roman occupation and the responses of the various groups such as the Pharisees, Essenes, Herodians and Zealots. Jesus offers a new way that he calls 'The Kingdom of God'. Jesus invites everyone into this group and doesn't isolate like each of the other groups.

*Jesus is baptised by John who was an Essene and also interacts with John's disciples.

*Jesus meets and interacts with Zachaeus, a tax collector working for Roman government (Herodian). Jesus brings the kingdom of transformation to this mans life.

*In John Jesus speaks with Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish group the Pharisees. Jesus teaches him about the Kingdom of God and the need to be born again. Nicodemus was eager to learn. When he didn't understand, he kept asking questions until he did reach some kind of understanding. He needed to question his own pre-existing beliefs and thoughts.

*In his group of follows Jesus has a Roman collaborator in Matthew and a zealot in Simon.



Jesus' life should give us an example for how to do church. How do we live out the Kindom of God? How do we interact with those who we disagree with and those we keep our distance from? (And those are just the Christians!)As we live in this way the Kindom of God begins to increase.

But what if we broaden our horizons? How do we interact with...

Freedom

Been thinking a wee bit about marriage today and pondering if marriage mirrors in any way the freedom we have in Christ. (Interestingly, Catholics, Orthodox believers and Anglicans all believe that Marriage is a sacrament.) The sacraments and ceremonies of the Church should lead us to a place of freedom, rather than of shame and guilt.

If it marriage does fulfil this role, isn't it interesting that freedom comes not when we are alone, but when we are committed and connected with others. Consequently we become vulnerable and we are open to being hurt. Is there freedom in our pain and vulnerability?

Naturally you would think we are free when we have no commitments and no ties. But rather the opposite is true we are truly free when we are in community with others.