The excerpt below is from my latest book Subversive Kingdom. You can now also follow the book on Twitter @LiveSubversive.
Yes, the kingdom of God has its secrets. But like everything else about the kingdom, Jesus doesn't deal with these the way most secrets are handled. He doesn't keep them to himself, hushing them into silence to keep from being overheard. Instead, he shares them generously and plentifully--even with his enemies--like seed thrown out by a farmer. They're not secrets because they're hidden; they're secrets because they're a mystery, shrouded to both the world and the disinterested religious, yet able to be grasped by any believer who's truly hungry to hear.
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For too many and for too long, we've reduced Christianity to a moralistic philosophy of life--do this, go to church, don't do that. Yet it's so much more. The kingdom of God has broken and is breaking into the world. We have been transferred into it and made to be a part of its work. Yet many are satisfied with steeples and pews and songs to keep us happy, rather than being a part of the work of the kingdom.
Maybe it's just that we have become distracted. Our focus in church has become too much like a carousel, with lights and music that keep us upbeat but ultimately going around in a circle. Life in the kingdom is so much more. Yet many miss out. I've missed out.
I'm reminded of this statement by C. S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
So it is for us. We are far too easily pleased with religion rather than the reign of God. We are far too pleased with the comforts of the church rather than the work of God's kingdom. And in doing so, we are missing the blessing of being part of something that is so much more than a moralistic philosophy of life.
Lots of us have been there. We all know the feeling. But if you don't want to be looking the other way when God has kingdom plans for you, if you refuse to alter your religious calendar and connections in order to engage with people's true needs in culture, or if you're tired of being more at home in the sinful world than actively subverting it, then come back and be part of an underground movement to overthrow the oppressors of God's lost children.
It's no secret this is where you belong.
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