The people of Israel, once held captive by the Kingdom of Egypt, emerged to Sinai where they were declared to be a “kingdom of priests.” Later, in Jerusalem, a kingdom was declared: the Kingdom of Israel. Eventually this kingdom became the very oppressors they cried out from under, leading them once again to exile under the rule and reign of a foreign kingdom. As kings and kingdoms changed, the people of Israel found themselves back in their land but still under the rule of an occupied kingdom: Rome. It is in this context that a Rabbi emerges proclaiming that the “Kingdom of God” is at hand.
Jesus’ use of the word “kingdom” and the consequent phrases “Kingdom of God” or “Kingdom of Heaven” exist only within the evolution of a culture that was ruled by kings and a kingdom. From a kingdom that was built by David and Solomon to a kingdom that was split by Jeroboam and Rehoboam and Hezekiah to a kingdom that was lost in Babylon, Jesus proclaims a kingdom that has once again come. As Ladd says, “The Kingdom is God’s reign and the realm in which the blessing of [God's] reign are experienced” (119).
The Kingdom of God, then, is an idea that transcends the metaphorical nature of the language used to capture it. It is the democracy of God, the economy of God, the rule and reign of God in this world. This “Kingdom” is not the church, but rather the church is the instrument of the “Kingdom” or “democracy” or “economy.” The church a society of humanity, the instrument of the rule and reign of God.
The mission of the church, therefore, is to be the church. That is, to live in this kingdom/democracy/economy. The church is the body of Christ, the network of God, the commune of faith. And her mission is to be the “kingdom of priests” that she has always (and will always) be called to be, showing the world around who God is and what God is like.
