I'm still down here in Vero Beach speaking to the people at COI about things like, "what is discipleship?" and "what did Jesus mean when he talked about the kingdom?"  Next is a trip to Indiana to see my son Seth graduate.  So here are a few more thoughts on the kingdom:

So, we can sometimes take this great overarching concept whose value in personal terms is like a treasure, or a pearl, a kingdom that has the pervasive impact of yeast, one that starts small and insignificant like a seed, yet which keeps growing until it is a tree; we can take this amazing spiritual reality and anthropomorphize it, reducing this big buffet of a concept down to a thin gruel.

Sometimes pastors in churches I've attended have used the Old Testament concept of the "storehouse" to explain the ten percent tithe, like it's a system, (in the worst cases, a system primarily for paying pastoral salaries). But the only "system" we're given in the New Testament is the example of the believers in Acts 2:44-45 where "they sold their possessions and goods and gave to anyone as he had need." They inaugurated a new covenant where the priesthood included every believer.

Jesus takes the storehouse concept and stands it on its head, saying that pastor-teachers who have been taught about the kingdom of heaven are like owners of a house who bring out of their storehouse new treasures as well as old. (Matt. 13:52)

Every now and then you'll see a group of believers experiment with this spiritual dynamite. Joe Smith of Valdosta, Georgia, started a fellowship where the members do this. There's no one pastor and no 10% tithe. But every time they see a need, the believers pool their funds and meet it.

Jesus was a radical. His gospel was a radical one. His followers were radical. Being a kingdom "Christian" is a radical business - we look foolish to the world.