The Gospel of the Kingdom in 21st-Century America

Book excerpt: In His parables, Jesus referred to the Gospel as seed and, in so doing, sought to present features of this good news and the manner in which it needed to be received. The seedbed, of course, is the human heart. People need to hear the message of the Christ and embrace it by faith and, in so doing, allow it to grow within their soul, letting it become an informing influence in their lives. Yet this seedbed already has vegetation growing within it. From infancy, we're taught how to get along in this world in which we live, how to understand our surroundings, how to avoid harm, how to make our way into adulthood and benefit from our various activities.Our existence is defined through our interaction with other people; our families and our communities teach us how to understand the world around us. We learn what is considered good and what is considered bad. In complex societies, basic values may be contested, but even in this complexity, there are certain fundamental beliefs that are embraced by most members of a particular society.All these features pertaining to our surroundings are referred to as culture. The culture works to define us, and all who are part of our culture are defined in similar ways. When the Gospel is presented within any culture, it may share some common elements within that seedbed, but it will also invariably conflict with that culture because at its core, it is unique. And its uniqueness will work to challenge the people within that culture to choose the Gospel over what they have absorbed from their surroundings.The focus of this discussion is to consider how the good news, the Gospel, is understood and embraced in American culture today, in the twenty-first century, and to investigate how it may be being distorted or its power diminished by some of the ideas that are prevalent in today's society.Cover Design by Rebekah Jenkins