Stephen Hawking wants to explain everything. The astro-physicist, best known for his work with black holes, longs to build a scientific theory called the Unified Field Theory. If ever fully constructed, this theory would encompass the entire universe and pull together all of the knowledge of science and humanity. This, of course, is not a new attempt. In fact, this is what philosophers have been trying to do for ages--to create a theory or system which explains and unifies everything. But scientists and philosophers alike have become only more frustrated in their quest for such an over-arching explanation. If one traces the flow of philosophy, it might even be said that the philosophers have given up on this quest and, after centuries of defeat, have taken up a different set of questions. Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and other scientists who have tried their hand at this have been no more successful. When I heard Stephen Hawking speak in 2000 about his search, what I heard was a man in despair.

We have previously seen that Jesus came to establish God's reign in this world through his life, death and resurrection. He teaches us this important truth in the Gospels, especially in the stories of the Gospels that we call the parables. We will look a little further into this truth as our story continues to unfold.

THE TIME FOR DECISION IS RIGHT NOW

Jesus' stories urged people to recognize that the time of crisis was upon them. (This was true in several ways, especially given the political and social context of his time and the fall of Jerusalem that would come in A.D.70.) The signs of the times are not difficult to grasp. People can see that a forceful wind, a coming weather pattern, and a budding fig tree, all point to something urgent and obvious. Why is it that his reign is not grasped by those who should pay attention to the numerous signs? To live as if things will always be the same is to not prepare for the night burglar. It is to collect great wealth and believe that such possessions will protect me in the day of death.

In the first installment of this series of articles we saw that the central question posed by the ministry of Jesus had to do with the reign of God. Jesus came to make that which was wrong right, to bring the victory of Yahweh. He began a redemptive process, through his death and resurrection, which will culminate in the final manifestation of his kingdom at the end of this age. We are living in the already part of this kingdom. The not yet, or the final expansion and expression of that kingdom, is still to come. This should fuel optimism in an age of Western moral confusion and growing pessimism. The story is not over. The final chapter will yet be written and it will be glorious when it is.

The theme of the kingdom, and thus of God's reign on earth, specifically works itself out in story form in the New Testament. This happens in a number of literary genres but it is most clear in the parables that Jesus tells in the synoptic Gospels. I believe that these stories should form our core vision of the reign of God and therefore they should powerfully inform how we understand what Jesus is doing in this present age.

Last week I wrote about the problem of reductionism. I argued that reduction itself is a necessary part of our being human, thus it does not necessarily need to be a problem for faithfulness to the message and work of Christ. But it can easily become a problem precisely because of our sinful human desire to control the message and all things associated with it. This leads to what Nietzsche called "the will to power." We may reject much of what the radical anti-Christian philosopher had to write, but in this case he is more often right than wrong.

I received an astute email recently. "Dear Dr. Jones," it began, "you make a big distinction between monism and theism, between understanding God as the divine force within the world over against God as the transcendent Creator above it. But it seems to me," continued the note, "that Jesus was a monist, because he says quite clearly in Luke 17:21, 'the kingdom is inside of you.'"