Telling It Like It Is: The Gospel of God’S Kingdom.

By Steven R. McClelland

I remember going to seminary thinking that I would find God there. But I didnt. I read peoples thoughts about God in books and wrote papers on their thoughts, but I never actually met God in seminary.

Where I met God was in my encounters with other people. Not really surprising when you stop to think of it. Of course, we are more apt to encounter God through other people because God incarnated as one of us in Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Consequently, it is through other people that we are most likely to catch a glimpse of God just as others encountered God in Jesus. Throughout the years of my ministry and life, that has been my continuing experience.

I have also met God through my own failures and losses, met God when I went through my divorce, even met God when I was in depression. God came to me through others who came to me and offered hope. But I never met God because of what someone else told me I should believe about God or in any doctrine about God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490782683

Steven R. McClelland

Steve McClelland born and raised in the Midwest has lived in Jersey since 1981. He and his wife Dotty have lived in Bergen County for nearly two decades. They have four beautiful daughters who are the delight of their lives. Steve describes his theology this way: “Some people see Jesus as a dogma to be defended or a theology to be espoused. I simply see Jesus as the one who marks my way, tells me the truth and offers me an abundance of life.” Steve enjoys photography, all things Apple, travelling, hanging out with family and friends. He enjoys talking about religion and politics - all the things that you are not supposed to talk about - he likes talking about. Steve is a third generation in his family to serve as a Presbyterian pastor, which according to his father, “demonstrates an incredible lack of imagination on his part. “

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Copyright 2017 Steven R. McClelland.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Scriptures were taken from the Revised Standard Version, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8269-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8268-3 (e)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter One

The Ambiguity Of The Kingdom

Chapter Two

The Kingdom Is Embodied By Jesus

Chapter Three

The Kingdom Is About Us

Chapter Four

The Kingdom Always Includes Others

Chapter Five

We Become Incarnational In The Kingdom

Chapter Six

The Kingdom Is About Healing

Chapter Seven

The Kingdom Involves Risk

Chapter Eight

The Kingdom Is About Transformation

Chapter Nine

The Kingdom Is Ultimately About Hope

Epilogue

Endnotes

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my father William Robert McClelland who saw in my sermons the making of this book. My mother Dorrine McClelland who has been a constant source of encouragement and belief in my calling as a pastor, my sister Christie who was the conduit between my father and myself while we worked on the manuscript. My sister Susan who wanted to see her name in print, my daughters Emily, Erin, Hannah & Rachel who are the pride of my life and Dotty, the love of my life, who helped me edit this book and who made it sound like me, and Carl Hagelin who proof read the book wit h me.

Lastly, but by no means least, I want to thank the people of the Flemington Presbyterian Church who taught me how to be a pastor and the First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack who healed me and helped me grow in wisdom! They have always been gracious and accepting of me and my ministry, and have shown me what the kingdom might look like – where the dividing walls between men and women, black and white, people from the east, west, north and south, from around the globe are being broken down.

FOREWORD

A bout a year ago my father asked me if I would conduct his funeral service. I didn’t even want to think about such an event but I told my Dad that I would do it. The more I thought about it, however, the more I got to thinking, Why save it? Why not say what I would say but say it so he could hear it first. That way, I figured, he can edit i t and add to it. And thus this Father’s Day sermon was born.

When I think about my father, he was the first deity in a line of many leading to the One that today we call, Abba. I suspect that this is the case for most boys - maybe for girls too, but I’m not qualified to speak on that. As men, our first experience with a god-like figure is with our fathers. My first memory of my father was as an orbiting figure who was more transcendent than he was imminent. My Mom was the more imminent figure in my life. If my mother was Emmanuel, my father was El Shaddai, God Almighty!

There was nothing better than Dad’s arrival home from work and nothing more to be feared if I had misbehaved. Just wait till your father gets home and hears about this. That is a refrain copyrighted by mothers who bore boys in the late 50s. Understandably, from this vantage point I learned about the fear of God which was, for me, really more a sense of awe than fright. Awed that this tall person, who seemed so big, important, and adored, was my father at the same time.

Of course, as I grew into adolescence, this same man would become the greatest Dorkator I had ever known.

Case in point: My freshman year in high school, when we were in Tampa, Florida lounging on the beach, I saw my father striding down the beach, wearing a white sailor’s hat with a blue stripe around it, a yellow Hawaiian-print shirt, and the loudest Bermuda shorts I’d ever seen. His feet were shrouded in dark black dress socks that came all the way up over his calf muscle, making a great distinction between the sun-starved-white of his legs and the blackness that lay below. This entire ensemble - calling for attention on the beach - was tied together by sandals with soles made from recycled tire-treads. Amazingly, it is out of such experiences that our image of God is formed. And only by the gift of divine grace.

Still, it was my father’s faith that became my faith. And I suspect that is the case for others as well. Most of us have inherited our parent’s faith.

One thing needs to be acknowledged before going further. In terms of truth telling it is important to say that while our fathers were our first image of God, they are not a perfect image of God because, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, we see in a mirror dimly. Nevertheless, it is that mirror - the image of our fathers and mothers - that creates the beginning of our faith story.

Mark Twain, speaking on behalf of all sons across the world said, When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in just seven years!

We spend the first years of our life wanting to be like our fathers, the teen years wanting to be anything but our fathers, and our adult years finding out who our fathers truly were - appreciating and forgiving them all at the same time. As my father likes to remind me: Son, I know it must keep you up at nights knowing that my DNA is in you. He’s right! But other thoughts also come to mind. Thoughts like Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad! After all, my father has been an ordained minister for over sixty years. Pretty cool. On the other hand, the thing that gives me pause is wondering why it took him so long to get it right. And will it take me that long to get it right too?

But, in all honesty, my father passed on to me a love of learning and a belief in the reality of God, not just a subject to be studied or discussed, but a reality worth risking your life on. He did this by being totally into it. He talked about God, thought about God, studied God, argued with God, asked others about God, shared his questions and his experiences of God, and even sinned boldly against God. In all of this I saw someone who lived his life in an intimate relationship with God and who took God seriously!

I’ve never seen anyone as trusting in God’s providential care as my father. He has staked his career, his life, and the lives of his family on it; and, I have to admit, so far he’s been right. From my father I experienced unwavering support when I went through my divorce. When dear friends wondered aloud with me that I might be ending my ministry in the Church, my father always counseled me to trust my gut and my faith, rather than my fear; and again, he was right! From my father I learned to take risks. Indeed, you can’t live life without taking risks. And I’ve seen him fail, fall flat, when sound judgment was clouded by the lure and the rush of gambling in the stock market. So I’ve learned from his mistakes. And I’ve seen him