The Kingdom of God and Rove McManus

 

by Colin Stoodley

Have you ever heard people speak of the Kingdom of God? This is not the time to explain it in full, but Jesus spoke about it all the time. He was always telling stories to try and explain what it looked like? I’ve been wondering what He’d say now if He was trying to explain it in practical terms. What would He say? When He did share the earth with us, He spoke of the Kingdom in parables – stories with a meaning. He used stories about treasures, and fields and crops and trees and seeds. But I’ve been wondering what stories He might use now? What does God’s character and nature in action look like?

I have a modern story that explains what the Kingdom is like. It’s a modern example by someone who is not a committed follower of Christ. The reason I have chosen this is that the Kingdom of God can be expressed by anyone because it is founded on clear and transferable principles that work for anyone who applies them. This is so because God really loves everyone and not just those who believe and do right! The Scriptures include people who made no affirmation of faith in God – but they were still described as doing God’s will. A good example of this would by a King of Persia from centuries ago – the king who helped the people of God (Israel) go home after their exile, to their own land.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson.

Here’s an example of what the Kingdom of God is like explained in relational terms. Recently, most people in Australia were saddened to hear of the death of the actress and singer Belinda Emmett who was married to Rove McManus. She had battled cancer for some time and eventually succumbed to it. In the face of her illness and ongoing struggle with it, Rove and Belinda married after living together for some time. It was a story that captured the imagination of the nation and not just because of their profile, but because of what bound them together. We all hope for something like this – something amazing that goes beyond life and death.

In the expression of their relationship both before and after his wife’s death, Rove showed the Kingdom as it relates to relationships. He owned no Christian agenda and did not marry because he had to but because it reflected the fidelity he felt and owned for one woman. His behaviour was shaped by a deep commitment to her and even in the face of her illness and even death, he maintained it. He did so, not because he had to but because something within him was directing him – faithfulness – a Kingdom principle expressed in human relationships.

What we saw in their relationship was the covenant of faithfulness not made with human hands but with two human hearts that were actually expressing the Kingdom of God. Rove acted in line with anything Scripture has to say about relationships – that we commit ourselves to people and behave according to that commitment and nothing is ever allowed to change it.

Do you see what I mean? Christian divorce rates are almost as high as every other segment of the community. Why? Do we have marriage or the covenant of marriage? Can you have a covenant like this without faith in Christ?

Let me answer the last question first. Yes! We can and Rove is the proof of it.

You see the God we love is the God of all the nations and peoples. He is not only at work in people who believe and who go to church! What kind of arrogance is it that makes us think such things? He is at work in Rove and I know this because Rove kept the commitment to his wife through illness and death. He put aside what was convenient for something that was lasting. That is the Kingdom at work. That’s what it is like? That’s what it looks like in real life!

Marriage is only a technical fact. What must accompany a marriage is a covenant that holds us through changing circumstances. The Kingdom in relational terms expresses itself by deep fidelity and requires of anyone (not just believing and church going people) to live by the higher ideal of faithfulness rather than the more convenient self-centered moment. That’s what the Kingdom looks like relationally and it took a high-profile man in media to show us. I wonder whether anyone really noticed? Is it possible that people might have missed this? I think so. The Kingdom of God after all, is to be compared with a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds, but which grows and grows until the birds of the air come to rest in the branches of the tree that results.

Someone should tell Rove! Either way, we see in this matter through him, the seed of the Kingdom. God bless him for the Kingdom is near!