When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, he was talking about an utterly different way of relating to human society as we know it. He was talking about a new world order, a term recently on the lips of politicians. What a false sense of the term they have used, contends popular preacher and author Richard Rohr in his lastest book to challenge contemporary Christians. “I doubt that ay major political leader would align a new world order in terms of cooperation, trust, service and redemptive suffering”, writes Rohr. “For all the talk of a new world order, it’s simply the old world order. The ‘New World Order’, or the ‘Reign of God’, is the heart of the New Testament”.
A lot of issues in the New Testament are eternal issues, writes Rohr in the introduction. “We create incredible misunderstanding by reading and interpreting the text without understanding its context. By digging into the world of understanding Jesus and his times, we find the New Testament to be a far richer source of spiritual life than we could ever have imagined”.
Rohr and John Bookse Feister explore the Gospel According to Matthew and delve into the Sermon on the Mount, considered the blueprint of the Christian life-style. They emerge with a clear understanding of the Nazorean rabbi who preached it and the Gospel writers, especially Matthew, who passed it on to us. The secret to understanding the Sermon on the Mount, says Rohr, is to understand what Jesus was about when he preached it. “This book is as much about ready to hear the Sermon as it is about the Sermon itself.”