A Kingdom Picture

"The whole Sermon (on the Mount in Matthew 5-7) is not about how to be better individual Christians; it is a picture of the way the church is to look. The Sermon is . . . concerned with the end of things -- the final direction toward which God is moving the world."

"So discipleship . . . becomes extended training in letting go of the ways we try to preserve and give significance to the world, ways brought to an end in Jesus, and in relying on God's definition of the direction and meaning of the world -- that is, the kingdom of God."

(taken from Resident Aliens by Hauerwas & Willimon)