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The kingdom of God

Authors:

Rees, Bryn Austin

Themes:

Scriptures:

Leviticus 13
Leviticus 14:13
2 Samuel 9
Psalms 29:9
Isaiah 42:7
Matthew 10:7
Matthew 12:28-29
Matthew 13:31-32
Matthew 13:43
Matthew 23:23
Matthew 4:23-24
Matthew 5:3
Matthew 8:2-4
Matthew 9:10-13
Mark 1:14-15
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 2:15-17
Mark 4:26-32
Luke 10:9
Luke 11:20-22
Luke 11:42
Luke 12:31-33
Luke 12:32
Luke 13:18-21
Luke 14:15-24
Luke 15:1-2
Luke 17:11-19
Luke 17:20-21
Luke 4:18-19
Luke 5:12-14
Luke 5:29-32
Luke 6:20
Luke 7:34
Acts 16:17
Acts 19:8
Acts 28:31
Acts 8:12
Romans 14:17
Romans 5:8
1 Corinthians 15:28
1 Corinthians 4:20
Galatians 3:18-22
Galatians 4:7
James 2:5

Book Number:

The kingdom of God
is justice and joy,
for Jesus restores
what sin would destroy.
God’s power and glory
in Jesus we know;
and here and hereafter
the kingdom shall grow.

2. The kingdom of God
is mercy and grace;
the captives are freed,
the sinners find place,
the outcast are welcomed
God’s banquet to share,
and hope is awakened
in place of despair.

3. The kingdom of God
is challenge and choice:
believe the good news,
repent and rejoice!
His love for us sinners
brought Christ to his cross:
our crisis of judgement
for gain or for loss.

4. God’s kingdom is come,
the gift and the goal;
in Jesus begun,
in heaven made whole.
The heirs of the kingdom
shall answer his call,
and all things cry glory
to God all in all.

The Gospel - Invitation and Warning

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Tunes

Tetherdown
Metre:
- 55 55 65 65
Composer:
- Barnes, Gerald Linton
Hanover
Metre:
- 55 55 65 65
Composer:
- Croft, William

The story behind the hymn

The theme of God’s kingdom is found in many hymns, but nowhere so fully as this. In one of the most widely-acclaimed of late-20th-c hymns, Bryn Rees has brought a great many NT facets of the kingdom into his verse, most of them from the first 3 (synoptic) Gospels. Stz 3 clearly reflects the first preaching of Jesus in Mark 1:14–15, while the opening suggests Romans 14:17 and the close picks up Psalm 29:9. Written in 1973, it appeared first in the Baptist supplement Praise for Today (1974), and few major books now omit it. One change now usually made is at 2.3, where ‘the lepers are cleansed’ is replaced by ‘the captives/prisoners are freed’; cf 703 stz 3 and note.

TETHERDOWN was composed for this hymn and first appeared with it in PFT. The composer Gerald Barnes was once the organist, and the author the minister, of Tetherdown Congregational Church (now URC) in Muswell Hill, N London. The words were shown by the minister to his organist, hoping for a new tune; GB duly obliged, and his music now appears in several books. Some, however, have found the temptation to use the alternative HANOVER (104) too great to resist; a third possibility is 512.

A look at the author

Rees, Bryn Austin

b Chelsea, W London 1911, d Epping, Essex 1983. His family moved to the manse at Neath, S Wales, in 1912, so he attended Neath Grammar Sch; then trained for the Congregational ministry at Hackney and New College, N London. He was ordained in 1935, and ministered in churches at Sawbridgeworth (Herts, 1935–40), Ipswich (Suffolk, 1940–45), Felixstowe (Suffolk, 1945–50), then Muswell Hill (N London, 1950–62), Woodford Green (Essex, 1962–72) and Epping (1972–76), where he remained active in retirement. He was also an RAF chaplain. Among his writing was a cantata, The Saviour. Rejoice and Sing includes 3 of his hymns, two of which (with a 3rd) are in Praise!; Of these, 672 and 758 (the latter appearing in Congregational Praise 1951 and GH etc) have come into wide use. Nos.380, 672, 758.