Kingdom violence: WWSD?

Here is audio of a message I gave several years ago at a home gathering on an intriguing text:

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,
and the violent take it by force."  Matthew 11:12

...at least, that's  how the NRSV styles it.

One of the  several  "gnotty" issues with this text is that translations take it in several different...even contradictory... ways.

Of course, "Whatsup with the violence here?" must be tackled.  How do we deal with the violence in the text without doing violence to the text?

This was

my  somewhat successful tab at looking at this text sans versitis, catching the context,  giving midrash  a voice in the mix, and throwing out a working interpretation of a tough text.

One thing I do here,  as I have done for some time now--even in much more formal "sermons"-- is letting the saints speak.. so Kevin,  Ivana, Scott, St John,

 Bobby, Sonya and Keltic Ken et al drop into the message vital points that would have been missed had I just been the talking head.

I love open source/open sores church.