The Kingdom of God is a concept I’ve been struggling to understand more fully for over a year. That was not the first I had heard of this phrase; I’d heard it in various prayers for years, but until very recently, I, like a lot of other Christians thought it was just a “churchy” way of saying “heaven”, which in turn, to me, was where I hoped for my soul to reside when I died.
My understanding began to change about a year and a half ago, when virtually simultaneously I began participating in a Bible Study and joined a book club, and continued to change when this year (2010) I began teaching a Bible study on the book of Acts in Sunday School and started reading another book. The Bible study in which I was a participant was on the gospel of Luke; the book club selection was “Everything Must Change” by Brian McLaren; the Bible study Sunday School was on the Book of Acts of the Apostles and the other book is “The Secret Message of Jesus”, also by Brian McLaren.
In reading interpretations of what Jesus was trying to get across in his many teachings, my understanding of what the Kingdom of God meant changed dramatically. I now believe that the Kingdom of God is not just in heaven. The Kingdom of God is also here and now. It is more a set of strongly held beliefs and values of people who believe Jesus calls us, while we are living, to be more like him, not just to know more about him. McLaren, in both of the books I have mentioned above, says that the Kingdom of God is a new kind of force – a counterforce to all evil human regimes. A new kind of spirit, the Holy Spirit is entering people and forming them into a healthy, loving, gentle and kind community that seeks not to grow through political power or influence, but rather to grow through inclusion, shared consideration of the poor, homeless, oppressed people who are either left out of most traditional human governmental regimes or at least not listened to. Those who are “of the Kingdom of God” are those in whom the Holy Spirit is working and in whom glimpses of Jesus can be seen. They follow Jesus’ two great commandments – to love the Lord with all their heart, all their soul and all their might, and to love their neighbors, including their enemies, as themselves. They believe that when Jesus said in the Beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, etc., he was telling us not only that he will bless these people, but also that we are to look after those who are too often left behind. Later in chapter 25 of the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells about the Final Judgment and tells how at that time Jesus comes in his glory, he will separate the people in to “the righteous” and “the unrighteous”, and tell “the righteous” that they are blessed and will inherit the kingdom of God, because “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” When the people said to Jesus that they had never seen him hungry, thirst, as a stranger, or in prison, Jesus responded to them: “…whatever you did for the least of one of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” In the minds of many, including me, it is very clear that the Beatitudes are a code of conduct for all believers.
Why has this concept been misunderstood so long? McLaren believes that the Kingdom of God as I am trying to explain it, is not just a message of Jesus, but rather is the core message of Jesus. One possible explanation for the misunderstanding could lie in the fact that this concept is not spelled out this way anywhere in the Bible or in any of Jesus’ sayings. Rather the explanation is always vague and, like Jesus’ use of parables, it could be that Jesus did not want to spell out this important message; he wanted us to have to think, so as better to internalize it. It stands to reason that the Kingdom of God is where God resides, i.e., in heaven. If that is the case and if Jesus came to save us from our sins, it must be so that we, once saved, will reside with God in heaven when we die. But, remember, when Jesus came to Earth, things were in a shambles – wars, occupations, retaliations, people who didn’t know whom to trust. What if Jesus while on Earth wanted to create a spiritual revolution, a “new world”, where people lived and loved and cared for one another and did not participate in “redemptive violence” when someone did them harm. (Most people consider the USA’s retaliation after 9/11 an example of redemptive violence.) The Kingdom of God does not grow through hatred, but love; not through war, but peace; not through revenge, but through forgiveness.
McLaren also suggests that many religious leaders of today just get caught up in some of the clearer parts of Jesus’ message, celebrate Jesus in ritual and art and teach about Jesus in songs, hymns and sermons. They just miss some of the less clear aspects of Jesus’ life and message. He even suggests that perhaps Jesus did not want to spell out what he meant by the Kingdom of God, so that people would have to dig to get to the real message.
But obviously some people have “uncovered” what they think is a secret message of Jesus. What were the clues? One very clear clue, when you realize it, comes from the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught the people of his day. Early in the Lord’s Prayer, we say “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven”. Traditionally the coming of God’s Kingdom was seen as a divine gift to be prayed for, not a human achievement. But in this phrase, it is clear that Jesus is extolling us to bring God’s kingdom to Earth, as it already exists in heaven.
And if the Sermon on the Mount was indeed a code of conduct for all believers, then he is telling us that not only does he bless those who are too often left behind, but that we are to look after those who are too often left behind.
Finally, in Jesus’ parable of the weeds, parable of the mustard seed and parable of the yeast, he is trying to explain the “kingdom of heaven”, which is a synonym for “kingdom of God” (see Matthew 13:34, 31 and 33). In each case the parable begins “The kingdom of heaven is like …” and in every case his analogy pertains to humans still living, not humans after they get to heaven.
So,what does it mean to live in, be in, the kingdom of God? It means for me that I am doing what God/Christ is calling me to do. It means that God calls me to love, to comfort, to nurture, to heal those that we too often are told by others of us are the least of us – those who mourn, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the down-on-their- luck and those who are persecuted for their righteousness. Because, when I do these things, God is pleased with me, here and now. It is at these times that I am most fully in communion with God and Christ. I am “in heaven” even before I die. It is at these times that I am resurrected from what I had been before and now have cast aside. I am changed from one who sought those human, temporal desires of more money than I need, more sex than I need (but not more love than I need), more influence or power or good reputation than I need, and do what God/Christ call me to do.
But when I don’t do what God calls me to do, when I don’t love my neighbor, including my enemy, as myself, then I am not loving God with all my heart, my mind and/or my soul. I am not in communion with God, I am not “in heaven”. And if that is the case, and it is, I know that when I think of my ex son-in-law as evil, when I don’t want him around me or any of my family, when I don’t believe he has or ever will be changed, I am not doing what God is calling me to do – I am not in heaven. But when I start believing that he is a child of God, who can change his evil ways, but who needs love, including my love (or at least my prayers) and that it is those bad things that he does that are evil, not himself, then I will be more fully in communion with God.
So,what is going to happen to me when I die? I don’t know and perhaps I can’t fully know. I think that it might mean that I will be remembered by God as one who tried to live in, be in, the kingdom of God while I was living. That might mean that when I die, I will still live in and be in communion with God - one who is loved by God for those things that I did that I was called to do, and forgiven for those things that I did that I was not called to do and for those things that I did not do that I was called to do. I can’t be perfect in life, but I can try to be good. I am trying to be good, and more nearly perfect today than I was yesterday.
One last note. I also believe that those who are “of the Kingdom of God” are more inclusive in their caring than just for other human beings. I believe and the Catechism of Creation for the Episcopal Church confirms that when God “gave humans dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,” dominion does not mean domination, but …the need for humans to take care of, and exercise responsibility for the Earth as God’s representatives.
What makes Earth such a special place that requires us to care for it? Through God’s love, Earth is the only known planet in the Universe or throughout billions of years that the Universe has existed that is able to sustain life as we know it. Therefore it is a very special place, obviously a small piece of the Universe that God holds dear. Throughout most of Earth’s existence, the planet was sustainable – its plants and animals evolved, lived in specific ecosystems and became extinct. In the last few million years humans have evolved . We no longer have limited ecosystems in which to live, we have the ability to think and reason and we have the ability to upset the sustainability of the planet. And we have done just that.
What does “created in the image and likeness of God” mean in relation to our obligation to care for the creation? In Genesis 2, human beings are given the garden to tend and serve, symbolizing our obligation to care for creation.” In the Book of Common Prayer, humans are called to exercise dominion over “this fragile Earth, our island home”. From Psalm 24:1 we are called upon to serve, and protect the Earth as a sacred trust and that one day we shall be called upon to give an accounting. The God who is Love unconditionally loves all of the creation and not merely us who are able to enter into a conscious relationship with God.” If God loves all of creation, we should as well.
What has science taught us about our relationship with the Earth and its other creatures? From the Catechism of Creation, “Science has taught us … (that) all creatures, including ourselves – every species… are genetically related (and that) all living beings are bound together in countless ecological communities of life. Therefore, when we exercise stewardship, we are caring for an Earth in which God has made everything interdependent. How we carry out this our primary vocation and ministry has great consequences for ourselves and for all of God’s creatures on this good Earth.”
Why is it difficult for humans to love the creation as God loves it? From the Catechism of Creation, “We humans have fallen into sin … and expressions of greed, lust for power, neglect, and a willingness to turn a blind eye work against the mandate to be good stewards and keepers of God’s good Earth. Economic, political, and social structures and processes can make this work difficult. But contrition, repentance, confidence in God’s forgiveness and the power of God’s grace … provide a pathway for carrying out Earth-keeping as a labor of love.”
To summarize, at least to this point, people who are “of the Kingdom of God” are those who are our brothers’ keeper and who are stewards of all living and the non-living components of God’ good Earth, treating the Earth and its inhabitants with dignity, love and peace.
