Your Kingdom
When I was much younger--I cannot say when I was little, since that time has never existed--I thought of God's kingdom as another term for heaven. However, I tend to think that there may be more to the kingdom than that. Besides, we have already delved into the heaven idea; we need to explore this word differently. A kingdom is a territory ruled over by a king, and God's territory is all of creation. So God's kingdom is everything. Still, there has to be something beyond place; without subjects, a kingdom is just a bunch of land, and that is the crux of this word. God's kingdom is made of God's people.
For me, it is akin to the distinction between a house and a home. A house is a place, a shelter from the elements, an area that is set up for living; a home is a place that is shared by a group of people who care about one another. Houses are material things; homes are emotional, spiritual things. We may care about particular things in our houses--a window looking out onto a crepe myrtle tree, the hand-crafted molding around the doors, a set of built-in shelves that hold our books and photographs--but it is usually not the things we truly care about, but rather the attachments we have made with those things. Think of George Bailey and the finial that will not stay attached to the bannister in his house in It's a Wonderful Life: George kisses the broken finial in his hand because of what it represents--his home, his place filled with family and love and memories. It is like that, I think, with God and His creation.
God has created a vast and wondrous miracle, from the subatomic level of quarks and muons to the vast and glorious canvases of galaxies; in between, He has created oceans and forests and deserts and caverns and grasslands and rivers. His creation is awe-inspiring on every level. But it is not the same without the people. Some might suggest that it would be better without the people, that the people ruin what God has created. But I cannot believe that God feels that way. God loves His creation, and that includes the people. God desires that His people connect with Him, that they acknowledge that they are citizens in His kingdom. It is what Christ's death and resurrection is all about. God wants His kingdom populated. God wants us.
We can extend the metaphor in a different direction if we want. We can look at churches and the church community. The word church can mean three very different, if still connected, things: it can mean the institution, it can mean the building, or it can mean the body of believers who gather together to worship. How we use the word depends upon the context of our comments, perhaps--or, more probably, how we use the word speaks to how we perceive the thing we are naming: we may all be talking about the same thing, using the same word, and yet we are all talking about something different. It becomes something akin to the adolescent American koans we create while thinking ourselves deep thinkers, such as "What if we all agree that the sky is blue, but what you see and call blue is what I see and call orange?" Semantics can be fun, but it can also be the heart of importance. The church, either big C or little c, is very much a product of how we see it.
However, that does not mean that God's kingdom is whatever we may decide to call it. God's kingdom is what He decides to call it, and I believe that He is concerned most with the people. We could dance around and around for several lifetimes trying to declare which people God is including, but that is not our concern. I, personally, believe that the mix is large and varied; I do not hold that only particular denominations or types or flavors of people are subjects in the kingdom--that would be way too human in scope. God's kingdom contains all of God's people.
The question, then, might be whether one has to acknowledge God and his kingdom to be a subject of that kingdom, somewhat akin to Arthur's encounter with Dennis in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Arthur, on his quest for holy grail, stops to speak with a couple of peasants who are harvesting peat. He reveals that he is Arthur, king of the Britons, to which Dennis and his companion object, stating that their community is an anarcho-syndalist commune (a collection of workers who govern themselves based on shared input and output). Dennis refuses to recognize Arthur as king, and Arthur becomes frustrated and angry with Dennis.
Fortunately, God does not rail against us when or if we ignore His sovereignty. Perhaps many of us would be better off were it so. If God would yell at us and slap us around to get our attention so we might realize His presence, we might pay more attention, we might appreciate our place in His kingdom. As it is, we are there, we are in the kingdom, but we have to acknowledge the kingdom of our own volition; we cannot expect that everyone will make this same realization--or even that everyone who does acknowledge the kingdom will comprehend it in the same way. Perception varies by the individual; we all see things in our own way.
When we look at anything, we look at it as we look at things--that is, we have our way of seeing and we notice things particular to us. If we look at our children, we see certain qualities or attributes that others will not see or understand. If we look at our home, we see and understand things because it is ours and we can see the big picture in ways that a person visiting for an hour or two never could. In the same way, God sees his kingdom in a way that we cannot begin to fathom, seeing things that are invisible to us. We have to try to see God's kingdom as He sees it, even though we never can achieve this. To appreciate the kingdom, to begin to understand it and to see our place in it, we have to try to look at it as God might. As humans, we tend to be a bit egocentric, we tend to see everything from where we stand; but, only by attempting to see the bigger picture can we transcend our selfish perspective.
If we can get beyond our perception and peek into God's perception, we can begin to see the truth of His kingdom. We might try to do this through empathy with our fellow subjects in the kingdom; however, even if we manage to see through another person's eyes--as enlightening as that experience might be for each of us--we would still be limited to a human perspective, and one human perspective at that; we cannot hope to see all the possible perspectives. Though we cannot truly see from God's perspective, we can move ourselves toward that. By immersing ourselves in the Word of God, we can begin to see as He sees--in glimpses and glimmers. By talking with God--whether we call the conversation prayer or meditation or time with God--we begin to see His perspective if we listen, just as we can begin to understand other people's points of view if we listen to what they say.
When all is said and done, we are all part of God's kingdom, whether we know it or not. The issue is whether we are an active part. We can strive to find our place in the kingdom and to discover our function. Most of us would never openly object that we are part of the kingdom, as Dennis did with Arthur; however, we have to be careful that we do not allow ourselves to sink to that level by ignoring our place and our function. Being Christian is not a passive endeavor.
For me, it is akin to the distinction between a house and a home. A house is a place, a shelter from the elements, an area that is set up for living; a home is a place that is shared by a group of people who care about one another. Houses are material things; homes are emotional, spiritual things. We may care about particular things in our houses--a window looking out onto a crepe myrtle tree, the hand-crafted molding around the doors, a set of built-in shelves that hold our books and photographs--but it is usually not the things we truly care about, but rather the attachments we have made with those things. Think of George Bailey and the finial that will not stay attached to the bannister in his house in It's a Wonderful Life: George kisses the broken finial in his hand because of what it represents--his home, his place filled with family and love and memories. It is like that, I think, with God and His creation.
God has created a vast and wondrous miracle, from the subatomic level of quarks and muons to the vast and glorious canvases of galaxies; in between, He has created oceans and forests and deserts and caverns and grasslands and rivers. His creation is awe-inspiring on every level. But it is not the same without the people. Some might suggest that it would be better without the people, that the people ruin what God has created. But I cannot believe that God feels that way. God loves His creation, and that includes the people. God desires that His people connect with Him, that they acknowledge that they are citizens in His kingdom. It is what Christ's death and resurrection is all about. God wants His kingdom populated. God wants us.
We can extend the metaphor in a different direction if we want. We can look at churches and the church community. The word church can mean three very different, if still connected, things: it can mean the institution, it can mean the building, or it can mean the body of believers who gather together to worship. How we use the word depends upon the context of our comments, perhaps--or, more probably, how we use the word speaks to how we perceive the thing we are naming: we may all be talking about the same thing, using the same word, and yet we are all talking about something different. It becomes something akin to the adolescent American koans we create while thinking ourselves deep thinkers, such as "What if we all agree that the sky is blue, but what you see and call blue is what I see and call orange?" Semantics can be fun, but it can also be the heart of importance. The church, either big C or little c, is very much a product of how we see it.
However, that does not mean that God's kingdom is whatever we may decide to call it. God's kingdom is what He decides to call it, and I believe that He is concerned most with the people. We could dance around and around for several lifetimes trying to declare which people God is including, but that is not our concern. I, personally, believe that the mix is large and varied; I do not hold that only particular denominations or types or flavors of people are subjects in the kingdom--that would be way too human in scope. God's kingdom contains all of God's people.
The question, then, might be whether one has to acknowledge God and his kingdom to be a subject of that kingdom, somewhat akin to Arthur's encounter with Dennis in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Arthur, on his quest for holy grail, stops to speak with a couple of peasants who are harvesting peat. He reveals that he is Arthur, king of the Britons, to which Dennis and his companion object, stating that their community is an anarcho-syndalist commune (a collection of workers who govern themselves based on shared input and output). Dennis refuses to recognize Arthur as king, and Arthur becomes frustrated and angry with Dennis.
Fortunately, God does not rail against us when or if we ignore His sovereignty. Perhaps many of us would be better off were it so. If God would yell at us and slap us around to get our attention so we might realize His presence, we might pay more attention, we might appreciate our place in His kingdom. As it is, we are there, we are in the kingdom, but we have to acknowledge the kingdom of our own volition; we cannot expect that everyone will make this same realization--or even that everyone who does acknowledge the kingdom will comprehend it in the same way. Perception varies by the individual; we all see things in our own way.
When we look at anything, we look at it as we look at things--that is, we have our way of seeing and we notice things particular to us. If we look at our children, we see certain qualities or attributes that others will not see or understand. If we look at our home, we see and understand things because it is ours and we can see the big picture in ways that a person visiting for an hour or two never could. In the same way, God sees his kingdom in a way that we cannot begin to fathom, seeing things that are invisible to us. We have to try to see God's kingdom as He sees it, even though we never can achieve this. To appreciate the kingdom, to begin to understand it and to see our place in it, we have to try to look at it as God might. As humans, we tend to be a bit egocentric, we tend to see everything from where we stand; but, only by attempting to see the bigger picture can we transcend our selfish perspective.
If we can get beyond our perception and peek into God's perception, we can begin to see the truth of His kingdom. We might try to do this through empathy with our fellow subjects in the kingdom; however, even if we manage to see through another person's eyes--as enlightening as that experience might be for each of us--we would still be limited to a human perspective, and one human perspective at that; we cannot hope to see all the possible perspectives. Though we cannot truly see from God's perspective, we can move ourselves toward that. By immersing ourselves in the Word of God, we can begin to see as He sees--in glimpses and glimmers. By talking with God--whether we call the conversation prayer or meditation or time with God--we begin to see His perspective if we listen, just as we can begin to understand other people's points of view if we listen to what they say.
When all is said and done, we are all part of God's kingdom, whether we know it or not. The issue is whether we are an active part. We can strive to find our place in the kingdom and to discover our function. Most of us would never openly object that we are part of the kingdom, as Dennis did with Arthur; however, we have to be careful that we do not allow ourselves to sink to that level by ignoring our place and our function. Being Christian is not a passive endeavor.
posted by Rodney Rhodus | 7:43 AM
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