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| Detail of a larger, student-created painting that hangs in the foyer of the Oxford Regional Education Centre in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. |
The KINGDOM of God was the message of Jesus. He proclaimed it, he taught it, and he lived it. He walked the talk – that the kingdom is here. It was the reason he would die on a cross, rather than sit on a throne: to bring about the kingdom of God for all humanity. For all who believed in him and followed his way.
This is where the focus and faith of the church needs to be.
Creating the kingdom of God. Here. Now. At all times. This is the work of the
church – “The work I’ve come to do” as Jesus said at the start of his ministry.
Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is among you”. In his time,
those in the crowd who questioned him were thinking of a kingdom that would
bring material and political benefits but in saying that, Jesus shifted the
emphasis from future expectations to the observable presence of the
kingdom in his ministry.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Among you, right here, right now.
Watch the news and read the newspapers, and you’ll think we
have a long way to go in creating the kingdom of God on earth as it is in
heaven. It’s the 21st century, and we’re still reminding people that
the kingdom of God is meant to happen here on earth.
And yet, the Kingdom of God is already an observable
presence; we just need to see with new eyes because if you watch the news
and read the newspapers – you will see the Kingdom of God is here.
So, what does the kingdom of God look like?
It looks like a people who are taking care of each other.
It looks like a people who are laying down their lives for
each other.
It looks like a people who are living as an extended family.
It looks like a close-knit, functioning body where each
member is affected by what happens to the other members.
It looks like what we heard last week, when talking about
justice, and hearing what Jesus called the work he’d come to do:
- feeding the
hungry
- clothing the
naked
- blessing the poor
- giving sight to
the blind
- caring for the
sick
In an online
article published at patheos.com last week, author Herb Montgomery, who is the
director of Renewed Hearts Ministry, a faith and social justice non-profit
organization based in West Virginia, said, “When Jesus says, ‘the Kingdom is
not coming with signs to be observed,’ he is rejecting the specific way in
which prophets had led masses of Jewish people to their deaths at the hands of
Roman soldiers. Jesus instead offered a new vision for human society in the
form of a community that practiced nonviolent resistance, liberation,
and reparation, with the hope of both personal and societal transformation.
This kingdom was within their grasp. Where other approaches were revolutionary
suicide, Jesus gave them a A NEW WAY [my edit] that they had the ability to accomplish.”
There’s what word again: community
So what does the "KOMMUNITY" of God look like…when we are
dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Well, let me repeat:
It looks like a people who are taking care of each other.
It looks like a people who are laying down their lives for
each other (we see you, nurses and doctors).
It looks like a people who are living as an extended family.
It looks like a close-knit, functioning body where each
member is affected by what happens to the other members.
It looks like a guy
named Shea Serrano, who I came across on Twitter on Friday PAYING PEOPLE’S
BILLS.
“Who needs help?”
he asked.
That’s it. “Who
needs help?”
So he – and others
who hopped on board – paid phone bills, medication, a student loan payment, a
monthly insurance payment, a car payment. He gave money to a woman expecting
her first baby just because she’s worried.
No questions asked.
No judgement. No conditions. Just “We got you.”
WE got you.
That’s what the
KOMMUNITY of God looks like. And that community is growing – expanding and
spreading as if love – kindness and compassion – was a highly-contagious virus!
Jesus’ vision of life was communal rather than
individualistic. It places each of us – with our personal needs – in the
context of a larger community. The kingdom of God is the community of
God.
Just changing that word brings it right down to earth. Right
down to our space. Right down to our laps – and our living. In community – with
God, with Jesus, and with each other.
Right here, right now. Even during, or especially during,
the anxiety and uncertainty of a global pandemic. As Dr. Amit Patel, an author who
lives in the UK and is visually-impaired, wrote on Twitter just this morning:
“Now, more than ever, community matters.”
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