God's Kingdom
Where is the kingdom of God?
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." Then he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, 'Look there!' or 'Look here!' Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them -- it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left." Then they asked him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." - Luke 17:20-37
It sounds like Jesus is saying that the coming of the Kingdom of God will be a judgment, but if you read carefully, there are two messages here.
The first is that the kingdom of God is among us already.
We don't have to wait for it or worry about what it will bring, because it is here. We either choose to live in it or not.
Those who do choose will be living as Jesus showed us we can live, with God in us and with us always.
Second, though, is the judgment.
A day will come when we will be like the people in Noah's time when life continued without a care, only to be ended in a flood.
The first message is a good one. We like knowing that God's Kingdom is among us and all we need to do is act like we belong in order to be one with it.
But, the second message about judgment is the one we remember.
We fear the coming judgment and yet what do we do about it?
Today, we have a real example of this judgment day in Climate Change. People all over the world fear the day when life will end on this planet and we think we can prevent that day or those days from coming.
But, perhaps our focus is off. Maybe we should be thinking about the Kingdom of God and all of Creation instead of the days when life ends.
If we can change the minds of people to live fully in God's Creation, perhaps that day will be delayed or even prevented.
We know one thing. Fear of the end-time judgment doesn't change behavior. It hasn't for thousands of years.
So, something else is needed.
More to come...