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The Kingdom

“The kingdom of God is within you…wanting to be known, wanting to be expressed, wanting to be lived and absolutely lighting up when it hears the real thing.”

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber

          Here are the words from Luke 17:21: “Neither shall they say, Lo, here! nor, Lo, there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Further, we are told the throne of that kingdom sits within the human heart. We don’t get there by memorizing scripture, nor by chanting trance-inducing songs flashed on massive screens. We get there by looking within. According to Rev. Bolz-Weber, your relationship to the Divine holds “your beauty, your value, your dignity, and it has nothing to do with being right, or making your point, or saving yourself, or winning or losing.”

Since the kingdom lies within us, there is no way we can be separated from it except by refusing to acknowledge its presence. So, what does the kingdom look like? How do we recognize it? By looking within and allowing our heart to tell us the truth of what we see there, what we hear there. By being, as the quote above suggests, “the real thing.”

The kingdom of God includes everyone—not just Christians, not just Jews or Muslims. It is an all-inclusive, multicultural, multiracial, genderless, level playing field. No one is special, and everyone is special. No one speaks for God more than anyone else. Little children come closest. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matt. 19:14)

So, let’s be clear; to perpetuate the myth that there is only one legitimate religion, is simply not true. The sooner we make peace with that, the sooner we can stop punishing the world for not agreeing with us. The question then becomes: Is peace what we want? Let’s ponder that today.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane