The Essence of a Kingdom

This is going to be a frustrating thing to write about, but here goes:


The kingdom of heaven is here. It is now. But it is not everywhere. There is the possibility for it being everywhere, but it is not…at least not yet. So where is it then? And where is it not? When I try to explain where and what the kingdom of heaven is, it becomes very frustrating, partly, not wholly though, because the kingdom of heaven on earth is a glimpse of the eternity and eternity is too much for the mind to comprehend. Eternity is too much for the human to hold in and thus, parts of the kingdom can not be explained but only experienced and spoken about through stories. I think that the kingdom of heaven is a very tangible and practical thing yet at the same time, it is everything intangible and impractical all in one. This is where the frustration in explaining it comes from. The kingdom exists in mindsets and motives, in paradigms and paradoxes. It is everything that is right and good and pure and unified. It is and exists in a dimension unto itself, a dimension of the soul, where motives, thoughts, being, and relationships are the most real thing around. This dimension can only be experienced. It is ethereal and hard if not impossible to wrap our minds around, but we all fully know it, and we know it well. It is in the emotional ecstasy of hearing music that just fits with our souls that we feel and know the kingdom. It is in the deep seated hope of a person’s last breath that we know the kingdom. It is in the unity of a group of people who all click and understand each other in some way that transcends space and time that we feel the effects of the kingdom of heaven. It is everywhere. This is not contestable. It does not depend upon our acceptance of the fact. It just is. And all, not just Christians, not just “good people”, all have experienced it at some point. It is in the beauty of a dancer’s movement and emotion that wraps around the words and ideas of a song and bring them into these three dimensions causing all to understand something otherwise not understandable in a vivid way. It is in the cry of a newborn and the acknowledgment that they could one day be another Ghandi, Mother Theresa, or Paul. It is in a writer’s pen, flowing over the paper, expelling words that elegantly embody the beauty of the ideas they are trying to convey. It is in the quiet soul-searching of a Buddhist monk and the humility and submission of an aged Muslim. It is in all things true and good. It is in the deliberate choice of a human being to lay down their comfort and rights for justice for another. It is in community, the tearing down of personal walls and the laying out in the open of the painful and terrifying things.

This is why I think the arts are so beautiful and needed in our world. The arts essentially have the ability to take the kingdom of heaven, this ethereal and transcendental world of all that is good and right, and bring them to the brink of our imagination, so that we may only glimpse the beginnings of the beauty within.

And most of the time, I think the church misses this completely. I cannot explain why, but often when I am taking part in a church service or event that is intended to bring this kingdom to earth, I end up feeling nothing. I end up feeling manipulated. And the kingdom never has to be manipulated. It never should be. Why is it that it is so hard sometimes to break through this barrier between this physical world and the world of the soul. Why do we struggle so much, at times, to bring the beauty of the soul into the world of three dimensions? The kingdom prevails when the soul chooses to take part in these experiences and though we cannot see it, it is there, and it is beautiful and it can be brought here, and it is. In so many ways. Ministry is about figuring out how.

Furthermore, if the kingdom of heaven is the embodiment of good and rightness in a world transcending our three dimensional world yet being brought into it in so many ways, then the kingdom of hell is the exact opposite…the embodiment of evil and un-rightness in a world transcending our three dimensional world yet being brought into it all the time. The kingdom of hell is in the satisfaction of true human needs by temporary means, in such a way as to lull us into this never ending cycle of feeling the depth of this need, and then desiring something temporary to cover up the pain of our lack. It exists in our hatred and desire to bring another person down to raise ourselves up. It exists in our desire to be known and recognized in an attempt to “stand out” in the lifeboat…to attain the soothing applause of the circus audience. The list could go on. But what it does is steal, kill, and destroy all the good things that God has in store for a person and for humanity. And what does our God do? He gives us a choice. And surprisingly we often choose the choice that hurts the most, for reasons I really don’t understand. As humans, we have these basic desires and needs that must be met, and both kingdoms offer answers to these. One is eternal, one is temporary. One is true and one is false. One feels good in an eternally good kind of way and one feels good in a fleshly wrong kind of way. And this is what defines our decisions. Are we willing to choose to be a part of the one that is good and true and eternal, yet not easy, or are we always going to take part in the one that is temporary and false yet feels so good now and is simple but empty. It doesn’t even feel good now…it feels good for like a second and then it kills you inside and carves ever deeper the cavern in your heart desiring true love and acceptance.

I don’t know…this is huge. This is everything. And everything could never fit in this blog…so I am leaving it at that.