The Kingdom of God

1. Is different.

2. Is about the heart.

3. Relates to real life.

4. Is in your face.

5. Is paradoxical.



Success in the Kingdom of God is:

A. Servanthood.

B. Humility.

C. Selflessness.



This was the thrust of the sermon a couple of weeks ago. Today the pastor talked again about the upside-down nature of the Kingdom, as Jesus taught about it. You know, the last shall be first, the greatest among you will be servant of all, to lose your life is to keep it, one person sows and another reaps, the weak are made strong and the strong weak, blessed are the poor, the hungry and thirsty, etc. Very counter-intuitive, this Kingdom.

He then talked about senseless tragedies. Which is really redundant, isn't it? Who ever heard of a sensible tragedy? I mean, aren't all tragedies senseless? Isn't that what makes them tragic? Jesus' suffering and death was certainly tragic - he didn't deserve what happened.

But.. it went from senseless to making sense, after the Resurrection. Then, it all clicked. With the disciples and with us. From the vantage point of the other side of the Resurrection, the tragedy of the cross makes sense. We see God's design in it.

And we can rejoice despite the tragic suffering, because.. there was a purpose to it after all. "For the joy set before Him, Christ endured the cross", St. Paul says. And what was the joy set before Him?

Us.

"God was reconciling the world to Himself through Christ", St. Paul says. We are the prize, the reason for Jesus' suffering... and the reason for His joy.

The Kingdom of God is upside down. Suffering brings joy. And not just for Jesus. But for a whole history of martyrs. And for us who have not yet suffered to the point of shedding our blood. We have joy because of the suffering of others.

Not schadenfreude. Not joy AT the suffering of others. But as a *result* of. Very counter-intuitive, this Kingdom. We can expect the unexpected here.



Oh, the worship leader said something today that I both liked and didn't like. He said:

"The truth we experience always trumps the truth that we think."

Which sounds a lot like "the heart has reasons which reason cannot know", but not exactly.

His point was that you can reason something out, know it intellectually, but until it's lived, it isn't really known. You can know some things about true love, for instance. But until you do love, truly.. what do you really know? What's lived out is always more powerful than what's only thought about.

Now, I don't like all of that idea, because I like to imagine that reason is enough, and that we can know things to be true even if we haven't experienced them.

But his point, which I can't argue with - I've lived it - is that when we experience something that runs counter to what we think is true.. what we know by experience tends to overthrow our beliefs.

And I get that. It's been the nature of my life for several years now. I know some things by experience now that shake, disprove and completely unravel principles that I have held to be true for years.

But isn't faith "the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"? Sure it is. But faith is never pure reason - there is always an experiential component to faith, albeit a spiritual one. And without the spiritual component to that experience - a sense of meeting God, of closeness to Him - faith is understandably weak and ripe for upset.

With the experience of encountering God, though.. faith becomes strong and sure, because we have known, in some measure, Him in whom we believe. And the truth of that experience either trumps what we may think... or reinforces it. St. Paul on the road to Damascus, or St. Thomas in the upper room - they are our brothers in this lived out experience of spiritual truth.

So, dear reader... this Holy Week... will you seek God with me? Seek this upside-down, counter-intuitive Kingdom with me? Will you look to experience Him in the course of your walk toward Easter? Will you let your heart be touched by His?

Know along with me then, by your own experience, the mercy and grace that He offers you - let Him remind you of it this week, in a tangible, spiritual way. Know the truth of God's love for you - and let that truth make it possible for you to live, and love, freely.