Tag Archives: kingdom of God

On that day

Posted on by
Reply

Across time and place, the mountains are the place where revolutions begin and from where they emerge to overthrow kingdoms. Just consider the last 100 years: the Communist Chinese movement began in the Jing’gang Mountains; the Cuban revolution descended from the Sierra Maestra mountains; the Afghan Mujahideen’s power base was always in the Hindu Kush mountains – and other examples are plentiful. In today’s gospel, another revolutionary, Jesus of Nazareth, comes down from the mountain to a “stretch of level ground.” A divine revolutionary whose goal was to overturn a kingdom.

One way to look at kingdoms is to understand their patterns of values, power, and product. When Herb Brooks took over the US Olympic Hockey Team before the 1980 Olympics he brought a new set of values to the team. He knew that the Russians were the most skilled hockey players in the world and were essentially paid professionals in an amateur world. Coach Brooks brought the value of conditioning, he trained his players in the power to outskate the Russians, and the product was the Miracle on Ice gold medal. Kingdoms can be understood by their patterns of values, power, and product.  Old kingdoms are overthrown with new values, new power, and new results.

Continue reading →

How it is and will ever be

Posted on by
2

A new President and Congress in the United States. A truce in Israel and Gaza. A new regime in Syria. War in Ukraine. Political alliances in Europe realigning. Balance of power, geopolitical landscape, nations rise and fall, tipping the scales. This is how it is and will always be in the kingdoms on earth.

Greece had Persia. Babylon had Egypt. Rome had Carthage. The Mongol Empire had the Holy Roman Empire. England, France, and Spain had each other. Japan had China. Germany took on the world – twice. In the aftermath, Russia had the United States. Nations v. transnational companies. And all the while these earthly kingdoms and all that attends – money, power, prestige, lands, wealth, culture, custom, language – they compete for the loyalty and fealty of the people of God.

Continue reading →

Two Powers and a Kingdom

Posted on by
Reply

In today’s readings, the first reading from Ezekiel and the gospel from Mark, we have “winged creatures” or “birds of the sky” are able to rest and find shade in an unexpected place. The readings are at least thematically connected. Jesus’s focus in the Gospel is clear as he asks: “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God” – the kingdom being a topic Jesus has proclaimed since the beginning of the gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15). But what is Ezekiel talking about? Continue reading →

Your Kingdom Come

Posted on by
Reply

“Suppose one of you has a friend…”  Maybe it is a family member, a close friend, someone you know, an associate at work, a friend of a friend – whatever the spectrum of how one thinks of friends. This person comes to you with a request. Maybe it’s easy – “can I borrow a cup of sugar?”  Easily asked, easily answered and only takes a spot of time. Continue reading →

Keeping up

Posted on by
Reply

Deacon Ray is preaching this weekend at the Mass I am celebrating, so here is one from a past 17th Sunday, Year A.

The kingdom of heaven is like…. There are lots of parables that begin with those words.  Maybe we can do a thought experiment – a kind of fill-in-the-blank thing. Keep your answers silent within your own thoughts. And since no one is listening, you can be completely honest with your answer. For you…. the kingdom of heaven is like……. What? (No hurry, I’ll wait….) Continue reading →

The Kingdom of God

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s video and Scripture readings focus on the Gospel of the Kingdom. Sunday, April 5, is Palm Sunday, when we commemorate Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem that kick-starts the series of events leading to his death and resurrection. The sham trial of Jesus and his unjust execution seemed like a tragedy to his friends and family. Yet for Jesus, his death was an expression of the love of God as he entered into our suffering so that he could overcome it. In the story of Jesus, we are invited to see that even the most unwelcome and tragic events cannot thwart God’s plan to restore our world. It seemed a particularly good study for the days of “safer-at-home.” Continue reading →

Accepting the Kingdom: gift

Posted on by
Reply

Kingdom_of_GodIn Private. 10 In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

In the privacy of a house, the disciples question Jesus about “this” – presumably, “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Jesus has taken the question back to the divine intent. One way to understand the unstated question is that the disciples are not asking about divorce per se, but the broader question of all the things that cause the separation of what God has joined. Jesus declared without qualification that a man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. The use of the word “adultery” directs the disciples back to the absolute command of God (Ex. 20:14) and clarifies the seriousness of the issue. But to be clear, Jesus is not saying that divorce and remarriage is the only circumstance that lead to adultery, but it is of the same gravitas. Continue reading →

Accepting the Kingdom: intentions

Posted on by
Reply

Kingdom_of_GodGod’s Creative Intent. Thus, Jesus moves the dialogue to deeper question and asks about what God intended in the creation: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined to his wife), 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Jesus has posed a question to the Pharisees that puts before them a choice between preserving the Law as they understood it or discerning and doing God’s will. The former is a legislation that is based upon fallen human history. But is there something that precedes that history that will reveal God’s intent? Jesus is also appealing to the Torah in his reference to the creation account in Genesis. Many scholars have offered that the Law given to Moses was part of a covenant with the people of Israel for a specific time in history. That covenant was broken and “subsumed” into the larger Davidic covenant. But the covenant in Genesis is timeless and is revealed in Creation. Paul seems to make the similar argument that the Mosaic law was but an ‘inset’ into God’s earlier purpose and covenant of grace, which is eternal (Gal. 3:17). Continue reading →

When the kingdom becomes clear

Posted on by
Reply

Last Sunday’s gospel was St. Mark’s version of the sower who scatters seed, a metaphor for the manner in which the Kingdom of God comes to be in this world. This was followed up by the story of the mustard seed. Both are meant to hold up the idea of the Kingdom of God and get us to think about what we hope for. In the first story, a sower scatters seed on the ground, and then goes off to sleep. The seeds fend for themselves and when the grain is ripe, the gardener harvests it. In the second story, someone sows a tiny mustard seed in the ground, and it grows into a gigantic bush, large enough to offer birds shelter in its branches. As is the case with all of Jesus’s parables, these are intended not to keep us comfortable and complacent, but to prod and provoke us into wholly different ways of perceiving and relating to what is sacred. Continue reading →