We end the week with another look at "Jesus and the Kingdom of God."
Just as we cannot understand what it means to learn to follow Jesus without understanding what it means for Israel to be on a journey with the Lord, so we cannot understand the kingdom without understanding its role in Israel. The kingdom ideal that Jesus proclaimed is no new idea nor does he seem to have given it some startling new meaning. Rather he proclaims that the kingdom is present insofar as his life reveals the effective power of God to create a transformed people capable of living peaceably in a violent world.
It is so important to see the unfolding of God's Reign as part of a real transformation that takes place in the lives of ordinary people. The life of those people is the life of the peace of God's Reign within a world that does not share that peace. Our world - no matter who we look at - does not share that peace. We like pieces of it. We are attracted to some notions of peace. Then as we are reminded that the peace of God's Reign is demonstrated through the life of Jesus and we are invited to follow that life even as it goes to the cross, peace is often a way we do not choose to go. Israel was called to be a radically new people. A people whose shalom made the heads of the powers of this world to turn. That is...they were to be a light. The light was to be the justice, mercy, compassion, reconciliation, that flows from a people living within God's peaceable Reign.
Connection: I am often embarrassed "after the fact." For me that mean that "after the fact" or after some reflection on how I have acted, I realize that I have not acted within this Reign of peace. It is not a easy journey but it is one we are invited to enter and one in which we have someone to follow to show us the way....even through the ordinary of this day.
Compassionate God, your peace is a whole life knitted together by your love and nurtured by your mercy. Inspire us to a part of the tapestry of your Reign. Amen.
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