{"id":2097,"date":"2022-11-01T11:01:32","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2097"},"modified":"2022-11-01T11:02:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:02:03","slug":"the-kingdom-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/01\/the-kingdom-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingdom is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
One of the boys who lived directly across the street from my childhood home yearned to find God. 
 
So where did he go to undertake such a life-changing search?  He went where all the other Midwestern Baby Boomers went to pursue their spiritual quests: Colorado.  If something big was going to happen, it would surely happen in the Rockies. 
 
It may have taken a while, but our generation ultimately seemed to learn two things.  The first is that God is not somehow more available in the mountains, more accessible along a rocky coastline, or more visible in the colors of a beautiful sunset.  If God is really there, then surely he can be found anywhere.  Even in Muncie. 
 
The second is that spiritual transformation isn\u2019t dependent on \u201csomething big\u201d happening to us.  God is not an elusive deity who can be captured only by those with sufficient discretionary time and money.  He<\/em>, in fact, is the Hunter.  He is the Lover who is seeking us<\/em>. 
 
That right-here-right-now availability of God\u2019s kingdom happens to be one of the most revolutionary aspects of Jesus\u2019 Good News. 
 
It jumps off the page in the fourth chapter of Luke\u2019s Gospel.  At the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus is given the opportunity to read Scripture at his hometown synagogue during a typical Saturday service.  He reads something from the prophet Isaiah and makes a couple of editorial comments.  All of a sudden, as if out of the blue, the very people he grew up with have formed a lynch mob and are prepared to throw him over the edge of a cliff.  What\u2019s going on here? 
 
Examining the life of Jesus can be a hard task for us.  We have to think ourselves back into someone else\u2019s world.  Physically, the synagogue would have been a comparatively small rectangular space.  Only men could be present for worship.  Women could listen<\/em>, as long as they remained out of sight behind a screen at the back of the worship area.  The men with the highest reputation for spiritual maturity and understanding sat up front, so everyone could see them. 
 
A first century synagogue, in other words, was the polar opposite of a twenty-first century American church:  In Jesus\u2019 time, everybody wanted <\/em>a front row seat.
 
Luke isn\u2019t entirely clear why Jesus reads from what we have come to know as Isaiah 61.  Is this the assigned reading for the morning, and he just happens to be invited to speak?  Or does Jesus unroll the scroll until he finds the very words he wants to share?
 
He finishes reading and hands the scroll back to the attendant, or chazzan<\/em> \u2013 this is the layperson who is charged with overseeing the life of the synagogue \u2013 and then sits down.  Rabbis always taught while seated.  We retain a memory of this when we speak of \u201cchairs\u201d of philosophy or science at a university.  The outrageous thing is that Jesus has just read from a text that virtually everyone associates with the coming of the Messiah, and then says, \u201cToday this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing\u201d (Luke 4:21). 
 
Today?  <\/em>Can he be serious?   
 
This would be like saying, \u201cToday, on November 1, spring at last has arrived.  The bulbs are coming up and fruit trees are beginning to blossom.  Get your swimsuits and sunscreen ready!\u201d 
 
The scandal here is that Jesus is announcing that the kingdom of God \u2013 the long-awaited golden age of God\u2019s rule on earth \u2013 has already come.  But nobody sees it.  To the Jews of the first century, the kingdom of God was a religious and political arrangement that would come in the future. But to Jesus, the kingdom is a present reality that has already broken into the context of the now<\/u><\/em>.
 
Jesus\u2019 contemporaries expected dramatic intervention from God, and they expected it soon.  God was surely on the verge of bringing justice and peace to the world.  Something big had to happen.  The rabbis disagreed as to exactly what that \u201csomething big\u201d was going to be.  But now Jesus sits down and says, \u201cWhat you\u2019ve been waiting for all your lives is happening right in front of you.  The kingdom is here!\u201d
 
This is consistent with the first words that Jesus speaks in his public ministry.  Matthew 4:17 tells us, \u201cJesus began to preach, ‘Turn your lives around, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'” In the original language the word “near” is literally “at hand.”  It is close enough to be grasped.  You can reach out and take it.  What makes Jesus\u2019 listeners so angry with him?  It\u2019s the fact that a local kid has the sheer chutzpah to announce, \u201cAnd all this is happening because of me<\/em>.\u201d 
 
What are the consequences if we overlook this aspect of Jesus\u2019 teaching? 
 
We\u2019ll conclude that the purpose of our lives is to go out and find God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 to move to Colorado or to make sure we attend the Mother of All Retreats or to keep reading until we discover the book that finally opens our eyes. 
 
Jesus, however, insists that God\u2019s transforming reign in our lives is available now<\/em>. 
 
He says that the Age to Come has broken into the Present Age.  Everywhere we look we can see signs and hints that this is so.  The people who first heard Jesus say that must have thought he was crazy.  \u201cWhat do you mean, the kingdom of God is here<\/u><\/em>?  This is hardly the way we\u2019ve always imagined God\u2019s rule on earth.\u201d 
 
Yes, it\u2019s true that God\u2019s kingdom in its fullness<\/em> is still ahead of us.  Wars, rape, abuse, and injustice have not yet been banished.
 
But those who entrust themselves to Jesus can experience foretastes of the kingdom.  Prayers will be answered.  Miracles will happen.  People who seem hopelessly stuck in senseless addictions and life-draining relationships can experience restoration.  And as the kingdom grows like tiny seeds in more and more places, the world itself can become a place where God\u2019s will increasingly happens \u201con earth as it is in heaven.\u201d 
 
Author Lee Strobel writes about a woman named Eileen who lives on the perimeter of Chicago. 
 
Eileen became furious when she discovered that somebody was talking to her daughter about God.  It’s not that Eileen was happy with her own life.  She felt as if she were dying on her own suburban island.  But she wanted nothing to do with God.
 
That same night, however, she couldn’t sleep.  At midnight Eileen came downstairs, turned on the light, and picked up a Bible.  She couldn’t remember the last time she had gone to church.  She had never before opened the Bible on her own.  This night as she paged through it, she noticed for the first time that it was divided into two parts \u2013 one was “old” and the other was “new.”  She decided she would check out the new part, figuring it was the most recent upgrade. 
 
In the quietness of that night, Eileen began to read.  Sitting on her living room floor, she started with Matthew.  Hours later she was in the middle of the gospel of John when she discovered, as she put it, that she was in love with the character of Jesus. 
 
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said to God, “but I know you are what I want.”
 
That\u2019s how it happens.  In quiet, unexpected, unplanned moments, our deepest wants come up against the God who is really there.
 
That\u2019s how his kingdom comes.  Right here and right now<\/em>. 

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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. One of the boys who lived directly across the street from my childhood home yearned to find God.  So where did he go to undertake such a life-changing search?  He went where all the other Midwestern Baby Boomers went to pursue their spiritual quests: Colorado.  If something big was going to happen, it… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-2097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kingdom-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2100,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions\/2100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}