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By Pastor Jeff Fox-Kline
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
I feel that we catch glimpses of it. Occasionally. Peeking into the world like rays of sunlight dappling the forest floor. Beautiful in their solitary appearance, fleeting as the winds cover them up and re-reveal them.
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
I feel that it’s often easier to point to where we see its absence. Someone reaching for a taser, but accidentally pulling a gun and killing another human being. Someone getting pepper sprayed in his car without provocation or reason. The surging cases of viruses in my home state of Michigan. Some "breaking news" out of Knoxville, Tennessee that I don’t know anything about yet but will probably be horrified by tomorrow when you read this.
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
And why is it so hard to grasp? Why do I gasp for it desperately? Why is the world so broken, and why can’t we just get it together?
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
It looks like people coming together to share a meal. We’re seeing it more frequently these days. It looks like finding new music that you want to share with other people. It looks like impromptu dance parties with a child who just wants to have fun. It looks like a Zoom room of people coming together to learn more about how to help others. It looks like a protest that sparks change. It looks like people working for the good of the world. It looks like something (I’m pretty certain of this).
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
I don’t know. I want to know. Someday I will know. Someday the world will know. It looks familiar. It looks strange. It shimmers ephemerally, sunlight on water. Sometimes blindingly so. But it also hides in the shadows, going unremarked, looking unremarkable. A silhouette against a dark background.
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
We can build it together. Brick by brick. We can work and toil and sweat our whole lives to make something greater than ourselves. We will never see the end of the work, but we will see the results of our own work. Together we can do something. We can’t do everything. We can’t see the whole picture. We glimpse it in the work of our neighbors, we see it in the work of our hands. We can’t do it alone. God does it with us. God does it for us; to us. We do it for God. We do it for our neighbor. Is there a difference?
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
I don’t know. Let’s keep finding out together.
Jeff Fox-Kline