Visions of the Kingdom/Kin-dom of God

What is  your vision of the Kin-dom/Kingdom? Is it something you can put into words, a few sentences, maybe a sermon? Is it something that calls you forth into action in the here and now? Does it shape how you see the world while also giving you something to work towards?

I happen to believe that the Kin-dom/Kingdom of God is something that is breaking into the here and now, yet isn't quite all the way here yet. We humans continue to get in the way, in some ways, and in others we continue to bring God's Way forth. We are a mixed lot we humans. But as a consequence, we live between the Now and Not Yet of the reality of God's Way - Kin-dom - Kingdom.

I ask this question as we are quickly coming to a few seasons. We are shortly to enter Lent in which we Christians have long held as a time of self-examination and pondering our own relationships: with God, with ourselves, with one another, with the world at large. If God's Way is one of unlimited, boundless love, mercy, grace and compassion - how are we (I) acting?

The other season that is upon the United States is a political landscape of casting visions for the future of the United States. While each political party is in the process of nominating a candidate to represent them, we are hearing lots of debates about where each candidate wishes the United States to go under that particular candidate's leadership.

Did you notice the Google Doodle today? It is a "doodle" of Fredrick Douglass (1818 - 1895). Douglass continued to speak out for the end of slavery and for the rights of everyone (ending slavery and the rights of women to vote being the big issues of his day). As his weekly paper (The Northern Star) proclaimed her motto: "Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren." His vision of how God's Kin-dom/Kingdom was to operate gave him vision of how he was a act and lead.

For another vision (full of hope and lament) see what Fatty Goodlander has to say in his article in the February, 2016 edition of the All At Sea: Caribbean (pg. 24). [This is a free magazine, the link should download as a pdf. If it doesn't try this link to their download page.]

I hope your vision inspires you to act with courageous acts of love and compassion all the while experiencing huge doses of wonder and awe.

Blessed Be,

Joel