27 Oct 2015
Jesus doesn’t just come right out and tell us what the
Kingdom of God is. He’s always using
analogies or comparisons: The Kingdom of God is like this; the Kingdom of God is like that. And, of course,
that’s right.
The most we can understand about the Kingdom—right now—is what
we know through our everyday. The
Kingdom of God is like a lot of
things we can see and experience. But
the Kingdom is so much more than
those things. And this is what St Paul
seems to be saying today: “Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we
wait with endurance.”
Whether it’s a mustard seed, or yeast in a loaf of bread, or
treasured buried in a field, or a pearl of great price, or a beautiful sunset,
or the autumn colors, or the best of friendships . . . we can get a taste of
the Kingdom through them all. But the
Kingdom is far greater than them
all.
We enjoy the good things of this life. But our hope lies beyond them all, in
something we can’t possibly know fully in this life. Our hope lies in the unseen Kingdom where God
is the Light the lights the day; the Sun which never sets; the Spirit of peace,
love, and wonder which fills every heart.
We can imagine the Kingdom in its glory.
But even our imaginations don’t do justice to the real truth, beauty and
goodness of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus doesn’t just come right out and tells us what the
Kingdom of God is . . . because he can’t.
But someday we’ll see it—not as a metaphor or a comparison, but as it
really is. And it’ll be a glorious
day. But until then, we wait. And we put our hope in that Kingdom which is
simply beyond description.
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