Thy Kingdom Come!

Over the Christian centuries the teaching about the kingdom of God has followed a pretty narrow pattern. The kingdom was heaven where believers in Jesus as the son of God, if they had been true to the letter of the law, would go after they died. This belief has been used to keep congregations in line and in the church or denomination. It teaches that God is the Big Parent in the sky who is punitive and can’t wait to punish those who stray. This belief bears little resemblance to Jesus’ teachings on the kingdom. It has invited us to be rule-followers and asks nothing of us about being loving towards God, our neighbors and ourselves which is the nature of the kingdom. It ignores Jesus’ teaching that the spirit of the law is love. It has been a whole lot easier to follow the rules than it is to learn how to love. In Thy Kingdom Come! The author, Patricia Said Adams, takes a new look at all the passages in the Four Gospels where Jesus talks about the kingdom, even some where he doesn’t mention it. No matter, the kingdom and our entry into it was always his subject matter. In Part I there are Jesus’ descriptions of the kingdom from the Parable about the Mustard Seed to the Parables of the Net and the Sheep and Goats to many other references. Then in Part II are the teachings about how we can get into the kingdom, what qualities we need to have, from being prepared to loving God with all of ourselves to loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. In Part III she draws conclusions about what God wants for and from us in the context of promoting the kingdom and living in it here on Earth. For Jesus the kingdom is a reality here on Earth. He talked of it as being near and within and among you. But it is also hidden in plain sight, only a potentiality to most of us. There are certain levels of relationship with Christ that we have to achieve to even see it, much less to live in it. He is calling us to be in the world, but not of the world, so that in actuality we would be living in the kingdom primarily but not bound by the ways of the world. The lens of inquiry about the kingdom in “Thy Kingdom Come!” focuses on this question: how do I, how do we, live a life centered in Christ in the 21st century? The author has been a spiritual director, a blogger about living a life of faith in God, and a longtime follower of Jesus Christ. This book will challenge how you think about God and yourself and about the depth of your relationship with God. It will invite you to not settle for a limited encounter with the Holy One, but to seek the deepest connection between you and God and to live out your created purpose. It will invite you beyond following the rules to a life centered in God. It will make the kingdom real to you.