Where Is The Kingdom of God?

I often times hear the questions “what is heaven like”, “where is heaven”, and “will I see Jesus when I die”? You know the questions, these are but a few; we all ask them.   Moreover, we hear of the near death experiences of people reporting glimpses of the “after life” or of heaven. I do not wish to take away from these experiences nor do I desire to add to them. I know many find hope is these stories, however I  want to talk about the essence of “The Kingdom of God” as taught  by Jesus.

Let's start at the beginning. In Genesis we read the creation story told for thousands of years by word of mouth before being written down.  We know this is not an historical or scientific account just the account of God’s creation, redemption and love of Her Children. I tell you this to make this point, God created the earth and all that is in it, for God, for us – all of us. Here is the foundation of the  Kingdom of God, then and now and forever.

The teaching of Jesus as re-presented in Matthew, Mark and Luke all point to one thing – that we are to love and care for each other. Jesus modeled for us how to live in and with all of creation. He taught by word and deed. In every respect Jesus is always sharing the peace, Shalom. Shalom is the Peace of God. This is very important to take note of as Shalom comes from the Hebrew root verb shalom meaning to be complete, perfect and full. Herein is the very root of the ministry of Jesus – to make whole. God desires to reconcile all of creation to Herself; The Kingdom of God – On Earth! We will not Go Anywhere – Emmanuel – God With Us. The scriptures are neither cryptic nor apocalyptic – just a record of God’s continuous creation.

Today, we have the choice to love, forgive and live together as God’s chosen people, or not. To love others just as they are, just as God loves us, just as we are, as He finds us.  Love. - God chooses us - all of us!

St. Paul writes that "now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Love is the key.  Not to make others in our image.  We are all already created in the image of God.   We are called to reflect that love to others….Just think The first choice in the garden to the choice we make in the next instant. We are free chose to Love and we are free to choose not to love. It is really that simple - yet the hardest thing we could ever do, if left on our own - Jesus does not leave us alone - we can do this.

We know from the gospels that this phrase, "the kingdom of God has come near," is what Jesus taught his apostles to proclaim in the communities near and far. This is the good news – the message of Jesus: the waiting is over. The time has now come. God is doing something new, something that the whole world has been waiting for centuries to see. What is it? The kingdom of God has finally come near. God’s reign has finally arrived. In and through each of us.

Not by some story of beyond the death experiences, and not by rapture or heaven far away – now – today  each of us has within us the spirit of God, we are called, gathered, washed, fed, equipped and sent to represent Christ to the world, one person at a time – and to tell them the Kingdom of God has come near.

Shalom, wholeness, completeness – through the love of God, lived out each and every day by each of us! This is where we find the Kingdom of God, right here, right now! Let us chose Shalom,  NOW!