a kingdom built of seeds

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Where is your kingdom? It is not in earth as it is in heaven.

For what of the Ugandan boy who sat next to me in tears because someone he loved was dying or dead of AIDS. What of the young girls for sale behind the bars in the glittering hell of Phuket’s nightlife. What of all the orphans at the children’s home in Kenya, some of them previously abused, abandoned or their parents dead. What of the children in India I met, orphaned from AIDS. What of the Indian couple who contracted AIDS from the man’s contaminated blood transfusion, she pregnant with their first child while he went blind. Surely you know of all the suicides, murders, rapes, and wars. Children dying of cancer in hospitals when they should be home in their parents’ arms. Dear friends going through painful divorces. Far too much to name.

Still, we pray for it, hoping for the not yet seen. Living in the tension of the now and not yet. Must something be seen and experienced for it to be true, real?

Is it up to us, to bring it about? Is it by our initiative that heaven comes to earth? Or does it come in spite of us? This is the power of our choices, our actions. Heaven may come to earth because of us, or in spite of us. The power of heaven and hell is in our hands.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep…And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” It has always been this way—light entering the darkness. I find it easy to see only the darkness of the world when, somewhere, light is always making an entrance. Like a sunrise. Or a beautiful bride dressed in white.

But we cannot be naive. No one avoids the bony fingers of suffering.

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is already in your midst,” he said. Is this the great mystery, the final truth, hidden from the wise, making foolish the wisdom of the world? “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Oh, so it’s hidden? Yes, it’s hidden. Somewhere deep in the damp, dark earth. He who has eyes to see, let him see. There is light, somewhere.

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All we seem to know of kingdoms are kings, empires, hierarchies, classes, borders, walls, enemies, us versus them, those who are in and those who are out. For the kingdom to come we must be rid of our kings and empires, flatten our hierarchies, absolve our borders and level our walls, love our enemies, include everyone in our family, and welcome the outsider as another of God’s children. “Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives.”

There is an insidious myth of superiority and, from the very beginning, we’ve all bought into it, taking a bite from the apple. It is pride, the oldest of sins.

For the kingdom to come, for God’s will to be done in earth as it is in heaven, pride must be the first to perish. Then to acknowledge the inherent worth of every human, especially our enemy. We are loved simply because we exist. The cornerstone of this kingdom is love’s truest expression—a dying god-man, asking for and receiving nothing while giving everything.

Is this how a kingdom is built? Is this how heaven inhabits earth? We have our work cut out for us.

Teach us to build a better kingdom, to do, live, and love in earth, as it is in heaven.

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