Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Luke 17:20-21 – Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’  For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among* you.” (NRSV)

Did you see that asterisk?  In our New Revised Standard Bibles, Jesus tells us here that the kingdom of God is among us.  Except prepositions are complicated, aren’t they?  English seems to have more of them than most languages.  So in our translation, there’s a little text note saying that the word “among” could also be translated as “within.”  For us, those two words have slightly different meanings.

The theme of our General Assembly this summer decided not to choose between the two.  The logo proudly proclaims both: KINDOM OF GOD WITHIN US AMONG US!  It almost seems like the one requires the other to me.  We cannot have the realm of God between people, if we as people don’t also have God’s love inside our hearts and souls.  And when we’re living out the gospel in society and in our relationships, it’s easier to feel the presence of God in our very beings.

There’s another thing going on in that theme that you might have noticed.  Generally, the NRSV talks about the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven.”  Our Assembly theme takes a page from contemporary theologians and biblical scholars and substitutes the word “kindom.”  Do you feel the difference?  The point is not to say that God isn’t sovereign, but that God doesn’t impact our lives the way an earthly king would.  God does all things from love, not as acts of wielding power.  And “kindom” also emphasizes the way we are to relate to one another in the realm of God’s love: recognizing our interconnectedness as a human family and even with the rest of creation.  We are kin to one another.