Jesus’ notion of the Kingdom is a different understanding of personal freedom than that of most religious and secular leaders today. We think of freedom as not having to do what we don’t want to do, but divine freedom is the capacity to be fully who we already are, to develop our inherent and true nature in God, as much as possible—really wanting to do what we know we have to do. Only God can create that freedom inside of us. A mustard seed, yeast, and light, that grow from within, are some of Jesus’ central metaphors for the Reign of God.
Secular freedom only creates individualists, and private freedom, but not a society. It never gets around to the common good, which is a central principle of Christian social teaching and the Gospel, which demands from you and demands for others. Then you become who you most deeply and truly are, a member of a family, a neighborhood, a society, and a planet. If you are trying to “go to heaven” alone or on your own merits, you are preparing for a place other than heaven.
~Adapted from Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount
“Thy kingdom come,” as we say in the Our Father, clearly means that the Kingdom is something that enters into this world or, as Jesus puts it elsewhere, the Reign of God “is close at hand” (Mark 1:15, Matthew 4:17). Don’t project it onto a later world. The Kingdom of God breaks into this world whenever people act as God would act.
When that can happen in terms of structures or groups, then you have a taste of the Kingdom descending to earth. To be realistic and honest, this seldom happens with more than “two or three” rightly gathered (Matthew 18:20). It is the critical mass, or “leaven” and “salt” who can and will change the world. This is Jesus’ basic and first image of church, yet it is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. It is sad to say, but institutions as institutions can seldom operate at a Kingdom level, except on paper and by occasional courageous decisions. They can also educate, protect, and promote enlightened individuals, as many churches and organizations often do.
~Taken from Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount
I hope you’ve met at least one “Kingdom person” in your life. They are surrendered and trustful people. You sense that their life is okay at the core. They have given control to Another and are at peace, which paradoxically allows them to calmly be in control. A Kingdom person lives for what matters, for life in its deepest and lasting sense. There’s a kind of gentle absolutism about their lifestyle, an inner freedom to do what they have to do—joyfully. Kingdom people feel like grounded yet spacious people at the same time, the best of the conservative and the best of the progressive types at the same time.
Kingdom people are anchored by their awareness of God’s love deep within them and deep within everyone else, too. They happily live on a level playing field, where even God has come to “pitch his tent” (the literal translation of John 1:14).
~Taken from Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount
