Alternate Realities...June 9, 2024

We often think, and have been taught to think, of Christianity in this way:

• If we live a certain way and follow the rules, God will make sure our life is better.
• If we live a certain way and follow the rules, God will let us go to heaven when we die, rather than being condemned to hell.

And this understanding of Christianity may seem to be affirmed in today’s readings:

• God kicks Adam and Eve out of Eden and makes their lives much rougher “because they are naughty.”
• “...whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin…” Duh, Duh, Duh….

But, let me reframe this for us and offer another possible understanding….

Beloved, God does decide who gets into Heaven—which is simply wherever God dwells. Another name for Heaven is the “kingdom of God” or “God’s Kingdom.”  In fact, Beloved, God has already decided who gets into this Kingdom, this Heaven: Everyone. Every stinking one. Everybody is in.  

In our Genesis story, what we often glide over is that the word for “human” is A–dam.  What this Creation myth of ours tells us is that when God created, God placed humankind in the Kingdom. Love, and then, the Source of all Being, (aka God) says to humanity: this is yours to guard and keep.  And it will all be sustainable and balanced if you choose to live by Love’s definition of justice, with Love’s understanding of good and evil.

But humankind chooses otherwise. We choose to define good and evil for ourselves; we choose to redefine justice to suit our needs. And as soon as we do that, we find ourselves outside the Kingdom. 
Beloved: the Kingdom, what we might also call heaven, isn’t for later or after death or any other time/space qualifications. Heaven, which is the Kingdom of God, is now. It is always. It is a constant reality and always present. And it has been such ever since Love created all things and brought all things into being.  And as creatures of this kingdom, we choose whether we live within the kingdom or outside of it. And it’s not a once and for all decision. Within an hour’s time we can choose to live within the kingdom’s reach and outside of the kingdom’s reach 10 times over. Because the Kingdom isn’t a destination—-it’s a reality, a Way of living, that is always right here in front of us.

That’s what Jesus is trying to get across to the folx in today’s Gospel.  Many folx think Jesus is crazy because he is always living in the kingdom—right there in the midst of the Empire (a.k.a. The “world” in Scripture). So his choices and his actions make no sense in the world’s “dog eat dog,” every-man-for-himself reality. Jesus’ actions make no sense in this economy. Jesus is always living and moving and being in an alternate reality. 

This sense of two realities existing concurrently is described in our Gospel today.

At the start of our reading, the first half of the verse says: Jesus went home. The word “home” or “house” is ekonoimia.  Which in Greek means:Household or House.  Jesus’s household is God’s household, God’s kingdom. I don’t think this is a reference to a building or a structure, but a reality.  So when people tell Jesus his family is outside the house, outside the kingdom, asking for him, Jesus says: Whoever is doing the work of Love is in the house, in the kingdom, and are my family.

Now, Beloved, whom do you know who is ALWAYS living Love 24/7?  No one, I wager. I know I don’t. Does that mean I am not in?  Yes, sometimes. When I don’t choose Love. When I choose self-profit over communal profit. When I choose my convenience over my neighbor’s need. I choose to leave God’s kingdom and I take up residence in the Empire, the World. But as soon as I wake up and come to my right mind (the mind of Christ) and choose communal profit and collective good, as soon as I respond to my neighbor's need: I am in the Kingdom, living in the boundaries of heaven, residing in God’s family. I come home.

The point of having faith, belonging to a Church isn’t fire insurance to make sure you go to heaven after you die. It’s a community of folx whose lives together shape our hearts, minds, eyes, and ears to know the Kingdom, to see the Kingdom so that we can choose Kingdom reality over Empire reality. As often as possible. In this Beloved Community, we offer opportunities to taste the Kingdom so we can trust that it’s real. We create chances to live into the Kingdom together; to practice Kingdom living.

One such opportunity we have here is called the Compassion Response Team, and so today I asked Judi Cumley, a member of the Team, to come and share about this opportunity of Kingdom Living.
​Judi: 

1. How did our Compassion Response Team get its start?
2. What does Compassion Response Team do?
3. Who is in the Compassion Response Team?
4. How can the wider Beloved Community support the work of the Compassion Response TEam?
5. Anything else you want the folx to know?

What questions/wonderings do you have—either about the Compassion Response Team or this morning’s Word and Reflection?