(Audio)
"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."
How shocking this must have been for those who expected the Kingdom to be achieved by military conquest. How shocking it probably still should be when we hear that the Kingdom is already present among us. We think of building the Kingdom, perhaps by helping the poor, perhaps by Evangelism, but not in so much in terms of an already present reality.
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.
The Kingdom is among us because the King is in our midst. We need not go off searching after this or that alternative.
There will be those who will say to you,
'Look, there he is,' or 'Look, here he is.'
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
We will solve nothing by simply finding a new celebrity to follow, nothing even by finding a better preacher or Church program. None of this will matter without Jesus at the very center. To the degree he is at the center any program can work, any preaching can be good, even a celebrity's influence can be put to good use.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
The Kingdom does not compete with the kingdoms of this world. It operates on entirely different terms than those of power and oppression. The Kingdom is present wherever the spirit of Wisdom abides. This spirit is not present because of the power of those whom she pervades. Rather she enters only into those willing to share in her purity, those who are willing to be made friends of God.
For she is an aura of the might of God
and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nought that is sullied enters into her.
...
And passing into holy souls from age to age,
she produces friends of God and prophets.
Let us welcome the true light that shines when Jesus is at the center of our lives. Let us welcome wisdom to direct us and order the Kingdom in which we dwell. Without wisdom at the center we miss the great things that are already happening within and around us.
Compared to light, she takes precedence;
for that, indeed, night supplants,
but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.
Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily
and governs all things well.
Come, Holy Wisdom! Teach us to be pure as you are pure. Make us friends of God so that we can take our proper place in his Kingdom and at his wedding feast.
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