The Kingdom of Heaven is an eternally true concept (true for everyone, everywhere, at all times) that is seriously corrupted when it is seen as having to do merely, or primarily, with the realm of time (later) or space (somewhere else). There is both an inner (psychological-spiritual) and an outer (social-political-economic) dimension to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is where the practical values of which Jesus spoke in the "Sermon on the Mount" and elsewhere, and the spiritual values he embodied (incarnated) in his own life and ministry, reign supreme. Keeping the analogy of nesting dolls in mind.when a person, living on-purpose, treats the larger Whole of which he or she is a part as their larger Self, and loves it as such, that person is furthering the work of God's Kingdom no matter what their beliefs. God's kingdom is the realm of divine presence and activity where the 14 billion year "Way of God" (what the Chinese call "the Tao") is honored - where evolution is progressing in the direction of greater cooperation, interdependence, awareness, and intimacy with itself and God at ever increasing scale and evolvability. In light of evolutionary directionality, the Kingdom of Heaven can now be understood in a more comprehensive, meaningful, and this-world realistic way than ever before. Now that we know that Creation as a whole is becoming more interdependent and aware over time, and that humans and our supportive technologies are an integral part of this process, the Lord's prayer "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven" can be seen as having a depth and breadth of meaning that previous generations could not have known. To imagine "The Kingdom of God" as being some static, unchanging place within or outside of time and space is to disembowel this central New Testament concept of its power.Įvolutionary directionality changes everything. Rather, for Jesus, God's Kingdom was an inspiring vision of a religious, political, economic, and social reality, grounded in the Being and activity of God, which had a visible, measurable dimension as well as an invisible, non-measurable (spiritual) dimension. However, for him and his disciples, the idea of God's kingdom was nothing so trivial as a far off, otherworldly place. The Kingdom of God was central to Jesus' teaching, and for good reason. If it doesn't, we're doing God, our children, and the entire body of life a terrible disservice.
Thomas AquinasĪs our understanding of the Universe matures and deepens, so, too, will our understanding of the meaning and magnitude of the Kingdom of Heaven (Kingdom of God).
"A mistake about Creation will necessarily result in a mistake about God." - St.
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