Yesterday I had a fantastic conversation with one of my best friends in the entire world. Gabe (yes, that Gabe) and I talked for two and a half hours (not a normal thing, if you didn’t know, for two people with a male disposition), and covered pretty much, well, everything. We talked about tax laws, socialism, social justice, politics, starting families, raising kids, places to live, the godlessness of Europe, the godlessness of America, back injuries, back surgeries, succsess stories, master’s degrees, laziness, my job, his lack of job, our frustrations with jobs in general, getting older, and (hopefully) getting better.
In the course of our conversation — in the midst of the “social/politics” section — I had one of those mental epiphanies, where the clouds clear in fast-forward and a concept is sharpened, like I just put my glasses on.
Talking about our frustrations with the world and with the way that politics and governments interfere with human lives, I suddenly saw, as if for the first time, that there really are two kingdoms. (Forgive me as I try to communicate the picture in my head.) I know the “kingdom” word is a bit archaic, but I like it because it implies something imperialistic and vast, powerful and complex: think “Lord of the Rings.”
There is first “kingdom” that exists for nothing but itself, for the propagation of me, that desires power and position above all else, and will stop at nothing to get it. You don’t have to look very far to see this kingdom: turn on Fox News, pick up a newspaper, go to CNN.com, or read Boomsday.
Then there is another “kingdom” I see the outlines of — it’s a subversive, underground movement, really. This kingdom has no power, in the traditional sense. When looked upon by the first, has no prestige or position to speak of. But it exists, it is real. The main thing that differentiates it from the first is that it actually exists for the other kingdom — the kingdom that would (and often does) desire to crush it. It exists to liberate the captives of Kingdom #1. (To further elucidate what I’m talking about here, read The Secret Message of Jesus.)
There is already a book out there that uses a lot of this imagery, and it’s called the bible. But the problem is that, at least for someone like me who grew up around this book, I think our interpretation has been off. When the bible makes dichotomized statements about “the world” and “God’s kingdom” we have often mistook that to mean “non-follower” and “follower of Jesus,” respectively. But we’re not making it big enough! Kingdoms — empires, worlds — are made of many people; they are, by necessity, comprised of group dynamic.
I have a major issue with most christian-type people i know and the dualistic way that they think. (I actually have a whole chapter about this in my upcoming book, blur, which is SO close to being done and released I could just about spit.) Simply, we put people into categories — us versus them — and then wonder why we can’t love them. This is unhelpful, wrong, unfortunately very easy to do, and is a complete detriment to following Jesus, as he was radically inclusive.
The whole “parting-clouds” moment still didn’t happen for me, though, until, as I said, I put in the social/political factor.
The truth is that, until our belief moves from idea to action, from philosophy to praxis, from psyche to the streets, it doesn’t really matter. What you believe doesn’t really make a difference until it actually influences you to do something.
The first kingdom won’t care about what the second says until it senses enough action to imply a power struggle; unfortunately, the people who desire to occupy the second kingdom don’t often make enough waves to actually rock the boat. So we exist in this informational purgatory, where nobody gets hurt, but nobody ever gets better, either.
We will not even see these kingdoms until we move beyond rhetoric into reality — until we begin helping the poor, feeding the hungry, liberating the rich.
Until we inject our message with enough passion for justice to actually get off our fattened bottoms and DO something, I have to question what kingdom we’re really a part of. (Things Jesus said like this make a lot more sense now.) Our opinions can float us peacefully by all day long, but it means something different entirely if we’re getting thrown in real jails.
If we can re-adjust our focus to see the kingdoms that are at war, I think we’ll notice the split that really does exist. There is a sharp political implication to the message of Jesus, and viewed in that light, the things he said seem to start to make a lot more sense…
This is just the beginning.
(Sorry this blog is such a mess — I know it’s pretty disjointed and incomplete. Hopefully you were still able to salvage some part of what I’m trying to communicate! And yes, I get the irony that I’m writing this call to action in a blog, but believe me, I’m desperately trying to figure out the answer to the next obvious question: “Well, what should I do, then?” More coming soon!)
