“How do you expect me to believe in God,” asked Woody Allen, “when only last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of my electric typewriter?” There are many people like Woody Allen who focus on the annoyances of life rather than wonderful things of life. It always seems that the troubles of life define their view of the world, rather than the great blessings of life. If the present isn’t bad enough, the future is sure to be full of trouble or bring some fresh disaster. In an interview for the Boston Globe, Woody Allen confessed: “It’s hard for me to enjoy anything because I’m aware how transient things are… Yes, there are times when you think, ‘My God, life is sweet, it’s nice,’ and thoughts of mortality are in abeyance. You know, watching the Marx Brothers or a Knicks game or listening to great jazz, you get a great feeling of ecstasy... But then it passes, and the dark reality of life starts to creep back in.”
But it is not just Woody Allen, and others who reject the reality of a loving God behind the universe who is directing the course of the world. I have known many professing Christians who always seem to be living on the dark and sour side of life. In fact, as I read the Bible I discover that many of the major characters in Scripture were focused more on what was wrong in the world than what God was doing to make the world right.
The major focus of Jesus was the kingdom of God and what God was doing in the world all around him. The power of Rome and its occupying army was hardly a blip on the radar for Jesus, even though it was foremost in the minds of almost everyone else. He was not afraid of Pilate, even though he was the governor of Judea and held the power of Caesar. When Jesus was being questioned by Pilate at his trial, Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” But Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:10-11). Jesus’ focus was not on the power of the government, but on the power of God. He stood before Pilate in complete confidence. What was it that freed Jesus from fear and gave him such confidence in life? It was the constant awareness of the presence of the kingdom of God.
As we consider the kingdom awareness of Jesus, let’s look first at the fact that: People often miss the presence of God. It happened all through the Bible. This happens first with Adam and Eve in the Garden. God has told them they can do anything they want and eat anything they want, except one small thing -- don’t eat from the fruit of one particular tree. And then, as soon as they think God is off somewhere resting, they proceed to eat the fruit of the tree, as though he is not present and does not know what they are doing. Somehow they seem to be unaware that the presence of God is all around them all the time, whether they can see him or not.
Then we have Abraham and Isaac. God breaks into their world and makes special promises to them. But apart from these special visitations, they seem to be unaware that the Lord is still with them, and they doubt the reality of the promises he has made to them.
Then there is Isaac’s son Jacob. Jacob is on the run from his brother when God breaks into his world in a dramatic way. As he falls asleep, God opens to him the reality that earth and heaven are not two separate places ) they are connected. Jacob sees a ladder connecting the dwelling of God with his dwelling on planet earth. The point is that this is not some supernatural, mystical vision, this was the revelation of what was real and had always been real. It was not that something happened to Jacob that was an unnatural, one-time event, it was that the kingdom of God was always there waiting to be discovered. And it was not just in that particular place which Jacob named Bethel where God lived, but God lived everywhere. Bethel was not an unusual experience of one man far back in history, but a reality for every person, in every place, in every time. I have had many experiences of discovering the presence of God and his heaven on earth: canoeing on a wilderness lake, looking into a night sky with the stars popping out of the darkness, seeing the birth of a baby, watching the love shine between two older people. I have had Bethel type experiences in prayer or when reading the Scripture, and I have had them when I least expected them. The point is, God is always trying to break through our world ) if we will only be aware of him. I believe God was trying to speak to Jacob many times in his life, but he was not ready to experience God until he was desperate enough.
The same could be said for Moses. Hadn’t God been trying to break through in Moses’ life many times? But it was not until Moses had spent awhile away from Egypt, and the suffering of his people was gnawing at his insides to the point of desperation, that he was ready for God to come to him. The Bible says, “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up… When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5). I believe that every place is holy ground, and the only thing that keeps us from experiencing God is our willingness and readiness to experience him.
Elijah thought that he was ready to meet God. He knew the power of God. He had just seen God consume the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. He had set up a duel between the god Baal and the God of Israel. The prophets of Baal ) the storm god ) could not make lightning come out of heaven and burn up the sacrifice that they had placed on the altar. But Elijah had soaked his sacrifice, and the wood under it, with buckets of water, and then in one simple prayer he saw God send lightning to consume the sacrifice. But now, Queen Jezebel was seeking to take away his life, and Elijah is tired, discouraged and depressed. He wanted to experience the power of God. God sent a great a powerful cyclone, but he was not in the cyclone. God sent a great earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. Then the Lord sent a consuming fire that ravaged the area, but God was not in the fire. Then came a gentle whisper, and it was so holy and full of the presence of God, it made him pull his cloak over his head and cover his face. The whisper was so powerful that he fell to his knees.
This leads to the second point: The Kingdom of God comes in simple ways. He comes in the whispers, not the earthquakes. I think of Jesus’ words in the Scripture for today, where he said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). The people of the day were expecting some great cataclysmic event where God would break through into the world, but Jesus told them it was much simpler than that ) the kingdom was within them. It was also all around them, but they couldn’t see it.
A definition for the kingdom of God would be, “The place where God reigns.” So when you allow God to reign and rule in your life, the kingdom of God is within you. Sometimes when we can only think of the Kingdom of God coming in a dramatic way, we miss the simple ways that God is at work. When we only think of what God is going to do in the future, we miss what God is doing in the present moment. If we only think about Jesus’ second coming, we miss the fact that he has already come, and he is here now. If we only think about being with God in heaven, we miss being with him now. If we only think about heaven being “out there,” or “up there,” we miss experiencing heaven on earth. We don’t want to be like those about whom Jesus spoke when he said: “Seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matthew 13:13).
At one point Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28). Many people are confused by that scripture, because they think that they did not see the kingdom of God come before they died. But they miss what immediately happened following those words ) the account of the transfiguration. The Bible describes it like this: “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus” (Matthew 17:2-3). They had seen him coming with glory in his kingdom, and did not really see him or understand, because they had a preconceived idea of what it would mean for him to come in his glory. It was not that Jesus was transformed into something different from what he was, they simply saw him for the person he had been all along. They saw the real Jesus, which before they did not have eyes to see. They kept expecting the kingdom to come in some spectacular way that would overturn the present world order, and they missed the fact that it had been with them all the time, and was indeed transforming the world.
We keep expecting God to come in dramatic ways that stun people, and cause them to believe and turn to him. We think of God parting the skies and coming in blazing glory, and the day will come when that happens, but in the meantime, let’s not miss all the ways that God is already showing up, and his kingdom is breaking into the world.
Singer Sheryl Crow said recently, in a New York Post interview: “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed and all those that were enlightened. I wouldn’t say necessarily that I’m a strict Christian. I’m not sure I believe in heaven.” Sheryl Crow is where many people are today; they believe in everything and nothing at the same time. They are not sure they believe in the kingdom of God. But at some point you are going to have to land on both feet and have them go in the same direction. In order to be aware of the kingdom of God around you, you have to believe in the kingdom of God, and the One who is the King of that kingdom. Jesus thought that the kingdom of God was so important that it should be our highest priority. He said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
The point is that it is simpler than we realize. God works powerfully in the small and simple ways. We see it when we begin to walk through the day as though the world belongs to God and he is in control. It is going through life with an awareness of the presence of God, even in the smallest things you encounter. It is living with a positive, optimistic attitude toward life, because we are in love with God and we trust him. We live in trust and joy. Our lives are full of laughter. We realize that we have found something that is worth more than anything we could buy. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).
This leads right into the third point, and it is that if we are to be followers of Jesus: We are called to live in awareness. We don’t want to walk around with our heads in the sand and miss what God is doing. We don’t want to be so anxious for God to do something big that we miss what he is doing in a million small ways, right now, in unexpected places, with unusual people and in unanticipated ways. We don’t want to be so busy looking for the supernatural that we miss the natural ways that God is at work, which are every bit as powerful and life changing. And if we look for those things and see those things, a new joy and confidence will begin bubbling up in our lives. Jesus said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32). But you never see it growing if you are not looking.
Dallas Willard, in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, writes, “Spirituality in human beings is not an extra or ‘superior’ mode of existence. It’s not a hidden stream of separate reality, a separate life running parallel to our bodily existence. It does not consist of special ‘inward’ acts even though it has an inner aspect. It is, rather, a relationship of our embodied selves to God that has the natural and irrepressible effect of making us alive to the Kingdom of God — here and now in the material world.”
Brandon A. Bradley told his story in Pray! magazine last year: “I am a surgical assistant—the surgeon’s right-hand man. At one point in my career, I lost my passion. I wanted a job with spiritual significance, and I prayed for that. Imagine my shock when God led me to a position in plastic surgery. Why would God want me in a hotbed of vanity? I wondered. During my quiet times, the Lord assured me that this was part of his plan, and that I should wait upon his direction. So I obeyed, continuing to pray that the Lord would use me in this job. The first thing I heard him say when I started my new position was, ‘Gather and pray in my name.’ There were only a few Christians who worked in the plastic surgery department, but I started with them. ‘I’m going to start praying for our workplace each Monday, 15 minutes before we clock in,’ I told them. ‘I’ll be in Operating Room 2, and I hope you will join me.’ We met each week, praying for our work, our colleagues, and our patients. Soon we were praying boldly for opportunities to witness. By the end of that year, God had answered many prayers, which included 10 friends who accepted Christ as their savior! God has blown me away with his answers, and he has given me a purpose far beyond patient care. He expanded my circle of influence by transferring me to the main surgery department, where I now rotate through all four surgery departments in the hospital campus. I have been able to start several prayer groups throughout the hospital. Each group focuses on inviting the Holy Spirit to move in their department. They encourage each other in Christ, pray for opportunities to witness, seek God’s will, and ask that Christ be glorified in their work. I don’t know if I’ll always work in a surgery department, caring for patients who are under anesthesia most of the time I’m with them. But since I realized that I could advance the kingdom of God through praying at work, I have found renewed passion for my job, as well as for the opportunities for ministry it provides.”
Brandon has a new understanding of the kingdom of God, because he began looking for it in a place and ways where he did not expect God to be at work. Amazing things happened as he opened himself to the reality of God being with him and working through him where he was. Don’t be like most people and miss the presence of the kingdom which is all around you. Look for God working in the simple ways that you have been blind to before. Imitate the life of Jesus as you live in awareness of the kingdom of God, for he is within you and in the world where you live. Jesus said, “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).
Rodney J. Buchanan
March 4, 2007
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
