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Can you see the kingdom of God?

By David W. Shelton | January 12, 2007 |

One of the greatest struggles a person can have in their Christian walk is with themselves. Whether I’m counseling someone or just providing an ear, the daily struggles we all face over our own actions, attractions, or distractions, seem to be paramount. These struggles consume us. Sometimes, they even define us.

Put any label on that struggle you want. No matter what label the struggle might be (masturbation, alcoholism, rage, sex addiction, pornography, pride or arrogance, anger, our sexual orientation, or even excessive profanity) it will prevent us from one of the greatest things that our walk of faith provides. It somehow blocks us from being able to see the kingdom of God.

Okay, I’ve just thrown a lot of things in the air that apply to just about all of us in one fashion or another. In fact, I suspect most of our reactions to some of these things in the list I just wrote is, “but there’s nothing wrong with that!” After all, the Bible is silent on masturbation, Jesus Himself drank wine, pornography has its own issues, and who gives a damn about cussing? What’s more, I’ve written on the topic of homosexuality, and that I believe it is no more sin than being left-handed. Am I contradicting myself?

Not at all.

Whether we believe these things… these struggles… as sin or not is only a part of the equation that I think needs to be addressed. You see, a lot of theologians understand that masturbation (to pull a topic out of the hat) is just a natural part of human sexuality, and is not sinful in and of itself. In fact, it’s a normal part of life, especially if you’re young and single. But this is a question that I must ask: does it define you?

I ask the same thing to those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Are you defined by your sexual orientation or that you’re transgender? Are we gay or bisexual first before anything? If you’re transgender, are you trans- before anything else?

We can put any other conceivable ‘label’ in that equation. Heck, I probably haven’t even scratched the surface on the list mentioned earlier. What if I were to suggest that to focus our lives on these defining elements is to completely miss the point of Christianity or the kingdom of God? Okay, I can hear it now. “David, just what the hell are you talking about?”

You see, there’s something that a lot of us have ignored throughout the Scriptures. It is the kingdom of God. Jesus spoke about it more than just about any other topic (except love), and Paul wrote of it almost as often. In fact, Jesus spoke of it in John chapter 3, verse 3. This is the same chapter that the famous “God so loved the world” verse is from. Let’s take a look:

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. (John 3:3, NIV)

Okay, we’ve all heard this if we ever sat in a Baptist church for more than five minutes. “We must be born again.” I think I’ll be a little controversial here and say that we can’t possibly understand what being “born again” really is unless we understand what the “kingdom of God” is. Jesus said if we want to “see” the kingdom of God, we’ve got to be born again.

So what is He talking about? First of all, what is a kingdom? In the new book The Secret Message of Jesus, Brian McLaren talks about a kingdom where its ruler is intimately involved with the people. He is Lord, but he doesn’t control them. He passes laws, but they have a choice of whether or not to obey them. The king, the ruler of this kingdom, is not a distant watchmaker and is not tyrant which watches over every tiny detail of life. It’s a living, breathing world where people interact with each other and their King.

As McLaren describes it, God has such a kingdom, with Christ as Lord. This is a state of being where our whole worldview changes. We’re no longer looking at the world as if it’s a jumbled mess that just happened to be put in place. It’s an interconnected universe that’s held together by the glorious hand of God. In short, it’s a kingdom, not a pocket watch. God is intimately involved with us. He speaks into our lives, He heals, He ministers, and He gives us peace, hope, and love.

And to see this kingdom, Jesus says, we must forget all that we think we know or understand. We must come to Him like a child, as if we were just born. Hence, we must be born again. It’s not rules, it’s not laws. It’s just Jesus and His love for all of us.

With this in mind, maybe if we were to lay down our most dearly-held possession, whether it’s our self-worth or our sexual identity, we might begin to see the reality of this great kingdom, where a living, risen Lord has called us to minister to those who are hurting and wounded.

Instead of being identified as “Baptist” or “gay” or “Pentecostal” or any other label, no matter how it might fit into our Christian lives, what would happen if we first identified ourselves with Jesus? “I’m a Christian who happens to be charismatic,” one might say. Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll drop the secondary labels altogether. No matter what might separate us from each other, I submit that it’s always secondary.

When our eyes are fixed squarely on the risen Jesus, then you know what? It doesn’t matter what our denomination or sexual orientation might be. It doesn’t matter what sex or race we might be. It just matters that we’re a part of this great kingdom that has all of the sudden become even greater and more glorious. And more colorful.

It’s a kingdom worth seeing, and living in. Can you see it? Or can you only see what’s clouding your view?

Maybe it really is a rainbow kingdom.

About David W. Shelton

Posts by David W. Shelton are copyright (c)2006, 2007, 2008 by the author. All rights reserved. David W. Shelton is a writer, speaker and activist in Clarksville, and serves on the Clarksville Human Relations Commission. His passions include film and complete equality for all people, and he has worked in various capacities to work toward this goal. He is currently an illustrator, graphic designer, trainer, and is the owner of Imagine Media Solutions. He is an Adobe® Certified Instructor in Photoshop®.

Web Site: http://www.skippingtothepiccolo.com/

Email: dwshelton@att.net