not of this world

Friday November 27^th, John 18: 36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."  The kingdom of God simply is. All too often we want to make the kingdom our property, our domain, where we are the supreme recipients of God’s grace and all others can learn to deal with it.  But the kingdom is not our property, never was, never will be.  The Kingdom of God is for all people created in the image of God and called good.  Division, war, discrimination, voter restriction, us and them, refugees either welcomed or turned away, they are all our domain, our kingdom, and it is far from the kingdom of God.  God calls us to a new reality, one where the ruler is the Prince of Peace.  Where our being is dependent upon our learning to live with one another as brothers and sisters because that is what we are, were and always will be.  My kingdom is not of this world, and it is a kingdom of peace in which you and I and those we would call enemy live together and in the process learn to be brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God.