Build the Kingdom​

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I met Tony the other day. He was a Mancunian covered in tattoos and, as we spoke, it was quite obvious that he was a strong, brave man in whose life God was profoundly at work. 

His dad hardly ever worked, so in his childhood, the family had nothing. He escaped as soon as he could and joined the army. He lived the life of many soldiers: wine, women and song. Then his life fell apart. Accused of arson, he went to prison for 10 years. Life was hard, but he survived, and while in prison, God found him through the chaplaincy. He eventually married and has been happy for more than 30 years. I was amazed at this man’s honesty and integrity and what I saw in his story was a living testimony to the miraculous nature and work of God. His encounter with God has called him to a life of service.

Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel contains seven different parables about the Church as the means by which the Kingdom can grow. We are called to build the Kingdom, but unless we nurture our relationship with God, we won’t grow into the faithful followers of Jesus that we’re called to be. When we feed our faith through God’s Word and prayer, our hearts and lives overflow with the abundance of God’s grace and the Kingdom grows almost imperceptibly.

Membership of the Church doesn’t automatically make us part of the Kingdom. What makes us part of the Kingdom is to turn away from self and turn towards God. It’s that metanoia, that changing of direction within, that makes us Kingdom-centred. We have to choose every day to belong to the Kingdom, to turn away from self and look towards God. The reality is that every day we fail, and so every day we need to “repent”, turn towards the Kingdom and away from self.

 
Richard Rohr says that in one breath we need to say, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ and in the next ‘my Kingdom go’. So that’s the challenge we’re given, to pray for the coming of the Kingdom among us. 

How much time do you spend listening for the voice of God each day, just time to be still and listen? Maybe we’re afraid of what we might hear. 

We might hear that we must take risks in order to build community. That we must take the risk to welcome people, to be compassionate and understanding towards the divorced and remarried, to people living with HIV or AIDS, to those with mental health issues, those struggling with addiction, to the LGBT+ community – to everyone. 

We might hear that we must take the risk to care for one another and, through that caring, show the world the power of love. Tony’s life reminds us that the Kingdom grows not through perfection, but through lives transformed by listening to God. We are Church in order to reveal the Kingdom – a Kingdom that is a lived reality and whose ultimate measure is how willing we are to love one another.