Jesus uses a lot of different parables and images to describe the Kingdom of God. What do we imagine the Kingdom to be like?
For those of you who read the Huron Church News, you will notice the next edition has me comparing the Kingdom to the Great Canadian Bake Off. I admit, I may have written it after doing some binge watching. The show features a wonderful diversity of bakers who talk freely about partners, including those of the same gender. There are non-binary participants whose they/them pronouns are used throughout. In one season there is an amputee with an artificial leg who is accommodated. They share their cultures and stories freely. They support one another, lift each other up, celebrate wins, and encourage each other when there are challenges. Even though it is a competition, they help each other. They become a family in a beautiful sense, kind of like how I imagine the Kingdom.
So, I guess the question isn’t so much what is the Kingdom of God like as it is what are we like in the Kingdom? Who do we imagine ourselves to be as part of the Kingdom of God?
Jesus said, "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
If we think about who we are in the Kingdom, what does it mean to be wise, to be ready to be part of the Kingdom?
When we think of the Kingdom as an embodiment of love, a place where all people are able to fully live and share their gifts freely, to understand the Kingdom as a place of peace and hope and joy, is to recognise that these are ideals for which we want to strive. Wisdom thus calls us to be ready by living in ways where we use our gifts and create space for others to share their gifts and embrace the blessings this can be.
This is a frame of mind that is not easily transferable. We can embrace each other in all our wonderful diversity, seeing the gifts and beauty in one another, and welcoming one another to the table. We can appreciate the blessings that are gained from recognising the gifts of diversity. We can’t simply give that to someone else.
This is ongoing heart work, letting go of assumptions, biases, prejudices, and stereotypes. It requires learning and unlearning. It requires deconstruction, and decolonisation. It requires a willingness to look with eyes of love that is more than we can ask or imagine.
Every person has to see this for themselves. Every person has to learn it for themselves. Every person has to get their own oil.
May we continually seek that oil, seek to understand the blessings that come from embracing God’s gifts in us, in the wonderful diversity of God’s Beloved children and Creation itself, and, in doing so, may we glimpse the Kingdom that is already and not yet. This we pray as we sing: The Kingdom of God is the Queerest of Nations.