Becoming Citizens of the Kingdom

Thursday's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Matthew 3:2

The simple answer is to be citizens of the kingdom of God. The more detailed answer is that we must commit to God's way of life (which is really the only way to live). So, how do we live God's way of life? I think it is to live under the authority of God's rule, which is not manipulative; in fact, God gives us so much freedom that God doesn't even force us to believe in God. God's rule or God's power is much different from our own. God's rule of power means reform of mind and behavior. God's power is the ability to influence change without manipulation.

As we face incessant revolutions around power-the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, broken relationships, and politics of envy-we will do well to know that the world's sense of power seeks to replace the true self (dynamically made in God) with a commodity-self, which only serves the production of consumer things. This was also the problem of how slavery came to be--justifying a commodified self.

Jesus' work on the cross is to show us a truer way of life-a truer way of being yourself, myself. A life not in things, but in each other, through God's kingdom.

Let us pray: O heavenly Father, who filled the world with beauty:Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works;that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serveYou with gladness; for the sake of him through whom allthings were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.