For eighty-four days we have considered the kingdom sayings in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The kingdom of God is at hand, so close we can clasp it.

We are most likely to perceive the kingdom of God and reach out to it when we are in deepest need.

The kingdom of God is in the process of becoming. It is not yet completed. We can each play a part in its fulfillment.

To play our part we should not worry. We should watch and be ready to do what is needed. Loving God and our neighbor is how we can advance the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is scattered among weeds, thorns, stones, and hungry birds. But through every adversity it grows abundantly.

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or yeast: barely discernible, seemingly insignificant, yet expansive and potentially powerful.

The kingdom of God is like a treasure buried in a field or a pearl: hidden, unexpected, and worth everything.

The kingdom of God is like a wedding banquet. We are all invited. We can choose to participate or not. Even if we choose to participate we can choose to bring a receptive attitude... or not.

The kingdom of God is profoundly generous, if we are likewise. As we forgive, we are forgiven. As we love, we are loved.

Religious belief and practice can, if we are not very careful, complicate both participation and receptivity.

Distraction is a particular threat to experiencing the kingdom of God. Unless we can summon the eyes, ears, and heart of a child we are apt to miss it.

To experience the kingdom of heaven we are to be open to it, watchful for it, very much engaged in the present moment to perceive its hidden presence, and ready to act on it.

Tomorrow we will begin a study of the Saints.

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" 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." "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18: 33-37)

The Greek reads, "My kingdom is not of this kosmos." This is different from world, if by world we mean this planet. The Greeks would be more likely to use ge for our planet.

Kosmos is a much broader term and concept. It could refer to the physical universe or to the system by which reality is organized.

Is Jesus saying his kingdom is not of the created universe? Given his prior comments this seems very unlikely.

Further, Jesus is quoted as saying, Nun de o basilea o emov ou eimi enteuqen or "At present though my reign is not to be of this place."

Three hundred-fifty years before Jesus Aristotle described the kosmos as having neither beginning nor end, but existing of a constantly changing terrestial sphere and a much larger and unchanging celestial sphere. This is almost certainly how Pilate would have understood kosmos.

Is this is how we are to understand Jesus?

Above is Jesus before Pilate by Duccio.

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. (John 3:4-9)

Our second becoming is not a physical rebirthing, but a spiritual renewing.

The Greek for wind - pneuma - is the same word commonly used for spirit. We could read, "... born of water and the wind... The wind gives birth to wind... The spirit blows wherever it pleases."

Two centuries before Jesus, Chrysippus of Soli taught that the pneuma is an aspect of creation that causes movement in the universe and shapes individual growth. His original works are lost. But an ancient disciple explains, "The whole material world is unified by a pneuma which wholly pervades it and by which the universe is made coherent and kept together and is made intercommunicating." The pneuma actuates the logos: the fundamental character of the universe.

John begins his gospel with, "In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God."

We are to become as the wind, originating in God and extending out from God to the whole of creation.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3: 1-3)

It is a curious, even elliptical response.

Ean tis gennao anothen ou dunatai idein basileia Theos.

Ean tis: Unless one is...

gennao anothen: becoming upwards...

ou dunatai: does not have the power or ability...

idein basileia Theos: to see, know, experience the kingdom of God.

In discussing Plato's use of gennao Paul Elmer More writes: "There is no verb in English which conveys the various meanings of gignomai "to become," "to be made," "to be created," "to exist," etc. Furthermore Greek has a whole group of words connected radically with gignoimai for which English has no corresponding group derived from a single root. The translator is forced to make what shift he can. His perplexity is increased by the fact that Greek has another group of words connected with gennao "to beget," "to generate" which in their passive forms run parallel with the group connected with gignomai and can scarcely be distinguished in English Thus connected with gignomai we have genetos meaning created, while gennetos connected with gennao, means begotten, generated, born." (The Religion of Plato)

Are we to be born again, create again, or be in a state of becoming?

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. (Luke 23: 50-54)

Some understand this to mean that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Council that had voted to give Jesus to the Romans to be killed.

He was waiting for or expecting - prosdechomai - the reign of God. This also means receiving, accepting, or allowing. More literally it means to take with the hand.

Jesus often taught, "the kingdom of God is at hand." Joseph grasped the kingdom with his hand. He asked for the bloody body of Jesus.

In the Eucharist we have the opportunity to receive the body of Jesus. In serving those who are hungry, thirsty, and imprisoned we may clasp the hand of Jesus.

Even in the midst of trouble, tragedy and death we have the opportunity to reach out, to accept, and to experience the kingdom of God.

Above are Joseph and others deposing the body of Jesus by Duccio di Buoninsegna.

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ (Luke 23:39-43)

He asked for the kingdom. Jesus promised paradise. Is there a difference?

Paradise was widely understood as a restoration of the Garden of Eden, a place of enduring peace and pleasure.

The reign of God is a very different sort of place.

God's reign extends over rebellious borderlands and enemy camps. God's reign can be the cause of strife and struggle.

To choose love and to actively love can often require challenging the enemy, including my self.

You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22: 28-30)

On Christmas day this reading reminds us of the trials, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

It has been my practice to reflect only on references to the "kingdom of God." But on the eve of his crucifixion Jesus speaks of "my" kingdom.

Even more amazing he speaks of our kingdom. Just as God conferred a kingdom on Jesus, Jesus grants a kingdom to us.

The word translated as confer is diatithemai. Literally this is a bending down to arrange or a putting aside for later.

As a mother bends down to arrange her baby's blanket, so does God - through Jesus - bend down to us.