Living the kingdom of God has come near

Our world seems so deeply divided at the moment. We see this played out on our screens from the USA with deep divisions around Roe vs Wade and gun law reform. We see it in Ukraine. We see it here. Social media hasn’t helped, with people feeling free to say appalling things they never would face to face.  I wonder in the midst of all this what we might have to say?

Those division are not new. Maybe they are just more visible. They were around when Paul and Luke were writing. They were around when Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. And they are not part of how God desires this world to be. Jesus lived God’s shalom – wholeness, peace, wellbeing. He healed and restored community. His own community of followers was hugely diverse, including zealots, devout Jews, and tax collectors. Last week we heard him set his face to Jerusalem and all that lies ahead there – the seeming victory of all who seek to divide and devour. This week he sends out 70 (or 72) followers to join in his work proclaiming “the kingdom of God has come near” in their radical poverty and acceptance of welcome. At its heart is the acceptance of hospitality offered and gathering with others around that. The seeds are sown here for what happens in the book of Acts, and we are the inheritors of this story.

Paul was also an inheritor of this story. And he too knew division. It seems to have been a constant frustration. He too wrote how God’s love reaches out to all people without discrimination and brings people together in new communities where all the ancient divisions are set aside. These are communities shaped by the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5: 22-23) that proclaims the shalom of God through hospitality and welcome.

I wonder then what difference it would make if we sought to build communities where we carry each other’s burdens  (Galatians 6:2) rather than be right.