Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God!
Iain Snell

"What would the kingdom of God be like if it was established on earth,
and how would we go about establishing it?" Whoopz Cush-nn, my little
blue alien friend, asked me one day, for no apparent reason.
"What?" I said, completely forgetting the book I was trying to read,
feeling a little overwhelmed and bamboozled by this sudden and
seemingly reasonless question.
"What would the kingdom of God be like if it was established on
earth?"

"Well.." I said as I took a bible from the bookcase. "I don't think it
actually gives us a straight forward description in the Bible, of what
the kingdom of God would be like ? as such."

"As such?"

"As such, no. But it does give us clues as to what the kingdom of God
would be like if we established it here on earth."

"It does?"

"Yes." I said as I flipped through a few pages, in search of the Lords
Prayer. "Take this for example.

Mathew chapter6 verse9:

'This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your Kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.'

Now what do you think of that?"

"Very nice, but how does that describe the Kingdom of God?" Whoopz
Cush-nn was obviously puzzled and probably wished that he had never
asked.

"Well the prayer is in 2 parts. The first part basically says this.
'Holy God, We want your Kingdom to be established on earth as well as
in heaven.' So you can see that this prayer is about establishing the
Kingdom of God on earth. However it is the next bit that is
interesting. The Second part basically says this. 'Make sure we have
food everyday, Forgive us and we will forgive others, don't let us be
tempted and keep evil away from us.' So presumably, in the kingdom of
God, No one will ever starve, everyone will be forgiven if they do
anything wrong, nobody will be tempted to do anything wrong and there
will be no evil. Does that clear things up?" I said, closing the bible
with a sense of satisfaction that comes from answering a difficult
question.

"Well, yes" Whoopz Cush-nn said, but the tone of puzzlement had not yet
left his voice. "It still seems so vague though. Can't you be more
specific?"

I sighed and opened the bible again. "Okay." I said flicking through
more pages. "How about the beatitudes?"

" The Bee what's?"

"The Beatitudes! They are a bunch of things that Jesus said to a crowd
of his followers once. It goes like this:

Mathew chapter5 verses1-10

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of
God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Basically what Jesus was saying here is that, these people are the ones
who are going to make up, the Kingdom of God. So in the Kingdom of God
the mournful will be comforted, so nobody will ever be sad. The
merciful will be shown mercy, so nobody need fear revenge or harsh
judgment. The Poor of spirit will be looked after and those who are not
afraid to stand up for there belief in Jesus will be awarded along with
the meek.

Does that make it any less vague?"

"Yes, but what about the second part of my question? How can we
establish the kingdom of God on earth?"

"That? That's easy. At least, it's easy in theory. You could take this
straight from the beatitudes again. Everybody should be meek, merciful,
pure of heart and a peacemaker.
Also there are the ten commandments to think of as well. Exodus 20. If
we are all nice to each other, then the kingdom of god is practically
upon us. But that's only the theory part. Convincing the whole world to
be nice to each other, isn't easy. It might actually be impossible. So
I would recommend that you don't try to change the world. Instead try
changing yourself. If you Lead by example, and if your example is a
good one, then people will follow. They might not follow all that
quickly and there might not be all that many of them, but one person
follows you, and another person follows that follower, and so on, then
the cascade will effect a lot of people.

Now, have I provided a fully satisfactory answer to your question
yet?"

"Well????not really, but I suppose it's the best I'll get out of you!"
Whoopz Cush-nn said, quite matter-of-factly.

"If your still not convinced, you could always pray. Or seek
enlightenment through meditation. Or?.."

"??.ask someone else!" Whoopz Cush-nn cut me off as he dropped down
from the stool he had been sitting on and left the room, heading
towards the RMPS department.