Kingdom Meditation (03/01/2026)

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us today

We ask you to care for our friends
Our families today
Where there is stress
Grant calm and resources and faith
Where there are hurts
Or resentments
Grant patience
And forgiveness
And the courage
And intelligence
To make amends
Where there is loss
And Loneliness
And isolation
Grant that they know
Your loving presence
And that we make time
And space to
Offer our loving presence as well

Help us love others
Especially those
Close
In timely
And tangible ways
Loving others in
Ways that are fitting
And help us become
the people who
are better able to love
Putting aside our fears
Our anger
Our pride
Our impatience
Our resentments
And our need to win
Knowing
A loving friendship
Is a win for each
And a gift to the world.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 
Luke 6:20-23, 27-28, 35, 40

Intro: I’m not convinced we’ve ever truly understood Jesus

At least not as deeply or fully as he intended
– not “as deeply,” because we tend to stay on the surface
• we read the words and verses without penetrating their depth
• we grab at interpretations that make immediate sense
◦ and we settle for simplistic “commentary” explanations
– I don’t think Jesus taught in riddles – sometimes, perhaps
• he did not teach in a secret code that required deciphering
• but it’s possible that his intent was that the meaning of his message would be revealed to us
◦ and only then will we be able to live it in truth and deed

If Jesus’ teaching is challenging to grasp and live, there’s a reason

And that is because he wants to change our lives and not merely add to our knowledge
– to do that, we must first change our hearts
• this is where his teaching begins!
“From that time Jesus began to make his proclamation and to say, ‘Change your hearts; for the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Mt. 4:17, David Bentley Hart’s translation)
– the second part of the invitation, “the Kingdom of heaven” is related to first
• on one hand, we change our hearts to prepare for kingdom
• on other hand, the kingdom works the change in our hearts
◦ this does not mean we have a new set feelings,
◦ a new way of seeing, thinking, and being in the world

Two credible authorities left a strong impression on me

Neither one was a Christian, but they realized something
– namely, that there’s more to our universe than we experience with five senses
William James, writing in early 20th century, on mysticism, “One conclusion was forced upon my mind . . . and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness . . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.”
Arthur Deikman, explained that we work at knowing our world and everything in it in order to make our way through life, grasping, manipulating, and controlling as much as we can. These are our typical self-centered preoccupations. But we can also develop and deepen our awareness of the world, the things in it, other people, and of our own selves. “Through that experience one can know a larger reality and a larger self.”
• they were poking around at the possibility of a reality coexisting with our material universe
◦ and the possibility of becoming conscious of it
• I believe they were on the trail of looking for God
God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move
and have our being’” (Acts 17:26-28)

Hidden beneath Jesus’ teaching, is an unseen reality
– it is outside the range of our normal perception
• we cannot see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, or smell it
• but the prophets of Israel experienced it and so did the apostles
– there are questions about developing this spiritual sight that I’ve been asking for fifty years
Arthur Deikman also asked these very questions, “. . . is there any evidence supporting the idea that human beings can develop in themselves a new form of perception, one that is latent but requires special conditions for its development?” And later he asks, “Are we possessed at birth of neuronal circuits with a developmental potential for the kind of direct, intuitive knowing that mystics say is possible? . . . Can that potential be revived by specific exercises . . . ?”
• I’m convinced that this was Jesus intention, to train us in improving our reception of God’s kingdom
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” (Lk. 8:9-10)

The teaching of Jesus brings to us enlightenment

As Christianity migrated from the East to the West, it became more rational and less experiential
– I believe Paul understood this well, and it’s why he prayed for the Ephesians, that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know the hope to which he had called you . . . .” (Ep. 1:17-18)
– the enlightened heart is able to learn and comprehend God’s truths
• when Jesus begins a lesson with, “Blessed are you who are poor,”
◦ he is doing more than providing instruction in “the basics”
◦ he is enlightening his hearers to the unseen reality of the kingdom
and at the same time, he is pushing them toward it
• the only way to grasp the authentic message of Jesus is through the kingdom of God
◦ to know it, to seek it, and to live in it
– for Jesus, the kingdom wasn’t a concept, doctrine, or lovely idea
• it’s a real dimension, and in our encounter with it everything changes
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt. 13:44)
• this is not an easy education nor a gentle process
◦ it first of all shatters our worldview, then reconstructs it
◦ for Jesus, the kingdom is everything

Let’s look at verse 35 to see how this works
“love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return . . . .”

– David Hart translates this, “love your enemies and lend without despairing of it”
– how can I loan a thing (like one of my cherished books) I love and not despair of never seeing it again?
• I can do this only if my reality is transformed
◦ if nothing has a greater hold on my heart and imagination, than God and his already present realm
• if I sought first the kingdom of God,
if I have found that treasure in the field,
then I can be at complete peace when I see the things of this world drift away

What is Jesus doing in us in this message he proclaims?

If you say, “He’s giving us necessary information on how to be his disciples,”
– you haven’t understood him
• you’re just scratching the surface – you’re looking at words
– Jesus is opening windows to the kingdom of God
• when I read, “love your enemies,” I can’t say to myself,
“I’m going to have to work really hard to do this”
because that won’t get me anywhere
◦ what I’ve missed is what Jesus wants to do within me
◦ in my heart and mind
• I’d be closer to the mark if I confessed, “I can’t do this!”
◦ then Jesus would tell me,
“That’s right, you can’t–and you never will be able to do this;
not as long as you’re thinking the way everyone else thinks”
◦ when Peter rebuked Jesus for announcing his death,
Jesus “turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Mt. 16:23)
• in Romans and 1 Corinthians Paul talks about the difference between the mind of the flesh and the mind of the Spirit
◦ we could also use language like the worldly mind and the spiritual mind
or the old self and the new self
– we cannot live Jesus’ teaching without first seeking God’s realm
• his teaching opens that realm to us, and that realm opens his teaching to us
• and when this happens, as Paul says, we become
“renewed in the spirit of [our] minds” (Ep. 4:23)

One more time; what is Jesus doing in this impossible teaching?

He is working in us at a depth to which we could not humanly go
– he is defying my rational assumptions about my life in him
• and if he succeeds with me, what will I be? Verse 40:
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher”
• I will have experienced a fundamental change in how I see the world
◦ it has lost its grip on me
◦ I’ve been liberated into the kingdom… where “all things are possible”

Conclusion: David Hart, translates “Blessed are” as “How blissful”

and he explains how the Greek word, makarios, means “blessed,” “happy,” and “fortunate”
“but originally with a connotation of divine or heavenly bliss”

We’re not looking for mystical truth, we already have it!
What we lack, is the development to appreciate and utilize what we’ve been given
so that we can understand the truth and live it
There is so much more for us – greater peace and joy
And when we get there,
we really be able to settle into knowing what Julian of Norwich meant
when she wrote:
“All shall be well,
and all shall be well,
and all manner of thing shall be well”