So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:33-37)

“My kingdom is not of this world.”

Lately I’ve been trying to live more in a spirit of abundance. It’s been easy to feel like there’s not enough of something. Time, money, energy, time: the list goes on. When I find myself reluctant to expend any of these resources, it’s been helpful and interesting to ask myself, “What do you have to lose?”

When I ask myself this question I am immediately reminded of things that I cannot lose, God’s love being chief among them. As Paul says in Romans: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thinking of this has been helpful because it grounds me in the reality of God’s love and roots out the fear of scarcity. Being awake to God’s love has helped me feel comfortable taking what seem like risks. God loves me, and no amount of being awkward on the phone is gonna change that.

I think Paul would have saved a lot of people some grief if he included failure in that long list of things. Neither principalities nor powers nor failures can separate us from the love of God. Likewise, in the face of God’s love I no longer have to worry that I won’t have enough (of whatever the thing is), because I know that God will sustain me. There are a lot of qualifications that go along with that last statement, like discerning between faithfulness and irresponsibility, but for the sake of brevity I won’t elaborate. Anyway, God sustains us through all things, and we never truly have to fear being without his help, no matter how much we convince ourselves we’re alone in our struggles.

Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, Jesus tells us. How much more will he provide for his beloved children? Scripture also directly instructs us not to be anxious about anything, but to come to God in prayer and supplication. God’s freedom from the fear of scarcity is truly miraculous. Running out of resources is a very real threat for us. We can only do so much in a day. Our responsibilities can seem like such overwhelming burdens that they threaten to snuff out our very being. But, that threat only has power over us if we belong to the kingdoms of this world.

“All you who are thirsty come to the waters. You who have no money come, buy and eat. Come buy milk and wine without money and without cost. Why do you spend your money on what is not bread, your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. And delight yourself in abundance.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)

The fact that the kingdom of God does not belong to this world means that we don’t have to live inside of this world’s limits. We can give of ourselves without fear. We can give our time and our money. We can pour ourselves out without worry that the well will run dry or the tank drop to empty. And we can do that because when Jesus died for us and was resurrected, he opened the door to God’s kingdom so that we could step through it.

But we haven’t arrived there yet have we? In some more and less tangible ways, we are still tied firmly to this world despite what Jesus has done for us. We are like Schrödinger’s souls, existing in one world and now in another. We must choose to step into God’s kingdom everyday or we will be drawn inexorably back into this one. And how can we do this? Well the good news is that God is constantly drawing us into His kingdom. He is calling out to us in every moment if only we have the ears to hear. One of the most direct ways we can listen to God is through prayer. Most notably contemplative prayer (lectio divina is this kind of prayer) where we open our hearts and ears to what God has to tell us. We can listen further through a practice of solitude. By quieting the noise of distraction around us we become capable of more clearly recognizing God’s voice. A good time to find solitude is during your sabbath day. Leave your screens and other people somewhere else and go be alone with God. Lastly, we can step into God’s kingdom through acts of service. When we pour ourselves out without hope of gaining anything in return, it helps us to see that our reserves aren’t as depleted as we may think. So go, and live not as citizens of this world but as members of God’s eternal kingdom. Come to this table as often as you can and eat what is good, come buy this bread and wine, this body and this blood without money and without cost, come before this table, stepping into the kingdom of God, and delight yourself in abundance.

Not of This World: Akin Bailey

POWERED BY SQUARESPACE