BEING IN
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Tuesday after Easter is, “Being in the Kingdom of God.”

I was debating whether to use the words "being in" or "entering into" the Kingdom of God.

Whenever I do a baptism, there is a space in the ceremony where the priest or deacon reads a Gospel text. In the book there are 12 options at least, but I always pick the same gospel every time: Mark 10: 13 -16. It’s the scene where Jesus becomes indignant with his disciples for trying to push people away who have brought their children to Jesus to have him touch them.

I picked that text originally because we were taught it was an early baptismal text that establishes that the early church baptized babies. After using it about 10 times, I began to realize the great message in the text when Jesus says, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

I like to say to parents and those at a baptism that a child gets us out of ourselves and into the mysterious world of childhood again. A baby cries in the night and a husband says to his wife, “I’ll take care of the baby. You’re tired after a long, long day being a mother.” Selfish self- centered people can change when they have to change babies and schedules and their whole life – to raise a child – to be family.

I like to say to parents and those at a baptism that a child gives us glimpses of the mysterious world of imagination – that "Kids say the Darndest Things" – as Art Linkletter used to put it – that if someone takes the time to hear a kid explain his or her crayoned drawing – the adult goes, “Wow!” And a great smile comes on one’s face. Sometimes parents and grandparents need an audience to describe what their kid or grandkid said or did.

It could lead us to have God show us what God makes – spiders and squirrels and skunks and shrimp – trees and stars – a drop of sweat or a pinch of salt. And we go “Wow!” to God’s masterpieces.

When we get out of our state and into a child’s state – we can get into God’s state. We can leave the kingdom of me and entered the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of we.

SUFFERINGS

Well, last night when I read today’s first reading I began thinking about all this. Paul and Barnabas are giving us another way to enter into the kingdom of God – besides learning from children. It’s suffering.

Paul and Barnabas, as our text for today puts it, say, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Ba Boom! There’s a second threshold and entrance into the Kingdom of God: suffering.
I prefer the being a child – but Paul and Barnabas are talking to us.

It’s the way of the cross. It’s the seed dying, otherwise it’s just a seed, but if it’s buried, planted in the earth and dissolves to self, then surprise new life rises through the soil.

It triggered the memory of the old saying, “Suffering enters the human heart to create there places that never existed before.”

It triggered for me what I hear the Liberation Theologians of South America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and much of Asia, say for years now: with the poor we can discover the riches of God. Discover them. Be with them. Don’t put them down. If the term “liberation theology” is one of your buttons, then check out Mother Teresa. She was saying all this but even louder. The poor can be our best teachers – and bring us to Jesus. And more, it’s what Jesus is saying over and over again – when he talks about the Kingdom of God – those who were getting it – and those who weren’t – those who have fit through the eye of the needle – and discovered the riches of the kingdom.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Being in the Kingdom of God.” I talked about two keys to the Kingdom: being a child and suffering.