No force

Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

Of course it is, since Jesus was standing right in front of the Pharisees. The story of Christmas and not only of Christmas but of the entire salvation story went very differently from what the pharisees or, indeed, us would have expected. No one came with a huge army to put things straight. Angels appeared, yes, but not to fight but to praise. No force was used. None.

It all started with a young woman and her fiancé and a baby. In Nazareth, Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth again. Nothing else. It continued through the baby’s childhood, early years working as a carpenter to a time of teaching and then the tragedy of his execution. No force – from God’s part, that is.

As I look around me I keep being surprised by Christian religious fanaticism because it is in such contradiction to the whole story of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. How can the meekness and gentleness of God’s plan, God’s love, lead to manipulation and to the use of force?

As I was reading today’s passage and the first part I chose to preach on I was and keep being struck with the smallness of things. Our theme sounds so grand, our King arrives in Glory, but all I see is this one man arriving with a donkey; Praised by the people around him, certainly, but at the end of the day just a guy riding on a donkey. No entourage of important people following nor an army behind him. Just him and some disciples. This was not a man with cloud, not from the perspective of the world at least.

And then I listen to the answer to the words to the Pharisees expecting to hear about a grand plan to make them almost like kings themselves, expecting to have a special place once the kingdom had arrived, once the Messiah had taken over, since had not they served God better and more diligently than anyone else? Instead they are told that a) the kingdom is already here, b) you can’t see it and c) it is among them.

The story almost, nay, reads like a riddle. What is it that is here among you and yet you cannot see it? And the gospel is a riddle in a way. God’s presence is not obvious. God’s nature seems to be to not show off, to not toot His own horn. That is why those little moments when the angels fill the sky praising God’s glory and when His voice is heard saying: “This is my son with whom I am well pleased”, are in fact extremely rare in the Bible. And all the more precious for us since they show us the other side of things, the side we cannot see, the side that is behind a veil, hiding the miracle; the miracle of God’s kingdom being so close we can touch it.

We might not be able to see it, we might not be able to say it is here or there, although I would be inclined to say it is right here where we come to worship God together as a congregation, but it is among us; whatever that means. It is a secret, it should be a secret and it will remain a secret. For me that is exactly how it has to be. It is enough to know that it IS - among us. Amen.