Whose Kingdom is the World Today?

. . . undoing the illusion of "how"

In Rules for Decision A Course in Miracles asks: whose kingdom is the world for you today? Does it belong to ego? Or to Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Is it given to fear or to Love?

. . . think about the kind of day you want, and tell yourself there is a way in which this very day can happen just like that. Then try again to have the day you want (T-30.I.1:8-9).

But the answer isn't conceptual or abstract. It can't really be put into words. The clue is in the word “try.” We have to do something. The answer to whose Kingdom the world is for us is relationship - lived relationship, active relationship - and the relationship is always right in front of us. It's given.

The givenness is fundamental. Givenness is what simplifies our practice, making it less about the apparent specificity of activity - do this, don't do that - and more about just being present in a natural, serious and sustainable way to what is present to us, right now.

How blessed are you who let this gift be given! Each part of Heaven that you bring is given you. And every empty place in Heaven that you fill again with the eternal light you bring, shines now on you (T-22.VI.5:4-6).

These are not new ideas! For example, consider this narrative image of Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom" (22).

I am not especially interested in the historicity of this image, did it happen, did it not. I don't care whether or how it fits or fails to fit into the overaching theology of Thomas's gospel.

I am interested in the way an early community of Jesus followers - spiritual ancestors, brothers and sisters whose moral courage and commitment to service undoes time and space, and every other barrier to the recognition of Love - found this image culturally appropriate and spiritually helpful. They repeated it in the oral tradition and codified it in the written one because it worked.

But what does that mean - it worked? It means that - for them - the image clarified Jesus’s vision of the Kingdom of Heaven. In turn, the clarification allowed them to actually practice the Kingdom - to bring it forth in their living in helpful and collaborative ways. It was a collective expression of Atonement that sugared out in a practice of agape love (T-2.IV.5:1-2).

In other words, if you asked them whose Kingdom the world was that day, their answer would be grounded in the activity of nursing mothers and babies.

Is there anything we can learn from that image as we seek to realize God's Kingdom in the world today?

It is a woman-centered image, right? God the Father is replaced by God the Mother. Heaven is explicitly analogized to breast milk. Babies don’t have to genuflect or tithe or say the right prayer to gain access. They don't have to pass a test. They don't have to pay.

In this image, Heaven is free.

Also, breast milk is wild. Babies don't have to till soil, plant crops, water livestock or gather fuel for fires. Neither do nursing mothers. Like the birds of the air who are always given enough to eat, they do not worry will they be fed or able to feed (MT 6:26-27).

In this image, Heaven is naturally unconditional.

Finally, in in the same way that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike (MT 5:45), mother’s milk transcends human-made divisions. It’s not just Jewish mothers who nurse; it's not just Roman babies who nurse. It's not just the rich or the politically-connected. It’s everyone.

So in the image, God is a woman who does not have a favorite son but rather many sons and daughters among whom she does not distinguish. All are fed equally; all are given access to what sustains them. The markers by which we divide the world - race, class, gender, religion - are undone in the act of nursing. It is both prior to and beyond culture.

This indicates - points toward - a radically accessible Kingdom, one that is always fully and totally present to everyone. It does not distinguish between Roman and Jew, rich or poor, woman or man. To enter this Kingdom is easy and natural and relational. As one enters the Kingdom, the Kingdom enters them. The one makes possible - makes necessary even - the other.

But there is more.

Notice how in the image Jesus plays no role in delivering or providing or otherwise ensuring the Kingdom’s presence. He notices its presence, yes. He points it out, yes. But that is all he does. He is not the broker of God's Kingdom. God's Kingdom has no broker. Jesus enjoys no special privilege with respect to it because how could he? The Kingdom of Heaven doesn't work like that. It works like nursing mothers and babies.

Later variants of this story will slowly de-center both nursing and children and center Jesus as the Kingdom’s broker (e.g., MT 19:13-15, LK 18:15–17). The children will be brought by disciples to Jesus for blessing. But here, in this image, in this early way of teaching folks how to follow Jesus - how to become Christ, how to make the Kingdom of Heaven manifest - Jesus' role is simply to invite us to notice the Kingdom that is present and available now, without qualification or condition.

Which, fine. The Kingdom of Heaven is freely available right this moment. Very cool! But life is still hard. Cancer is a thing, starving kids are a thing, war is a thing. I miss the dead dogs, I miss old friends, my knees hurt, et cetera. So tell me: just how do we get or experience or know this freely given Kingdom of Love? It’s present now - it's given now - but we're unaware of it. We want to become aware. How?

Reasonable question!

But Tara Singh suggested that "how" questions are the very reason that the Kingdom of Heaven remains obscure to us. Why? Because they direct our attention away from what is freely given to the illusion that we have to earn or otherwise merit the given. We think there's a method. Somehow, some way, we have to pay.

And that, says Tara Singh, is a lie.

HOW is ever the false premise,
which makes you dependent on something else.

The means and the HOW produce the deception
and the illusion.

Without the HOW,
you would be in the present.

HOW IS HELPLESSNESS (The Voice that Precedes Thought 132).

“How is helplessness” undoes centuries of conditioning and learning, if we are ready to hear it.

In the nursing image in The Gospel of Thomas, Jesus merely observes the Kingdom's natural presence. He does not hold himself out as the means to its attainment. Trying to attain Heaven only obscures Heaven. It's not about seeking or will power or even learning. It is about giving attention to what is given.

Tara Singh said that A Course in Miracles teaches us what we are in truth, which is neither a mystery nor a secret but a perfectly given relationship revealing our inherent divinity. When we let go of “how,” that relationship reveals itself.

The Lord came
and we recognized Him not.
But He left without leaving.

Christ is a state.
In that state no one is divided
and everyone is a Son of God (The Voice that Precedes Thought 160).

Christ is a light that guides us into the day we want (T-30.I.1:9), which is also the day we want to offer to the world (T-30.I.16:7).

So two things are true when we answer the question, whose Kingdom is the world for us today.

First, the Kingdom is in us in a literal way and we can share it - indeed are called to share it - with others.

Second, the Kingdom is in others as well and they will share it with us.

It needs but two who would have happiness this day to promise it to all the world. It needs but two to understand that they cannot decide alone, to guarantee the joy they asked for will be wholly shared . . . It needs but two (T-30.I.17:1-2, 4).

Therefore, be with the one who is given to you today. Care for them. Consent as well to be cared for by those who are given to care for you. There are no royalty in God's Kingdom, only servants whose shared will is peace and happiness for all.

Together let us make it so.

~ Sean