The kingdom of God - it should first be said - is NOT a kingdom. Jesus makes that pretty clear with his many dozens of “kingdom” parables eschewing crowns and rulers for seeds and bread. It was always a cheeky and politically provocative move for Jesus to use the language of “kingdom.” Some days we might lean into the subversiveness of cheeky kingly language, and some days (like today’s sermon) we decide to make plain that we’re talking about a KIN-dom of God, in which all our relations (all creation!) live in beloved kinship communities of justice, peace, interdependence, flourishing, and liberating love. The KIN-dom of God is like… a library, a quilt, watercolor paints or a drop of red dye, household dust and/or stardust, a jazz ensemble or perhaps more rightly a festival of jazz ensembles. And it is alive and within us now. We must imagine it to create it, and we need ALL the imaginations contributing to the collective collage that can only ever sniff at the wild and wooly and vastly all-encompassing dream of God. Series: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism Scripture: Matthew 13.31-33 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolution“The Kin-dom of Christ,” Melissa Florer-Bixler, Sojourners, November 20, 2018.“Freely Lent,” by Margaret Kearney, The Christian Century, October 20, 2021.“The Quilt We Make Together,” a poem written by Dwight J. Friesen following the 2026 Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) Annual Meeting, published in the PNMC e-Bulletin, July 20, 2026.Images: Quilt photo and Library photo by Megan Ramer; Jazz Ensemble photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash; Stardust photo (detail) by David Babayan on Unsplash.
