- \n
- Everything is included. Whether we want to be in it or not, all of creation is a part of the Kingdom of God.<\/li>\n
- Everything is connected to everything else. The Kingdom of God is orderly. It makes sense. If you change one thing it will always affect everything.<\/li>\n
- People, with our human limitations, cannot fully comprehend the Kingdom of God. We cannot know all of the creatures in it and we will never know the whole order and pattern it contains.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
And then there is the last principle which really complicates things:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Though we can never fully describe the order of the Kingdom of God, there are major penalties for us if we violate that order. Even though we don\u2019t know how things are connected there are limits, and when we go over those limits we always know it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
This makes sense to me in about a million ways. God\u2019s life and love are continually present amidst the messiness of the world today. God\u2019s creation has an order. It makes sense. And we are inextricably connected with God and all that is. But God is also unfathomable mystery. We cannot fit God into a box! We cannot understand the amazing interconnectedness of the cosmos, our relationships and our own inner lives.<\/p>\n
But this is where it gets tricky. When we mess up we know it, but we don\u2019t always know how our untidiness came to be. There is an invisible line we cross, sometimes every day, which lets us know that we are not in harmony with God and the rest of the world. For me, this happens when I fall into desolation and I struggle to get out of bed. Or, when I thought we were best friends and then we are not. The hourly news feed is a constant witness to the violation of the order of peace and justice in the world. And then there is our destabilized climate and its increasing chaos\u2014a global wake up call to the violation of the order of the cosmos.<\/p>\n
So how is the Kingdom of God like topsoil? In the same article, Wendell Berry describes how the Kingdom of God, which he also calls the Great Economy, is like topsoil. The dirt in which things grow is amazing. It turns death into life. In topsoil, everything is connected to everything else and this tremendous, life-producing balance is maintained … but we are really not quite sure how this happens. We cannot make topsoil. And we cannot make a substitute for it or replicate the complicated, intertwined processes that make it work.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soil-plant-hands.jpg?w=300\")
<\/p>\nBut then, somehow through misuse, we begin to \u201close\u201d topsoil. We cross over some invisible line and the miracle of interconnected life stops working. Topsoil is defined as good quality, life-giving dirt and is only preserved by the careful care of farmers. When we violate the order\u2014when we cross that line\u2014we lose the quality of topsoil and it\u2019s difficult to get it back.<\/p>\n
The concrete example of topsoil helps me see my own life and interconnectedness to God more clearly. I am a miracle of life. All around me, life is both infinitely precious and a part of me. I am the child in Manchester, England who lost her life in mindless terrorism. I am the Syrian family bombed by coalition forces. I am the forests lost to mindless industrialism and I am the last Giant Ibis. I am the stars, the wind and the precious dirt that grows life. We are all connected. That is what it means to be the Body of Christ. You are the eye, and I am the foot and love binding us forever together. We are the forces of hope. We are the destruction that seems impossible to stop.<\/p>\n
Part of what gives me hope is that things are getting better<\/a>. Contrary to popular opinion today there are fewer wars, less violence and a bigger reduction in crime rates than just a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Every death is a tragedy that should be mourned but when we step back from the emotions and look quantitatively at our world today, the good is winning. Hope is having the last word.\u00a0 Our interconnectedness is a gift and I truly believe that today more people are honoring it than ever before. This means that the Kingdom of God\u2014God\u2019s passionate desire for peace, justice and a world ordered by love\u2014is becoming more visible and more possible every day.<\/p>\n
Amen. So be it. Amen.<\/p>\n
About the Rabble Rouser<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"Sister-Sarah-Hennessey-cake-face\"](\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sarah-final-vows-cake-002.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\nSister Sarah Hennessy<\/strong><\/a> is a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration<\/strong><\/a> based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She grew up in North Carolina as an active Quaker and became a Catholic in 2000. For her, Jesus\u2019 messy business includes falling in love with Christ AND with the People of God! Her heart is on fire for the Hispanic community, poetry, playing guitar and\u00a0accompanying people through birth, death and the living that comes in between. She currently ministers as the perpetual adoration coordinator at St. Rose Convent<\/a>, as a Mary of the Angels Chapel<\/a> tour guide<\/a>, and a volunteer at Franciscan Hospitality House.<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wendell Berry speaks of the Kingdom of God like an economy\u00a0in a way that totally burns in my soul and speaks to our world situation today.\u00a0He describes four major principles of the Kingdom of God: Everything is included. Whether we want to be in it or not, all of creation is a part of...","protected":false},"author":7668253,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115341],"tags":[354011,214,121024,64204,26143,401,7816,294480,2606,124,230972,3785,1705019,2128,34941365,278939,18726,538,3934,299777,1857],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-7301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equity-and-justice-equity-and-justice","tag-body-of-christ","tag-christianity","tag-connected","tag-cosmos","tag-creation","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-interconnectedness","tag-justice","tag-life","tag-limits","tag-love","tag-messiness","tag-peace","tag-relationship-2","tag-topsoil","tag-tragedy","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-wendell-berry","tag-world","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soil-plant-hands.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"
Kingdom of God<\/a><\/blockquote>
- Though we can never fully describe the order of the Kingdom of God, there are major penalties for us if we violate that order. Even though we don\u2019t know how things are connected there are limits, and when we go over those limits we always know it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n