Intersect

Last week we talked about Jesus’ radical idea of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus envisioned a world where all nationalities, ethnicities, genders, and social statuses delighted in each other’s diversity by recognizing each other’s inherent divinity. This recognition of individual divine worth, ultimately, leads to the creation of entirely new societies. Jesus calls this transnational, ethnic-barrier-breaking, gender-identity inclusive, society the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is ruled by God, and God alone, not by emperors or priests, and never by blind faith. The kingdom of heaven is the embodiment of God by all humans (all is very important to Jesus), and our recognition that a united globe of human citizens ruled by attributes we universally ascribe to God is so much better than 600 nation-states vying for power and control over little patches of land. Land which, in Jesus’ divine kingdom, doesn’t belong to anyone unless it belongs to everyone. Jesus’ message is univer...

In  a fabulous GE commercial  found here , the narrator says, “Ideas are the natural enemy of the way things are.” Ideas exist to create change, to upset the accepted wisdom. Ideas move the entire species forward. From stone tools to iron horses, innovation displaces and disrupts the status quo. New, especially radical, thinking is often met with distrust and disdain. When the person that invented the wheel showed it off, my guess is everyone’s first reaction was, “Hey! I don’t know what that is, but if you lay it flat, it would be a great table.” It’s tough for people to accept new ways of doing and thinking. We become entrenched in “the way it’s always been done,” so much so that most of us never think about doing it differently. Sometimes, we simply fail to recognize there is a better way. Other times established interests, especially political and religious interests, fight tooth and nail to maintain control over their kingdoms. But now and then, someone with incredibl...