The Kingdom of God is “the presence of God in all things and the presence of all things in God. In the Kingdom of God everything tastes divine and smells divine because the divine and the human, the heavenly and the earthly, are intertwined and interpenetrating. This is a great vision of the prophets of Israel and of the apostles.
“I think this is necessary because then no part of life is separated from God. If you speak only about the salvation of the soul, then you neglect social salvation and the salvation of the earth. We have a lot of one-sided theology, and we need this holistic understanding of the Kingdom of God which is present everywhere.”
Dr. Jürgen Moltmann is Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Tubingen, Germany. Widely considered one of the most important theologians of the last fifty years, his landmark book Theology of Hope (1964) has been translated into many languages. His other books include The Crucified God (1972), God in Creation (1985), and The Coming of God (1995).
May we pray this week, “Thy kingdom come.” And may we bring there our frail human hearts and all we can see and taste and smell of our earthy-human living, for there is no part of us or our living which is separate from God. May we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” And may we seek to find God everywhere present: may we seek to find God in the lives of the sick and the poor who come to us here seeking our care and in the lives of all those in the community which we are called to serve, and may we seek to find God everywhere in this good earth entrusted to our care. May all that we do this week be prayer. “Thy kingdom come.” Amen.
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