The Kingdom Within

Monday August 13 2018

Throughout the summer we are revisiting some favourite Ron Ferguson columns.

In March 2015 he argued that both sin and God are closer than you think.

IN the American midwest there are several Bible colleges. There's great competition for business, and they advertise in various magazines. Some time ago, one of them advertised its college as being 'located seven miles from any known form of sin'.

What they meant was that its students would have to travel at least seven miles to find a pub, a brothel, a disco or a cigarette machine. It was intended to reassure parents of prospective students that they would be far removed from temptation.

Despite calling itself a Bible College, it had missed the point. Quite spectacularly, in fact.
What we know as sin is not located seven miles away or even seven feet away. We don't have to look any further than the human heart. It's as close as that. It's there that we find our own woundings and our own shortcomings.

Jesus says that it's what's inside a person that counts, not what's outside, not the externals, not the image.

So: sinfulness, brokenness, wounds and the need for healing are no distance away. We only need to look in the mirror.

All of us.

Without exception.

To say such things is not to be pessimistic, but simply to be realistic.

That's the bad news: that sin is not seven miles away, but is much nearer home.

So where's the good news that the Gospel talks about? The good news is that the kingdom of God is within us as well. We are not located seven miles from any known form of good news. We don't have to travel any distance. It's here.

Down through the centuries there have been people who have thought that you had to travel a distance to find God. Physical pilgrimage is a great and rightly honoured theme in Christian history. Many people have been helped in their lives by journeying to places like the Holy Land and Rome, or Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Or, nearer to home, Iona. There is something about an intentional physical journey on a pilgrimage route – however demanding – that can enliven the soul and bring new and refreshing life.

There are dangers, though: not just physical dangers but spiritual ones, especially if the pilgrim believes that his or her way is the only way to God.

Celtic Christians believed in pilgrimages, but:

Going to Rome, going to Rome?
'Twill bring no profit, only trouble.
The king thou there wouldst quest
Not found shall be, if He go not in thy breast.

The paradox at the heart of this business is that if you're going to find God in pilgrimage, you've got to find him on the journey in your own heart. The kingdom is within. An old Celtic writer put it this way: "Since God is near to all who call upon him, no necessity is laid upon us to cross the sea. For one can approach the kingdom of heaven from every land."

So: pilgrimages are helpful, but only if the external physical journey is matched by a journey inwards. In the heart.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was teaching a class of children, some Hindus and some Christians. She asked them: "Where is God?" The Christian children said: "Out there" and the Hindu children said "In here".

They were both right, of course.