The Kingdom of Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven

Personal Choice 

September 18, 2016

We live inside a narrative. Without myth, there is no culture. The stories we share inform the way we communicate and act within society. In the 19th century, country became the ultimate story. The hordes lost themselves in the cause of king and country, as nationalistic fever swept across Europe with fury. All it took was one event - one nation to take offense at another - for all the dominos to fall at once. Nationalism became the front door by which every country stepped into World War I. Finding fault in their fathers, the 20th century began to tell a new story in which ideology would become the ultimate narrative, doing what nationalism could not. The focus shifted from Russia to communism, Germany to socialism, Italy to fascism, and America to democracy. Desperate people of the world unite! And the 20th century did indeed outdo their fathers, leading the world to a Second World War whose destruction was even greater than the first. The stories became larger and larger until this point in history. 

After World War II we figured we had better make the story as small as possible. We reverted back into ourselves, creating an age of individualism. 

Our schools have only encouraged this kind of individualistic, narrow living. From a young age, children are taught to find ultimate fulfillment in their own small stories. We have dressed up this twisted philosophy with cute catch phrases such as “whatever makes you happy,” “to each his own,” and “be yourself.” Such appeals to the ego are like feeding a monster. The system creates kids that are comfortable and complacent in themselves and then becomes upset when they resist change and growth. We teach kids to make their own truth and become appealed when they do it. We treat creativity as institutional rebellion. The ones who have a larger than life vision that goes beyond their own small story are the most dangerous. The system exists to suppress uprisings of the soul.

Down the corridors of history one story has replaced another. Will we ever get tired trying on so many different stories? More importantly, will we ever find the right fit? What we need is a story that is able to include all others - always expanding -while maintaining the integrity of it’s identity. I believe that this is what Jesus means when he refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s the larger story, in which we have the freedom to move about. It trumps nationalism because it is able to unite all tribes and tongues and defeats ideology because it tells us truth is a person not a concept. If this is true then salvation lies in breaking out of my own story and becoming part of this one story that is always breaking out of itself: the kingdom of heaven.