By Eunhyey Lok

The Kingdom of God — what can I say or write about this that hasn’t already been written and said? And yet, it has been at the center of why being a Christian means so much to me.

Having been raised in a Korean immigrant church, North American evangelical teachings shaped my theological lens through an emphasis on personal piety — individual salvation from my sins through the sacrifice of Jesus. While I never stopped believing in the necessity of that part of the gospel, in my 30’s I hit a wall in which I couldn’t connect to why it mattered. What I didn’t understand then is that this gospel for my own individual soul felt hollow because it was not the whole gospel. Jesus’s gospel about the Kingdom of God being at hand included more than just my salvation from sin.

The Kingdom of God in the Greek scriptures is something that Jesus says we will (or won’t) get into but not on the basis of our personal piety. It is something the poor and children will inherit (Lu 6:20, Mk 10:15) and that “tax collectors and prostitutes” will get into before the wealthy (Mk. 10:23) and those who are more consistently religious (Mt 21:31). It proclaims a God who prioritized the healing and redemption of those who had been pushed to the margins, left out of the societal picture of those who deserved to enter heaven (then and now). This kingdom is unpredictable and scandalous; hard to define and difficult to enter.  It is here and still coming. It is a secret and yet proclaimed. It is a mystery, yet revealed. 

And it is much, much bigger and more present than I had been taught to believe.

I tasted it when I saw several different student groups and faculty members at my seminary come together to honestly examine the impact of racism on each of our communities, to testify to and listen to one another. I felt it when a formerly unhoused person who had struggled with addiction shared how no one wants to be on the streets, and how much change is truly possible. Currently, I experience it on a more intimate level when those I see in therapy or spiritual direction encounter a God who sees and values them apart from what they can do or achieve. 

I don’t see or feel the Kingdom reality with the clarity that I would like to daily. The days that I don’t, I feel more lost and confused, a little helpless and anxious about what I’m doing here on earth. Especially on those days, I am grateful for the truth that the Kingdom of God is truly still near and not dependent on my activity or awareness. On the days that I get to witness the Kingdom of God intersecting with my earthly life, I sigh with relief that God truly is in our midst. These encounters bring me succor and hope because they give me a glimpse of the way things could (and should) be, and that it might just be possible to see more of the Kingdom taking up space here, this side of the eschaton. Here’s to both the scandal and the comfort of the already and the not yet!

Eunhyey Lok (eunhyeylok.com) is a spiritual director, licensed marriage and family therapist and ordained pastor who specializes in working with Asian Americans, as well as leaders of ministries and international NGOs. Eunhyey is based in Los Angeles with her husband and son, but keeps her Minnesota roots alive through frequent visits to her hometown.