The nature of our world’s kingdoms

When I attended Wheaton College some classes were required. One was entitled Christian Apologetics. The reason was simple. Every Christian should be ready to give a reason for his/her faith. While I studied history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and languages, knowledge in these areas was not the greatest reward for my years in college. It was in college that I learned to think. I left college with a glimpse at how much I did not know. I knew I had a lot more learning to do. It was humbling. However, I left college with an ability to think in a way I did not have when I entered college. I am a devoted Christian who is committed to learning and thinking.

I think a lot about my citizenship in two kingdoms…..the kingdom of God and the kingdom called the United States.

As a child, I grew up under the tutelage of family and church. Central to that growing up experience was music. My church experience was filled with music. Everyone in my family sang and played a musical instrument. We sang in church and school choirs, played in school bands, and attended concerts. I have always been a part of churches that sang as a congregation. For several years my wife and I purchased season tickets for the Anchorage symphony. Now we never miss a concert by the local community concert band. Music is, for me, transforming. Music is the voice of my soul.

I did not have the same exposure to art that I had to music. However, my life path has led me to friendships with artists and their work. I have a growing appreciation of art. I recently had a conversation with an artist friend. She has a fine studio in her own home. She spends a lot of time in her home within a home. I asked her about her personal experience when painting. Simply expressed, she moves into a different world. Her art is an expression of her soul. The sensitive viewer looks at a fine painting and sees more than paint on canvas. One of my favorite places is an apartment building that was the recipient of several pieces of fine art. The art transforms the building. It brings life to the building. It changes lives.

Our oldest daughter is a high school theatre teacher. She is highly trained and has many successful adventures as an actress, playwright, and director. My wife and I admire her work with students and are awed by her stage performances. When a fine actor steps out on stage, another person emerges, and that emerging person communicates with an audience in a way that cannot be captured simply from a written script. Our daughter can tell many stories of transformation of young students through the dynamics of stage performance. Over and over theatre is the place that souls find transformation and wholeness.

And then there are our poets. In the process of studying Greek and Hebrew, I discovered that many of the Bible’s greatest prophets were poets. Poets take us into worlds of exaggeration, imagination, painful contrasts, and uplifting encouragement. No one can better express love, hope, peace, joy and kindness than can a gifted poet. A poet can paint pictures with words that leave us with awe and inspiration. Good poetry is food for hungry souls.

Add to playwrights and poets the storytellers, who give us fictitious characters, myths and legends. The Bible would be bare and lifeless without the non-historical stories that speak to us about values, ethical behavior, a life of love and kindness, and yes, our sins and our failures.

I have been using the word “soul.” I really do not have a good definition for “soul.” I have never seen one, touched one or smelled one. In a scientific sense, a soul does not exist; but it is. My soul is what makes me more than flesh, bones and blood. In final analysis, soul is the only real Howard Bess. It lives in a body and the body that carries my name is an American citizen.

This brings us to other kingdoms of this world. For me personally it is the United States of America. My country is tangible and has measureable standards and missions. However, it has no soul and no intrinsic meaning. It has rules and laws that define acceptable behavior. It is a world of courts, police, armies, wars, jails and borders. It is also a world that provides protection for the practice of religion. For that I am thankful. Our founders intentionally put together a nation of law. At times our national structure is messy and unfair. People are treated shabbily. The only appeal of the disadvantaged is the law. Our courts are amazingly evenhanded even though they have at times been shown to be slow in movement and short of unflawed.

For me, the kingdom of my soul and the kingdom of this world are in constant tension. The kingdom of my soul will always be my first loyalty, knowing that my country has no soul other than the soul I and others of faith bring. Two kingdoms, incredibly different, inevitable neighbors. Thinkers are needed.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. He is pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.