This kingdom – 

Fundamentalist theocracy?

Handmaid’s tale?

Animal farm, 1984, brave new world?

Red tsunami that washes in

Patriarchal white supremacy so

Jews won’t replace us?

This kingdom – military incursions

Kowtowing to dictators,

Mockery and greed,

Goons with assault weapons?

Or,

The reign of the

Servant King

Suffering Messiah

God who is perfect

Cruciform Love?

This cross – a 

Human tragedy?

Innocent death?

Brutal state execution?

A soft, bland bloodless atonement?

Some sort of lesson?

Or,

The King of the cosmos absorbing

All evil and destroying the works of the devil?

This resurrection – 

Circle of life?

Alive in our thoughts?

Pleasant myth?

Eggs and bunnies and lilies?

Or,

Death conquered,

Sin removed,

Serpent crushed,

Stone table cracked,

Ring destroyed,

Blood, salt, fire,

The earth trembled,

Demons wept,

Promise fulfilled?

This God – 

A myth of the ignorant and fearful?

A creation of human imagination?

Distant, impersonal, uninterested?

Mechanical watchmaker?

Subjective deity of beauty and goodness inside our minds?

Formless life force surging through the cosmos?

The sum total of all there is?

An energy we can tap?

A soft-bellied partly senile grampa who wants all to have a good time?

A vending machine Santa Claus to give me my best life now?

Strick harsh legal judge?

Warlord crushing enemies?

Vengeful monster inflicting eternal conscious torture?

Or,

YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel, the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

True and living God who is

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

God is exactly like Jesus – 

Burning with passion,

Flaming out against hypocrisy and injustice,

Caring for the least, the broken, the sheep

Scattered, bleeding, ripped, bleeding on the

Hillsides for lack of shepherd.

Demanding – sell all, follow me,

Deny self, take up cross,

Servant of all, wash feet,

Die but don’t kill,

Go the extra mile

Give but don’t sue

Forgive, love enemies,

Lose life for my sake.

Welcoming alien, stranger, 

Marginalized, hated,

Healing, loving, forgiving

Mercy.