OK, that’s probably not what you’d expect a Unitarian Universalist minister to come up with for a title of a New Year’s piece, but that’s my frame of mind this Sunday morning and I’m gonna claim it.

I’m even going to go with the Jerry Falwellesque notion that this great big glorious global economic mess is a message from God. Something like this—God to Earthlings: “Attention all you who are mourning and gnashing your teeth as the stock markets tanks, the housing crisis grows, and the global food crisis spreads. Turn away from your pathetic life of getting and spending, for it leads you to a path of poverty and suffering! Time and time again I’ve offered you something better. Why don’t you listen to my son for a change?”

Because we’re not quite done with Christmas and that little baby in the manger, I’ve been dwelling on the words that Jesus offered us about his promise of “the Kingdom.”

He said that in this radical new world, the first would be last and the last would be first. The lost would be retrieved, the hidden treasures would be found and claimed, and the unclean would become the source of bounty. Jesus warned the wealthy that they would have a tough time gaining admittance to the kingdom. Think of that classic puzzle about the camel going through the eye of the needle. And if they managed to pass the entrance exam, those who were among the “haves” would now find themselves in the class of the “have nots.”

And when are we going to witness the coming of this Kingdom? Here’s the biggest surprise.  Jesus told his followers that the Kingdom is already here! The Kingdom is here, now, in all this mess? Get real. He was kidding, right?

Jesus had a sense of humor that comes through big time in his parables, but I think he was serious about this Kingdom. In the Gospel of Thomas, which you won’t find in that Bible on your bookshelf, Jesus tells his followers that the Kingdom is around you, among you, and within you. The problem is you just don’t see it.

Imagine that this nasty mess, which seems to be getting worse by the day, is really a well-placed slap up the side of the culture of consumerism. “Hey dummy, wake up! Pay attention! You’ve been living a life of delusion, confusion, and downright deception! Open your eyes, look around, can you see it? The Kingdom of Heaven. Yes—just a little? Good enough! Will you help it grow and become real? Or are you hoping for a return to what’s been going on for the past couple of decades?”

Here comes 2009 with the promise of change, whatever that means.  I’m not sure what that means to you, but as for me,  I plan to push for The Kingdom.

Rev. Christine Brownlie has been the full-time minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the New River Valley in Blacksburg since 1999. The opinions that she offers are her own and do not necessarily represent those of her congregation.