What the modern cultural environment has required of us is an enormous extroversion of attention and energy for the purpose of reshaping the Earth into a global industrial economy. For two centuries we have been subordinating the planet and our deepest personal needs to that project. This great act of collective alienation...lies at the root of both the environmental crisis and individual neurosis. In some way, at some point, a change of direction, a therapeutic turning inward, had to take place within a culture as maniacally driven as ours has been by the need to achieve and conquer. Theodore Roszak
These are bold words that call not just for simple regulatory nudges to facilitate moderate societal improvement. No, these words cry out for outright revolution that begs us wholeheartedly alter the trajectory of how we think and live.
There is a word in the New Testament that captures the essence of this kind of revolutionary call for change - internal change that then leads to corresponding external change. The word in Greek is metanoia. It means, literally, go beyond the mind or, alternatively, to think differently afterward. We translate this word in English as repent, which has the unfortunate connotation today of reducing this revolutionary change in thinking to a mere adjustment away from an isolated vice.
We explored the depths of this word as used by John the Baptizer in Episode 16, Beat the System, Part 1. Today, we're going to explore Jesus' choice to use it as his first word to launch his message to the world. And our focus will be on the destination of the revolutionary new trajectory to which he calls us: the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom is a radical concept. It was then. It is now. That's why it requires a radical adjustment to thinking, A transformed quality of attention - or metanoia - to see it and enter it. It defies preconceived notions. It offers everyone a chance to enter and experience it. And it's unlike anything that exists on earth.
What is the kingdom? Let's seek the answer together.
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