My Kingdom is Not Of This World
A sermon preached at Word of Encouragement Church in Hawthorne, CA on Sept. 14, 2025
As I open the Word this morning, I want to first pause and remember one who not only brought the Word of the Holy but lived the Word of the Holy … and that is Umar Hakim-Dey, a huge-hearted leader and bold and loving prophet and dear friend of your pastor who passed away earlier this week.
Umar often quoted the Holy Qur’an,
“Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change their condition in their heart.”
The Holy worked through Umar to change hearts and bend that arc of the moral universe toward justice and love. According to Muslim tradition, we entrust him to God’s mercy. I invite us all into a moment of silence or prayer according to our own tradition.
May Allah have mercy on him and grant him peace.
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Sisters, brothers and genderfluid siblings, it has been a week.
It has been a week of loss, of anger, of deep offense given and taken.
It has been a week where violence sown has become violence manifested.
A week when this nation did not so much newly separate from the core constitutional principles of equal justice and due process under the law as put Empire’s official seal on what has always been the truth
… that justice has never been equally applied
… that what freedom you can expect is now and always has been dependent on the color of your skin, the money in your bank account and your access to the social capital that whiteness and all its cousins provides.
It has been a week where the rents in the social fabric have been revealed even more starkly and where more and more we have been tempted and even encouraged – in the words of Audre Lorde -- to pick up the master’s tools whether or not we are trying to build or dismantle the master’s house.
Now, it has been a good week for some.
It has been a good week for the undertaker, for the media moguls and tech bros, and for gun manufacturers and their stockholders.
It has been a good week for those who have power and who depend on anger and fear to keep their grip on that power.
It has been a good week for those whose game plan is to wear out those who might challenge and change the powers that bind so many by giving us too much to handle and too many fronts on which to fight.
But here is my question.
Has it been a good week for you?
I’m asking you … has it been a good week for you?
Yeah … me neither.
Put another way … put the way our brother Umar might have put it …
What is the condition of your heart?
What is the condition of your heart?
I’ll tell you what the condition of my heart is.
My heart is broken.
My heart is angry.
My heart is sick of hearing the same noise from the same people trying to manipulate my broken angry heart over and over and over again.
My heart, dear friends,
My heart is exhausted.
My heart is exhausted from the weight of the evil that is being thrust upon us, and I keep hearing the same word shouted over and over again as that weight bears down on us.
Resist!
Resist!
Resist!
And we have been resisting.
And the weight feels like it just keeps getting heavier
And heavier
And heavier.
What is the condition of my heart?
My heart is exhausted.
And if I, who is one of the people who most benefits from one nation under whiteness with education and health care for some …
..if I am exhausted, I cannot even imagine the exhaustion on the hearts of those among us who are of a different hue than I.
I hear so many people say they have been so tired for so long they don’t even feel exhausted … that it’s just life.
And yet we gather here in this community
This community beautifully named Word of Encouragement.
We gather here because our hearts are craving that Word of Encouragement.
And wouldn’t you know it
… just as always
… Jesus is right on time.
The Word of Encouragement that is on my heart this morning perhaps comes from an unlikely place – from that day of discouragement, Good Friday.
I turn to John, Chapter 18. Jesus has been profiled and arrested and beaten down and now he is on trial for his life. He has committed no crime but that does not matter to Empire and its collaborators. Never has and never will.
And Pliate knows Jesus has done no wrong and even says so … and he is looking for someone to get him off the hook and make it easy to do the thing he knows he should do – because he doesn’t have the courage to do it himself,
James Baldwin says, “a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”
And like the lackeys who gather around the resolute desk in the oval office and in the houses of Congress today, Pilate certainly fits the bill.
And the scripture reads:
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
Pilate replied, “Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious leaders. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
Oh, Pilate has come unarmed to a battle of wits here. And yet we have seen over and over again that the most witless of leaders can still prevail.
In a battle between the Spirit and the Spineless too often the spineless win because we are too ignorant or scared to tell the difference… or just too tired to keep fighting.
And Jesus knows this.
Jesus knows he can’t beat Pilate at his own game, no matter how well he plays it.
“You cannot use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.”
“Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate says.
“Are you trying to topple me from my throne?” Pilate says.
“Are you trying to resist my authority?” Pilate demands.
And he thinks he has Jesus in his trap.
You see, if Jesus says no, then no problem for Pilate. Jesus has knuckled under and bowed to his authority.
If Jesus says no, Jesus has kissed the ring and blinked first, and Pilate has won.
And if Jesus says yes?
Well, you see, if Jesus says yes, then Pilate has the soldiers and the po-lice and the detention centers and the tax man who can rob him even more this time … and of course Pilate has the power of the state to kill, no due process, no questions asked.
If Jesus says yes … no more Jesus … and no more problem
… or so Pilate thinks.
Are you the King of the Jews?
What’s it gonna be boy … yes or no?
But first Jesus has a little fun with him.
Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
“Oh … Mr. Pilate, you’re soooo smart … Did you think up that question all by yourself … or did someone help you with that?”
And then Jesus drops the big truth.
“My kingdom is not of this world.”
“If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
My Kingdom is not of this world.
Let’s say that again because maybe the people in back didn’t hear me.
Jesus says,
“My Kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus is standing before the throne, with all the cabinet ministers and senators and representatives and tech bros scraping and bowing and jellyfish flopping around having traded their spines for thirty pieces of silver.
Oh, Mr. Pilate, you are the best governor we’ve ever had.
Oh, Mr. Pilate, you should win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oh, Mr. Pilate, I can’t make heads or tails of what you are saying but I’m sure it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard.
Jesus is standing before the throne, and he looks Pilate in the face and says:
“I’m sorry … who are you again?”
Jesus says,
“My Kingdom … is not of this world.”
Your authority … means nothing to me.
We have a man in the White House and others who amplify him who thrive on attention. And we keep feeding the beast.
Of course, we know what he says and does is awful.
Of course, we know he is a deeply broken child of God.
He has been convicted of multiple felonies, and we still let him sit in the seat of power and we think that if we can just get that Epstein list out it will actually make a difference like Charlie Brown thinking this time I’m really gonna kick that football.
And we keep screaming his name over and over again in our rage.
And it is music to his ears.
We have become like the parent who continues to reward the child’s tantrum with negative attention … and all that does is guarantee the next tantrum, all that does is guarantee the next outrageous, dehumanizing act … because the attention is what he craves.
We have become a nation of attention addicts and those who have learned to monetize attention addiction, who stoke the fires of rage against each other and are laughing all the way to the bank and the throne.
And so, when the man on the throne looks at us and says “are you with me, yes or no” …. Knowing that if we join the ranks of the spineless and say yes, he has us and that if we join the ranks of the resistors he will come and get us, the only thing left to say is:
“My Kingdom … is not of this world.”
Gene Sharp, whose teachings fueled successful anti-fascist movements in places like Serbia and Egypt and who has been called the Machiavelli of Nonviolence, puts it beautifully.
He writes:
By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule,
We have a pretext of electing leaders in this country who promise to at least act like they are upholding a constitution of liberty and justice for all. But when those leaders and our government abandon even that pretext and abdicate that responsibility it is our duty to remove our recognition of their authority.
To look at them and say,
Our Kingdom is not of this World.
Because the Kingdoms we are being asked to bow to are Kingdoms of dehumanization and domination.
But the kin-dom of Jesus is the beloved community of humanity and justice.
Jesus was a revolutionary … building the beloved kin-dom, the beloved community of love.
And you cannot use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.
So, if oppression is built on dehumanization, the love revolution of Jesus is one of humanization.
Empires are built on the fear of loss and so the love revolution of Jesus is one of sharing and giving to each other so we will not be afraid that it will be taken from us
Empires are built on divide and conquer and so the love revolution of Jesus must be built on unify and surrender. Surrender not to the principalities and powers – we do not recognize their authority – but surrender to one another in loving community.
Jesus said to Pilate:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious leaders.”
If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would be resisting your authority.
Resistance is when a force is acting on you and you are not giving into that force but are applying an opposite force in an attempt to neutralize it.
The goal of resistance is negation.
The goal of resistance is to maintain the status quo.
The goal of resistance is to not have things get any worse than they already are.
Now, it is not inconsequential to stand up and say, “No more.”
There are times where we have to stand up and say no more.
It is certainly a good and holy thing to say no more when a masked ICE agent is hustling a fellow child of God into an unmarked van and for us to interpose our own bodies in an act of resistance to that heinous act.
But Empire is well acquainted with how to counter all the plays in that playbook.
And in fact, I could argue that it has become clear that the forces we are trying to resist thrive on the very attention that we are giving them in resistance.
I could argue that it has become clear that the forces we are trying to resist have become so adept at manipulating not only the laws and rules of engagement but the power of mass and social media that like an Aikido master are able to not only use our resistance to wear us out but are able to take the very energy of our resistance and use it against us.
Jesus said to Pilate
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious leaders.”
Empire knows how to deal with our marching – they mock it and ignore it.
Empire certainly knows how to deal with violence – they magnify it back on us.
What Empire does not know how to deal with today any more than when Jesus stood before Pilate is our non-cooperation.
And for us to be willing to fully non-cooperate, we need to be willing to lose whatever they think they can take from us.
And that is where the challenge is.
Because we know what happened after Jesus said this.
One of the greatest practitioners of Jesus’ revolution of love in the 20th century was a Hindu named Mohandas K. Gandhi. He knew the master’s tools would never dismantle the master’s house. He knew the only thing he could do is stand before the throne and say, “I do not recognize your authority.”
To stand before the throne and say, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
Gandhi said,
“How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master’s bidding… He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately… I am the victor…”
They know how to deal with our marching, our violence, our resistance.
What they do not know how to do is deal with … what Empire will never be able to deal with … is our non-cooperation. And for us to be willing fully to non-cooperate, we need to be willing to lose whatever they think they can take from us.
In the civil rights movement, the young warriors knew they had to be willing to give up their freedom and fill the jails. Fill the jails to capacity, so there was literally no more room.
They had to be willing to walk long miles to work instead of riding buses.
Freedom riders signed their wills before they got on the buses that would desegregate bus stations in the south.1
The brave warriors of Stonewall risked their lives and their livelihoods by being unapologetically gay.
Change happens through radical solidarity and love.
By saying our security lies not in how much money we have in the bank or in that we have a weekly or monthly paycheck or any number of things that we call security. Security lies in each other. In refusing to abandon each other.
It requires those of us who have incredible privilege to stand with those of us who have none.
It requires those of us who believe we have so much to lose only because we already have so much… first to recognize that the main reason we have so much is because we have benefitted from a nation whose economy and our wealth has been built on land stolen from the indigenous images of God who were living on it and labor tortured from black bodies stolen from a distant land.
It requires those of us who have benefitted most from empire to hold all these things that we mistakenly believe we own loosely, and be willing to give them up for the sake of love of the other.
For the sake of love.
For the sake of love.
For the sake of love.
This is not just me talking here. And Jesus wasn’t just spouting off either.
Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious leaders.”
But the disciples aren’t resisting … actually, right then most of them were hiding. But when they got their spines back after the resurrection, they weren’t resisting … they were creating.
They were creating a new way to live.
They were creating a new beloved community.
A kin-dom instead of a Kingdom.
You see, one of the master’s tools is shame.
When we are hurting financially, we are ashamed, but money is not worth.
That is empire talking.
That is capitalism talking.
Money is not worth.
Job is not worth.
We worry about being unemployed, we worry about not being able to pay our rent because we have bought into the lie that Empire tells us
...that the kingdom of this world tells us
…that if those things happen, we will be in danger
…that we will be cast out,
But we have the ability to be in a kin-dom not a kingdom.
In fact, that is the entire principle that the church was founded on nearly two thousand years ago.
When Jesus says my kingdom is not of this world he is saying he has something different in mind. And it’s right there in the second chapter of Acts.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as each had need.
The disciples – once they get their spines back – they are not resisting. And they are not recognizing the power of the state.
They just do not cooperate, and they just keep doing what they are doing.
Creating something new.
What would it look like instead of resisting until we collapse in exhaustion at the foot of the throne, to recognize that we have a force already that renders the force being acted on us irrelevant.
To recognize that love is the most powerful force for transformation
for life
for joy
in the universe.
What if we were to ignore them and place our energy into creating the beloved community and to say
I do not recognize your authority.
My kingdom is not of this world.
Well, yes … you can bet that Empire won’t take that lying down.
Empire will do what the authority does to the truth teller in any addictive system, which is come down on it with unbelievable force.
And Jesus knows this.
You know, we have pretty successfully neutered Jesus in the Church these days.
The people who built and still sustain this nation are the ones who love the part of scripture that says “slaves, obey your masters” but some of the other stuff … not so much.
As Nina Simone said,
“the people that build their heaven on your land are telling you yours is in the sky.”
But some of the other stuff … not so much.
But that other stuff is there … it’s right there in the Bible.
Mary sings
God has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
Jesus sings
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
These are not words of resistance so we can return to a status quo.
The first followers of Jesus said
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as each had need.
And, yes … you can bet that Empire won’t take that lying down.
Empire will do what the authority does to the truth teller in any addictive system, which is come down on it with unbelievable force.
And Jesus talks about that, too.
Luke 21:12-19
“They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words[a] and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
You will be called crazy … and much, much worse.
And … that is what it means to walk with the revolutionary Jesus.
That is what it means to be a part of Jesus’ revolution of love.
And so, it comes down to this:
Are we with the Kingdom of Empire…
…or are we the body of Christ?
And I’m not just talking about out there but I’m talking about in here.
Do we measure the success of our churches by those ABCs of Empire, attendance, buildings and cash or do we measure the success of our churches by how we are living into Acts 2?
And now I’m going to warn you … I’m about to move from proclaiming to meddling.
Here’s another thing Jesus says.
Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Now you’ve heard that one before … that is mostly quoted by us church leaders at offering time when we are saying “hey, it is more blessed to give than receive … so give me your money.”
But what are our churches doing with that money?
Are we using it to line our pockets and protect what is ours?
Are we using it so that we can enter into the same kind of competition with other churches and other pastors that we do with our neighbors in empire.
Who has the nicer house?
Who has the better job?
Who has the bigger church with the higher attendance and the best music?
Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive because giving is where the freedom is.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as each had need.
As each had need.
Interesting word there … need.
You see, advertising tells us to blur the distinction between want and need.
Advertising tells us that we are not whole, that we are not enough, that we are less than, without what it tells us that we need.
Advertising … capitalism … Empire … tells us that if we see something shiny and new and we want it that we need it.
And then they control us by threatening to take it away from us.
Insurance is a two trillion dollar industry in this country based on the assumption that if something happens to us or what we have that community won’t come together to give us what we need.
And Jesus looks at our medical insurance premiums … if we can even get medical insurance … and says,
“My Kingdom is not of this world.”
What we NEED is each other.
What we NEED is God‘s love in our hearts.
What we NEED is to be treated with dignity
to have a place to live
to have food to eat
to have safety for ourselves and for our children
And the only reason government exists is to be a vehicle for us providing those things for each other.
… and so if we have a government that says to us on April 15, it is more blessed to give than to receive, but then takes that money and sends it to Israel to fund the Palestinian genocide
that sends it to ICE to terrorize our communities
that withholds it from organizations that provide gender affirming care to transgender children of God and reproductive health care for women
that sends it to only schools that will indoctrinate our children in the white supremacist lies that have passed for American history for the past 250 years
That refuses to send it to local health centers
that refuses to send it to healthcare for people who need the most
that refuses to send it to the work of the kin-dom
then – and here I am moving from meddling to troublemaking … then maybe it is time for us to recognize that it is not blessed to give to that.
Maybe it is time for the church instead of worrying about losing our tax exempt status, to start asking the question for each one of us of not only whether it is morally problematic to pay taxes while the most vulnerable among us are beaten and oppressed, but actually is it a moral abomination for us to continue to support this system with our money.
At this point I need to pause and say that these views do not necessarily represent the views of Pastor Najuma Smith, and this church. I do not want to get you into trouble. This is all me and you did not know what I was gonna say when I came to this place. So if big brother is listening – and Big Brother is always listening -- bring it on to me but leave these good here alone. They have their own decisions to make. I’m just asking the question.
I’m just asking the question if our kingdom is not of this world, and if the kingdom that is of this world has abdicated its constitutional mandate to provide for the general welfare. If it is not time for us to declare loudly, what has been apparent for a long time that this nation is a failed experiment founded in white supremacy and with an authoritarian landed gentry that it never intended to dismantle, and that we as the church have been cuddled up cozy in bed with it for too long … and maybe it is time for us to recognize that it is up to us to provide for the general welfare and to remember those words of Gene Sharp and say we will milk our own cows thank you very much.
And if this sounds crazy, just remember that all revolutions start small.
Revolutions have started with fewer people than are in this room.
Jesus had 12 disciples … and he lost one of them before he even made it to Pilate’s throne.
By the time he reached Dandi beach and made salt in defiance of British control, the crowd had swelled to more than 60,000 people … and so the British arrested more than 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. The prisons filled faster than they could be managed, exposing how unsustainable repression was against a mass nonviolent movement. The British monopoly on salt effectively collapsed and within less than a generation the unthinkable – Britain completely leaving India -- had happened.
And it started with 78 people of a nation of 352 million.
Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change their condition in their heart.
As long as we continue to believe the lies of Empire.
As long as we continue to feed the bottomless bit of the hunger for attention of the leaders who oppress and the media companies that monetize our attention.
As long as we continue to wear ourselves out chasing the atrocity of the week.
As long as we continue to try to use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.
We will never achieve anything better than maintaining a status quo that has never worked for most people anyway.
But if we reclaim the church Jesus lived and died for.
If we find our security not in homes and cars … in insurance policies and tax exempt statuses … but in each other.
If we stand up with one voice and say, “Our kin-dom is not of this world.”
There is no force in heaven and on earth that can stop the revolution of love.
Alleluia. Amen.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy responded by sending John Seigenthaler, his assistant, to ensure that the Freedom Riders made it safely from Birmingham to New Orleans after the firebombing.
In a historic telephone conversation on May 16, 1961, Seigenthaler, with all the power of his position, commanded Nash and other Freedom Riders to end the bus rides in order to prevent loss of life. Seigenthaler recalls the conversation with Nash like this:
"You know that spiritual -- 'like a tree standing by the water, I will not be moved'? She would not be moved. And ... soon I was shouting, 'Young woman do you understand what you are doing? ... Do you understand that you're gonna get somebody killed?' "
After a pause, Nash replied to Seigenthaler: "Sir, you should know, we all signed our last wills and testaments last night before they left [on the bus for Birmingham]. We know someone will be killed. But we cannot let violence overcome nonviolence."
Seigenthaler concludes: "That is virtually a direct quote of the words that came out of that child's mouth. Here I am, an official of the United States government, representing the president and the attorney general, talking to a student at Fisk University. And she in a very quiet but strong way gave me a lecture." https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/last-will-and-testament-freedom