The kingdom of God is a pretty big deal in the Bible.

In the New Testament alone it is mentioned 72 times. In the gospels, it’s the subject Jesus talks about more than any other. (The second-place winner is money.)

And yet, despite the fact that Jesus talks about it a great deal, we Christians tend to be rather unclear about what exactly is meant by this four word phrase: The kingdom of God.

There are a number of reasons for our lack of clarity.

The most obvious is that we don’t understand the concept of “kingdom.” It’s not an idea that resides at the center of our mental map. In fact, to Americans, raised in a democratic republic, the idea of kings and kingdoms seems, at best archaic and, at worst, ludicrous to the point of being offensive. Being the subjects of another person doesn’t…