“Anyone, anywhere, anytime can have a new beginning” is a phrase I first heard at a school mission several years ago. I watched as the young people heard the Gospel message of new beginnings, fresh starts, a different way of living like a clarion call and I heard story after story of young people whose lives had changed as they realised there is always hope and endless possibility in the Gospel

I think that phrase is crucial when thinking about the kingdom of God because to understand the kingdom there has to be a revolution in our hearts, our minds, our way of thinking our way of living. Without that new beginning we can be very religious people but not understand what the kingdom is about. There was a song by John Denver, which began with the phrase “Today is the first day of the rest of my life.” The new beginning that has to take place in all of us is no respecter of age, class or any other differential. There is no one who can’t change because it’s God who works the miracle within us whenever we turn to God

Do we see life as just revolving around ourselves?

In John’s Gospel the world symbolises all those who reject Jesus, those who are not prepared to hear the language of love and to respond to it in love. The world symbolises all those who live lives controlled by the need for power, those who allow the ego full reign, those who see life as revolving around themselves and their needs. The world symbolises those who are hardened to others full of bitterness, anger, hatred, lack of forgiveness. It symbolises those who are constantly anxious and unable to trust in anything greater than themselves. No wonder Jesus says in that Gospel “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

What we’ve done is taken those words and made them into some sort of promise about the future. Somehow this mortal coil is to be endured until the moment when we shrug it off and go and live in heaven where the Kingdom of God reigns, when in reality Jesus is simply saying “My kingdom is not about the way of life that you see as valuable. It’s about other things and until you start to live them you won’t understand that it’s only those things that last eternally. Until you start living the values of compassion, love, forgiveness; until you let go of your need for power; until you stop living egocentric lives you won’t understand God and you won’t understand the Kingdom. Until you’re prepared to do what God does and pour yourself out, literally give yourself away for the sake of others, you won’t understand who God is and what the Kingdom is. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying I’m going to show you in my own body what the kingdom is about. I’m going to the extreme to make you understand. That’s the revolution that has to take place within us.

The kingdom is about life in the here and now

The kingdom is about life in the here and now. It exists in so far as we are willing to allow a revolution to take place within us. It exists in so far as we are prepared to stop being religious people with our temptation towards self-righteousness and intolerance and become like Jesus, prepared to give everything away for the sake of others. Anyone anywhere, anytime, can have a new beginning. You’re probably reading this article at the beginning of a New Year. If you’re anything like me you’ll have probably broken almost every resolution you made on New Year’s Eve, but the truth is every day is a new beginning, every day is the start of a New Year.

In terms of the Gospel and the Kingdom anyone, anytime , anywhere can have a new beginning because that new beginning doesn’t depend on us. It’s grace, it’s free gift. It’s the work of God so why not pray now as you read this article for God to work that revolution within you so that the kingdom will reign in your life. Pray for that revolution in your heart every day and trust that God in God’s time will do what has to be done and never forget that anyone, anytime, anywhere can have a new beginning.

Fr Chris Thomas heads up the Irenaeus Project. He is a member of the Emmaus Family of Prayer and a priest of the Liverpool Diocese.