The family was in trouble.  It was February and it was 9 below zero.  They were out of money for utilities, food, and the small boy's medicine.  She was a single mom and didn't know where else to go.  So far, everyone she had tried was already out of money to help.  She did get some food from the local food pantry, but that was it.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and there stood a man she had never seen before.  He handed her a check large enough to get the electricity turned back on and still buy the anti-seizure drug her son required.

Tears streamed down her face as she told the story one more time, year's later, just as they had streamed down her face the day that stranger had knocked on her door.  "I knew that in his face, I had seen the face of God and I could believe."

That's kingdom building, and it is what Christ calls us to do.  The very first words that Jesus speaks in the gospel of Mark are these:  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

The time has come.  After years of waiting and praying and believing, it had finally happened.  The kingdom of God had come.  It had broken into our world with the birth of a baby and was evidenced in His death upon a cross - a death that would save our world and all the souls within it.

The kingdom of God was seen in this Man's gentle, healing hands, in His bitter fight against evil and darkness, in His words that demanded we love our enemies as well as our neighbors, and that we feed the hungry as He had fed the thousands on a hillside, that we believe it was, and is, possible to bring the kingdom come here and now.

For the kingdom had come not just for the hearers of Christ's words, on that day, years ago, it had come for that single mother praying for help for herself and her child.

Too often, we do not believe these words of Christ, that the kingdom has come.  We look at the despair of people who have lost their jobs and we don't see in their broken pride the kingdom of God.

We watch parents weep over their small children killed in Gaza, and we cannot believe God's kingdom has come.

We hear of a mother using cigarettes to burn her baby for crying, and we can't find God's kingdom here, now, in our world, in our lives.

And yet, those are the words of Christ --- the first words of Christ.  How can we believe them?

Perhaps the answer lies in grammar.  Yes, grammar.  You see the verb that the gospel uses for the kingdom has come can mean both "it has come now, it is among you now," and "it is not yet."

In Christ we see the kingdom of God in action.  People are forgiven, the blind see, the outcast is welcomed in, and the hungry are fed.  We see in the eyes and hands and stories of Jesus the kingdom of God --- a kingdom of hope, peace, love, and grace - a kingdom that is more than mere words, but a kingdom of action that changes our world.  And I am here to tell you that we can claim that kingdom now, today, in this very room.   We can make it come.

But what of the pain, the hopelessness, the hate we see around us?  What of a world that has not yet seen the kingdom in healing hands, the reality of hope, the love of God?

How can we make it real?  It becomes real each time we choose to live out the words of the Lord's Prayer:  "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  When we live it instead of just saying it, God's kingdom really does come.

It comes when we make those more than empty words, but when we make them the actions of our lives --- when we build the kingdom of God in our world.

But how do we do that?  What difference can our lives make?

I'm reminded of my Aunt Polly.  She wasn't really my aunt, but that's what we all called her.  She was not a remarkable woman.  She was not rich, or young, or well educated, but she had a giving heart and she gave what she could.

Each Saturday morning she let us sit in her yard, under an arbor, and study the Bible, because the church had kicked us out since we didn't have an adult leader.  She let us sit there and she fed us home baked pie still warm from the oven, and in her yard we found the kingdom of God.

Too often we think of building the kingdom as the big thing, as the grand gesture, and we wonder if we really can make a difference.  But in the words of President Obama, "Yes, we can."

We can listen to a small child read once a week.  We can bring in a can of soup.  We can visit someone who is lonely.  We can follow God's call upon our hearts.  And we can stop waiting around or saying "tomorrow.  I'll do it tomorrow."

One of the things that struck me about this passage in Mark is that after Jesus says "the time is now, the kingdom has come", He immediately goes to the disciples and says, "Come follow me."

And the disciples?  They don't wait around.  The scripture says they immediately left their nets and followed Him.  Can we do any less?

So I would challenge you to join in the affirmation of faith this morning and make of it more than empty words, but a commitment of your whole selves, a commitment to make a difference, a commitment to live out the life of faith, a commitment to make God's kingdom come, here, today, in this world, whatever, wherever, your world might be.