God is just as present in human relationships and in nature as in religious services. While religious rituals certainly have significant value, they are not to be identified with the kingdom. For the kingdom of God is in internal attitudes rather than in external observances. According to the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, the kingdom of God is more available in everyday life, with its routines, failures, shrines, and rituals. It becomes present to us and in us by our consent and by the dispositions that the Holy Spirit instills within us, the chief of which is faith that God is truly and secretly intervening to heal us despite any and all appearances to the contrary.
Apocalyptic myths look for a savior to resolve all problems.
But to resolve all problems is to miss the point. The kingdom is manifested by our attitude toward our problems, not by their disappearance. That is how Jesus sanctifies the outcasts and whatever is outcast in us. Hope is the grace that trusts God in the midst of everydayness with its ever-recurring trips to nowhere and the recycling of the same old temptations. We are left with the hope of transformations, but without any experience of it happening.