Simply Reflecting

Last week’s sermon has been rattling around my head all week.  The image of Heaven crashing down to Earth–to a New Earth. That was delightfully dramatic.  But also metaphorically profound.  

The theological concept that THIS is the Kingdom of God is not new.  Jesus brings the Kingdom of God and the role that we all play in it.  It is here now which opens the whole discussion of the importance of the present, of this moment.  

It is just too easy to forget what Jesus is calling us to do when we continue to hold the notion that Heaven is up there and we won’t get there until after we leave this world.  It is a great notion and one that has persisted for centuries.  But it also has held people prisoner for centuries.  In the Dark Ages of Western history it was used to keep the serfs of the feudal system in line–”ya gotta work long and hard for the earthly lord in order to get to heaven.”  

It also is a concept that sets up dismay for visions of better interactions among people–”ah , that won’t happen, this side of heaven.”  In separating Heaven from Earth, it also separates God from the children of God and leaves us wondering in times of crisis, “Where is our God?”  It is an illusion that keeps us from the power to do things differently, from the courage to change the way we interact.  We lose a sense of necessity and settle into the shrug and wait for “when that day comes.”

Perhaps, worst of all, that illusion limits the power and majesty of Jesus Christ in the minds of so many.  He becomes a prophet, a good guy or a deluded Jewish carpenter. No, Jesus is God fulfilling his promise to restore his magnificent Creation right now–making all things new through his actions and his words given to us to carry on.  Redemption is not found in control and oppression, it is found in bread, in salt, in light and in love.  Love is the superpower.  

Love is the absolute opposite of what the world tells us is needed.  Don’t we need more?  Bigger, stronger, more control to fix it our way?  Friday morning in an interview with Christiane Amanpour, Ms. Rachel, an early childhood specialist and media personality, was talking about teaching children.  She has been using her platform to teach children in Gaza and around the world that they matter.  She started to speak about her message to little ones and stopped and then said simply  “We have to treat people better.”

That is a glimpse of the New Earth breaking through.  It changes everything.  

Blessed are the meek [the kind, the caring, the humble], for they shall inherit the earth.