On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Occupy, protest, vote, join, reform, transform . . . Really? The flood of legitimate issues and causes to care deeply about is overwhelming. So many desperate needs. How can anyone truly make a difference?

“On earth as it is in heaven.” A well-worn phrase, one that perhaps we are numb to.

Earth – visible, tangible, in our face, demanding our attention, our time, our lives.

Heaven – unseen, a distant destination, the sweet by-and-by, already-but-not-yet.

Scripture says our citizenship is (not will be) in heaven. What does it mean to be the citizens of a seemingly distant and unfamiliar country? For now, we essentially have dual-citizenship or maybe something like an earth visa.

The realm of earth is familiar. It is what feels like home to us. We are accustomed to the language, the currency, the economy, the politics, and the culture.

Two realms, coexisting concurrently rather than sequentially. The predominant view of “earth now, heaven later” has handicapped our understanding of the ways in which heaven impacts earth today. We not only have hope of a better future, but we are ambassadors of a better future in a land which groans in anticipation of a better day.

Faith in heaven as a current reality can be nurtured and can grow; we can breathe in the vitality of heaven. The realm of heaven has its own culture, language, currency, economy, and politics. Familiarizing ourselves with the culture of heaven will inform and shape our involvement in the issues of earth.

What are the things that matter in heaven? What are the things that have eternal significance? What about “earthly things?” What should be invested in here?

Things that bring creative goodness and love to the earth are eternal in the currency and economy of heaven. Creative goodness and love are expressed according to the unique gifts and talents of each person, not according to a predetermined, super-holy formula. To bring the impact of heaven to earth today, live in the reality that we can invite eternal, God-life to earth through the investment of goodness and love, heaven’s currency, in this not-yet-healed world.

When we measure value according to the economy of heaven, there is not license to neglect justice, mercy, and love on the earth. Understanding the economy of heaven instead gives us perspective about how we spend ourselves during our sojourn here. Whether we are involved in prominent causes or ordinary events, we invest according to the values of heaven, ever mindful of heaven’s culture and our allegiance to it.

In the realm of heaven:
the small gift is made large,
the weak are strong,
the rejected are chosen,
the cast down are lifted up,
the broken are made whole.

What difference can one person make? There are no small or insignificant acts of creative goodness and love in the economy of heaven.

Remembering that daily I have the opportunity to act with eternal purpose helps me to not become numb to the overwhelming need in this world. I can’t do everything that I would like to do. However, I can step into each day, willing to respond to whatever I encounter that day with the grace-empowered goodness and love of the Spirit of God. I get to participate in impacting earth today with the eternal life force of heaven.

This post is part of November’s Synchroblog – Calling Us Out of Numbness. You can read other, insightful, posts at these links:

• Joy Wilson at Solacetree- The Blessing of Losing Your Faith
• Jeremy Myers at Till He Comes – I Have a Dream
• Glenn Hager at Breathe – Uncomfortably Numb
• Linda at Kingdom Grace – On Earth as it is in Heaven
• Sally at Eternal Echoes – Where are the True Prophets?
• Tammy Carter at Blessing the Beloved – No Compromise
• Alan Knox at The Assembling of Church – My Word of Prophecy:  Quit Listening to Prophetic Voices
• Liz at Gracerules – Listen
• Christine Sine at Godspace – Surrounded by Prophetic Voices: Clouds of Witnesses That Call Us Out of Numbness
• Amy Martin – The Window of Suffering, the Beginning of Hope 
• Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head- Rising Up From Below 
• K.W. Leslie at More Christ – What is God Challenging You to Do?

• Katherine Gunn at Truth Makes Freedom – Where is Your Heart? 
• Steve Hayes at Khanya – Murder of the Cathedral
• Leah Chang at desertsspiritsfire – Wall Street, Our Street

To Be or Not To Be?

That really is the question. A few thoughts about being and non-being…

First, George MacDonald:

“There could have been no darkness but for the light. Without God there would not even have been nothing; there would not have existed the idea of nothing, any more than any reality of nothing, but that He exists and called something into being. Nothingness owes its very name and nature to the being and reality of God.”
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George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons

Like fireworks in my brain, Athanasius:

“The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.
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As they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again.
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It was unworthy of the goodness of God that creatures made by Him should be brought to nothing through the deceit wrought upon man by the devil; and it was supremely unfitting that the work of God in mankind should disappear, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of evil spirits.
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The solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.
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For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us and put an end to death.”
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St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

On being, from Paul:

“The God who made the world and everything in it…gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth…God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.”
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Acts 17:24-28, NIV

And in conclusion, only Jesus could and does restore our existence in God:

“Apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.”
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John 15:5, Amplified Bible

Existence disconnected from Life is futility. While final and lasting death has been defeated, to experience the fullness of the life for which we were saved, we must lean into the grip of God as our source of Life.

This is where my thoughts are today, and I wanted to share.

A Good Place to Start Again

I will likely write an update post soon, but for now, I wanted to post this prayer from yesterday’s daily office because I like it and I want to remember it.

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic church.
Fill it with all truth, in all truth, with all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purify it;
Where it is in error, direct it;
Where in any thing it is amiss, reform it.
Where it is right, strengthen it;
Where it is in want, provide for it;
Where it is divided, reunite it;
For the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

As I was pondering this on my Sunday morning walk, two pastors from the neighborhood passed me on their way to services – one the pastor of a large contemporary church, the other the pastor of a small fundamentalist church.

May the prayer above be so for both of them and their congregations, for me,
and for all of the church, wherever and however we gather.

The Ironic Popularity and Marketability of Questionable Eschatological Theology to Evangelical Christians Claiming to Adhere to Biblical Inerrency

Disciple-making

In the process of completing a degree in leadership, I have read a good share of the academic literature on the topic of leadership over the past two years. This semester, the focus is on mentoring, and I was required to read much of the academic literature on the topic of mentoring. Something I find puzzling:

• Over 90% of the leadership material is written by men.
• Over 90% of the mentoring material is written by women.

It would seem that there is something about the typing of these roles that is gender-specific.

How does that translate to practices of church leadership and disciple-making? Have the same stereotypes been assumed in the practices of christian life? Visible leadership is a male role? Women serve in relational roles?  Is the reason disciple-making has been neglected because of an embedded female typing of that role versus the primarily male typing of “leadership” in the church?

What are your thoughts?