I hear a lot from people, pastors, and Christ followers these days about how what we do in this life matters so that we can have a great eternity. This is not a bad statement and, in fact, I believe wholeheartedly that this is true. How we live now echoes into eternity. However, the unfortunate part is that because of this I do not hear a lot about the flip side.
Jesus’ language was constantly about bringing the kingdom of heaven (or God) to earth now…today. In everything we do as Christ followers we are suppose to be doing our part as the Church to do exactly that: bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
This concept has radical implications with how we view the world around us on a day to day basis as well. Imagine if we actually thought that every time we did something that honored God a glimpse of heaven could be seen from those around us. When people say things such as, “There is something different about you,” or “Why are you doing this,” we can’t actually begin to comprehend exactly what Jesus had in mind…they see heaven.
N.T. Wright said it best when he said in his book Surprised by Hope,”The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.”
This idea of bringing God’s kingdom to earth and living a life where what we do echoes into eternity is not either/or, it is both/and. Jesus taught us how to pray by saying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” If we are more focused on gathering “treasures in heaven” through what we do now rather than helping the world around us see the break of dawn of God’s kingdom coming forth then we are missing out on what the gospel is about.
I had a lunch meeting today with a fellow pastor from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. The original purpose of the meeting was to talk about the possibility of one of our students serving St. Andrews as a youth intern and a part-time staff. The conversation began by me talking his ear off about [lcf] (go figure) and how we live and act as the church in our community. Next thing I knew, he had eaten almost all of his lunch while my sandwich was still in my hand. He stopped me long enough to tell me about St. Andrews and himself so that I could attempt to each my lunch and catch up a bit. After we finally got the food part out of the way we both began to talk about how we view church and how being “kingdom-minded” should be the focus of every church. We clicked immediately and realized how our mindset of “being the church” was completely in tune with each other. He began to talk about his sabbatical that he is taking is for three months. I mentioned to him about the lifeshape that we mention often at [lcf] based out of John 15. The semi-circle and pendulum swing concept from abiding to bearing fruit. His face lit up and he began to talk about how important rest is in his life as well.
We then began to talk about ways that St. Andrews and the [lcf] community might be able to be partners such as service, support, mentoring students, etc. We both came to the conclussion that the sky is the limit. The final part of our conversation was how that we were both so excited to see other churches that are focused around being kingdom-minded instead of building their own tower of Babel. Being a community that represents several different denominations, faith backgrounds, and lack there of we at [lcf] are familiar with what it means to be team players in the Church. I say that not to boast in [lcf] but to say merely that I am proud of our community for embracing everyone…including Christ followers from different backgrounds. It is not about a denomination or a church, but it is simply about bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth.
I leave you with this prayer from N.T. Wright:
“Almighty Father, maker of Heaven and Earth, set up your Kingdom in our midst. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us sinners. Holy Spirit, Breath of the Living God, renew us and all the world.”
- Philip Watkins
