“Where is Heaven?”

From the message preached at Rock Presbyterian Church in San Diego 5/19/13. The audio can be found here: RPC Sermon Archive

Some people will argue that heaven and the kingdom of God are two different places. But this is to misunderstand what is meant by the terms heaven and the kingdom of God (or, as it is in Matthew, the kingdom of Heaven). Some people think of heaven as the faraway place where God's throne is, and the kingdom of God is what was initiated by Jesus by his life death and resurrection and will be fulfilled at his second coming. Heaven is out there somewhere, and the kingdom of God is here, but here in the future.

But doesn't that deny that God is Immanuel? God is not just Immanuel -- God with us -- in the historical Jesus who walked the earth. God was Immanuel in the Garden of Eden. And God was Immanuel in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Temple. God has always wanted to live with us and be our intimate friend. Why would he have placed himself out in outer space somewhere, or in the future?

So when we pray "may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," isn't that the same thing as praying, "make your kingdom and my reality one and the same"? Isn't that the same as praying, "I want you to rule in me as you do in heaven. I want to be in heaven. I want you to make heaven real for me now"? Jesus didn't say "the kingdom of heaven is coming" he said it's here. HERE.

To answer to the questions "Where is heaven?" and "Where is the kingdom of God?" are the same. It is, where God rules; where God's character is manifest. It is where God's character is real. And that is where Jesus is. If we are living the life of Christ, if Christ is living his life through us, we are already in heaven.

Do you feel like you're not in the kingdom of God? Does it feel like heaven is far away? Do you think that the circumstances of your life and the circumstances of the world are such that God couldn't possibly be in the midst of it? You might be right, but it's not because of circumstances or God but because you don't understand either heaven or the kingdom of God.

When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into his death, and we rise to new life in the body. The life of Christ is the life of joy. It doesn't have anything to do with outside circumstances. Peter and James rejoiced when they were beaten for proclaiming the gospel. Paul and Silas sang songs when they were beaten and thrown into prison in Philippi for preaching the Good News. Paul wrote to the Philippians from Prison in Rome, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." (Php. 4:11 ESV).

Do you think that we can be God's light on earth, do you think our message is "Good News," if we join with unbelievers in lamenting the sad state of the world? Do you think if you go around complaining and frowning and looking like we were baptized in lemon juice anyone will be interested in the kingdom of God?

When Jesus tells us to pray, "may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," he's not telling us to sit around hoping for some brighter future. He's telling is to make the future brighter -- by living the life of love we were baptized into as his disciples, by proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. WE are his body. Our work is His work. And his work is ours.

This Sunday @ RPC, “Where is Heaven?” (Mt. 6:9-10)

When Jesus tells us to pray “your kingdom come your will be done” he’s not telling to sit around waiting for a brighter future he’s telling us to make the future brighter.

“Our Father”

A community God we can address as father. The sermon from last Sunday at RPC is here.

I can have my own private culture…

As I was driving to work this morning with my son we were listening to Pandora radio and my son asked me if I had noticed the trend toward a revival of jazz. I admitted I hadn't because I am not at all in touch with popular culture any more. I don't listen to commercial radio and I turned off cable so I don't watch commercial TV anymore -- not even sports. Then it occurred to me that the trend toward individually tailored entertainment made possible by the Internet might actually be accelerating the atomization of society.

Benedict Anderson in his study of the origins of nationalism titled Imagined Communities attributes the emergence of nationalism to the rise of print capitalism in the 18th century. Anderson is a doctrinaire Marxist and I think attributing everything to the rise of capitalism is a mistake. But he was right about one thing and that is that mass exposure of a geographically separated population to the same information contributes to the homogenization of society. If everyone is accessing the same information an imagined bond is created that allows people, say, in San Diego, to feel an affinity with people in New York and elsewhere who they are never likely to meet.

For example, I believe it is entirely likely that the translation of the Bible into the vernacular was a huge contributor to the rise of the nation-state because it standardized language over large geographical areas. Where people before spoke and understood only the dialect of their local area (and maybe some Latin), with the publication of the one book everyone *read* (because, after all, it was the Protestants who wanted the Bible translated) suddenly everyone in the country was reading "French" or "English" or "German," and soon that was reflected in the spoken language. (Did you notice that people from Atlanta no longer speak with a twang?) The common language tends to engender a sense of common identity, hence the possibility of feeling a kinship through the "nation," even though the nation is actually an intellectual construction not at all rooted in historical reality.

This process accelerated with the mass media culture of the twentieth century. When I grew up in the sixties, there were three channels on the television, everyone listened to the same 10 artists or so on the same few radio stations which reflected two genres: pop and country. In the late sixties the so-called "underground" rock stations added a third alternative for us hippies, and then later the "soul" stations added even more diversity.

But in the last twenty years the Internet has made it possible to access incredibly diverse repositories of culture, to the point that now it is possible to tailor a radio station to your own personal tastes, to watch only the TV shows you are interested in watching, to essentially avoid any connection to the common culture at all. It has become possible for me to create my own cultural shell. I can have my own private culture.

Isn't that wild? How can we encourage a sense of community in the Church when each of the congregants listens only to their own iPod?

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

As the celebration of Mother's Day approached and I saw many people on social media acknowledging and celebrating their mothers my thoughts turned to my own mother and my childhood and youth.

I don’t have very may pictures of my mom any more  She died in an alcohol related car accident in 1982. One of the few pictures I do have is of her sitting at the kitchen table smoking a cigarette with curlers in her hair. Probably not the most flattering picture.

For some reason the picture and the whole celebration this year brings a lot of sadness. I know I grieved when my mom died like I grieved for no one else. I know I loved my mom and I know she loved me. But she was a slave to the disease of alcoholism. And she was the victim of an abusive marriage. When I remember her I can’t help remembering all of the chaos and dysfunction of growing up in a household where alcoholism, spousal abuse, and probably child abuse as well, were the norm.

I emerged scarred from the wounds of childhood. I have spent my entire adult life trying to overcome those wounds. Probably some of them are so deep I will never overcome them.

But at the same time I must acknowledge that all of those experiences shape who I am today. If I am compassionate, tolerant, sensitive to the pain of others, it is because of this. Jesus suffered all of the pains of being human so that he could rescue humans. I do believe it is possible that we, his followers, must also suffer much so that we can minister to those who suffer.

And even though these memories fill me with sadness, they do not make me love my mother less. I pray that she has finally found peace in the arms of our loving savior.

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:7-8, ESV)

This Sunday@RPC, “Our Father,” (Mt. 5:9-15)