I don't often rave about sermons but sometimes it's like standing in front of a God highspeed bullet train, there's now way to resist... Jason Clark has done an outstanding trilogy quintology of talks on the Kingdom of God (click the link to down load MP3 file) on: six exchanges of the Kingdom; into the Kingdom; signs of the Kingdom; Kingdom mission; and Kingdom giving. HT to Jase.
One of the things that struck me was Jason's explanation of the route of the word 'will' in the Lord's prayer "your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven." Jason explained that the route of the word is more like our word 'wish' i.e. the wish of God, the dream of God the longing of God to come and be done. It reminded me of how God has a wish, a dream for the...
world, for me, for the people, places, cosmos and indeed the whole of creation. That rather than my own individual wish and dream for me and my life God is inviting me to give that up, put that aside and accept, follow, be part of in and believe in his dream...
What is the dream of God? Well I think part of the hint is the reference to heaven, that earth comes fully a part of God's dream just like heaven currently is, or...
no more...
decay, deterioration, death....
fear, failing, fatigue...
poverty, pain, pride...
injustice, insiders, independence...
sickness, sin, shame...
worry, war, "whatever generation"...
hunger, hurt, hypocrisy...
loneliness, lust, loss...
tears, terrors, trials...
All gone... in the meantime we live in the tension of that dream being revealed and completed, we get to be part of the unfolding of the dream, part of the wish in the making, part of the revelation that there is another way, that through Jesus we can be...
bringers of life, bringers of hope, bringers of peace doers of God's justice, mercy, love, carers of creation, oppressed/poor and sick...
Until God's dream, his heart wish, is fulfilled and in that beautiful passage from Rev 21, John sees the dream completed:
"I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate."
Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I'll be God to them, they'll be sons and daughters to me..."
Wow... That was really good, Paul. Thanks.
Posted by: molly | 27 September 2006 at 05:35 AM
I thought this was helpful and echoed some thoughts of my own, so I've blogged it in this entry
http://abbeynous.blogspot.com/2006/10/your-dream-be-done.html
. It refers to a book which you'll find in the right hand column of the blog...
Posted by: andii | 22 October 2006 at 01:09 PM
Thank Andii, loving the depth and perspective of praying the Lord's prayer, over at your place...
Posted by: Paul | 22 October 2006 at 04:01 PM