I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
And again, these two chapters from Matthew include so much that it’s hard to know where to start. When preparing for a sermon, that’s always the trickiest part, figuring out what small little bit to consider. A wise priest friend said that best advice he received about contemplating for a sermon, or for doing any bible study for that matter, he got from a scuba teacher. When he went down and looked out over the underwater vista, it was overwhelming. The teacher suggested that he focus on just one square yard, that all of the mysteries of the ocean would be uncovered, one square yard at a time. And so it is with scripture. We need to pick one square yard, despite there being miles of things to consider. Or in this case, several chapters of wonderful pithy statements.
The Kingdom of Heaven. Hmm. I know that at the time this was written, there was a very concrete knowledge about the earth. Not only was the earth flat, but the world was layered, with heaven up there, and hell down there. They were physical places, all defined by their position to the flat earth. The literalists of the world back then turned heaven into nothing more than an invisible space above the clouds. The literalists today, hold on to that notion.
Even back then Jesus was trying to break us free from this sensory understanding, in the prayer he taught us. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is not a place, stacked above the clouds. The accompanying reflection is from Eugene Peterson, and he refers to heaven as a metaphor. It’s not that heaven isn’t real, it just isn’t a physical place that we can see, touch, hear, visit, or cognitively understand.
Peterson writes, “Beyond and through what we see there is that which we cannot see, and which is, wondrously, not “out there” but right here before us and among us: God his rule, his love, his judgment, his salvation, his mercy, his grace, his healing, his wisdom.”
I have an inkling of what God’s dream of for this world would be – the love, and mercy, and forgiveness, healing and grace, and plenty. That is my understanding of heaven. A place where that is the constant state, where all of our intentional and unintentional efforts to thwart that blissful state are gone. I don’t know about what happens when we die, but I absolutely believe that we can create God’s kingdom here, and when I look for it, or when I welcome it in, I can see glimpses of it every day. Heaven isn’t up there. It’s right here, if we allow God’s grace to make it so, to make us so.
And again, these two chapters from Matthew include so much that it’s hard to know where to start. When preparing for a sermon, that’s always the trickiest part, figuring out what small little bit to consider. A wise priest friend said that best advice he received about contemplating for a sermon, or for doing any bible study for that matter, he got from a scuba teacher. When he went down and looked out over the underwater vista, it was overwhelming. The teacher suggested that he focus on just one square yard, that all of the mysteries of the ocean would be uncovered, one square yard at a time. And so it is with scripture. We need to pick one square yard, despite there being miles of things to consider. Or in this case, several chapters of wonderful pithy statements.
The Kingdom of Heaven. Hmm. I know that at the time this was written, there was a very concrete knowledge about the earth. Not only was the earth flat, but the world was layered, with heaven up there, and hell down there. They were physical places, all defined by their position to the flat earth. The literalists of the world back then turned heaven into nothing more than an invisible space above the clouds. The literalists today, hold on to that notion.
Even back then Jesus was trying to break us free from this sensory understanding, in the prayer he taught us. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is not a place, stacked above the clouds. The accompanying reflection is from Eugene Peterson, and he refers to heaven as a metaphor. It’s not that heaven isn’t real, it just isn’t a physical place that we can see, touch, hear, visit, or cognitively understand.
Peterson writes, “Beyond and through what we see there is that which we cannot see, and which is, wondrously, not “out there” but right here before us and among us: God his rule, his love, his judgment, his salvation, his mercy, his grace, his healing, his wisdom.”
I have an inkling of what God’s dream of for this world would be – the love, and mercy, and forgiveness, healing and grace, and plenty. That is my understanding of heaven. A place where that is the constant state, where all of our intentional and unintentional efforts to thwart that blissful state are gone. I don’t know about what happens when we die, but I absolutely believe that we can create God’s kingdom here, and when I look for it, or when I welcome it in, I can see glimpses of it every day. Heaven isn’t up there. It’s right here, if we allow God’s grace to make it so, to make us so.
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