Thy Kingdom Come On Earth

Strength for the Journey

May 25, 2011

Thy Kingdom Come On Earth

Over the past several weeks there has been a lot of buzz in the news, on face book and on other electronic media about Harold Camping, the 89-year-old doomsday prophet, who predicted the world would end this past Saturday.  Many have made jokes about the end of the world and what would or would not happen.  People have always been curious or concerned about these things.  

This was true in Jesus’ day as well.  On more than one occasion, Jesus was asked to tell his followers when these things would happen. One of these conversations goes as follows: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘The Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory.  And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. . . .‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he^* is near, at the very gates.  Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.   Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,^* but only the Father.’”(Matthew 24:36)

As the people of God we can argue, and do, about what this wonderful, powerful and symbolic language means, about what Jesus means about this generation not passing away before these things happen and about many other things.  But about the when, Jesus is pretty clear: “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the father.”

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, in what we call “The Sermon on the Mount,” we see a prayer that moves our focus from heaven to this earth on which we live and move and have our being.  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, Your will be done, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.  Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”(Matthew 6:9-13)

This prayer leads me to believe that Jesus is at least as concerned about how we live on this earth as He is about how we get to heaven.  It also leads me to believe that Jesus believes God has heaven under control and that His purpose in being here on earth is because our life here is important.  How we treat others is important and matters eternally.  In fact, a little later in the Sermon on the Mount He reminds is that “in everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets.”(Matthew 7:12)

And last (for today) but not least, Jesus unrolls the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and proclaims his purpose in his first sermon at his home town synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

When God created the Heavens and the Earth he saw that it was good, very good.  God sent Jesus to redeem all of creation, Earth as well as Heaven and we have been called according to the scriptures to do what Jesus did and even more, we are called to be co-creators with God.  Whatever God has planned for the end of the world and whenever and however that will happen, I believe Jesus calls us to work with Him so that “God’s Kingdom will come, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!”

Blessings and Peace,

Ben