Tag: glory

New Jerusalem’s Urban Garden

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 16 – Fixing our eyes

New Jerusalem’s Urban Garden

[Bible references: Genesis 1-2; 1 Corinthians 12; 14;1 Peter 1, 4; Revelation 21-22]

In the now-broken earth, many people think of human civilization only as a corruption and pollution of the earth, that the earth was only meant to be pristine – as it supposedly was before humans started to mess it up. While we certainly have abused the earth in many ways, that does not mean all aspects of human civilization are inherently bad. When we use our God-given capabilities to join God in His kingdom building, that is good. Many of the things that we design, create and build are inherently good. The problem lies in our corruption and the world’s corruption that causes us to misuse every good thing.

When we were charged with filling and subduing the earth, it did not mean that we were to simply expand the Garden of Eden. God had given us many gifts to use, including tremendous creative abilities. We were given various spiritual gifts for the purpose of building one another up; we were given artistic gifts to make articles for the Tabernacle and Temple; we were given gifts of singing, making musical instruments and craftsmanship, hunting, trading, sailing – in general, making the things of civilization.

Those same gifts are available for current task of participating with God in the process of bringing His Kingdom to earth, a process that shall lead to ultimate uniting of heaven and earth, a process that leads not to the original Garden of Eden, but of an urban garden attached to the new Jerusalem.

It is undeniable that, despite the corruption we see, God has provided us an abundance of creative skills for displaying His transcendence and glory in our art, technology, engineering, and sciences. He has also given us social and political skills to create human public and private institutions that can organize our abilities to do good.

But it does not take much observation to also notice the corruption that has permeated our society. It can seem hard to determine if we have misused more than properly used the gifts and abilities God has given us. Nevertheless, as God’s co-regents we have been given a sacred obligation to nurture the place he gave us in anticipation of God’s final restoration of the earth.

Reflect

How can you use the gifts and skills that God has given you to help give people hope for the future?

Observe

Read 1 Peter 1. If our mind is set on seeing Christ soon, how shall we prepare?

Lamenting our brokenness

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 14 – Remembering our creation

Lamenting our Brokenness[1]

[Bible references: Psalm 90; Lamentations 1-2; Matthew 26:36-46; 27:33-53; Luke 22:15; 1 Corinthians 14:12; Hebrews 12:2]

God made a good world, a world full of his glory. Sometimes, we can look at the beauty, the immenseness, the intricacy of what he has made all around us and be filled with awe and wonder. Unfortunately, what is also visible are the many ways in which things are not as they should be. As we consider all that we see and contemplate the kind of end that God intended, we find ourselves looking at a world that seems to be headed in the wrong direction. Instead of increasing shalom, there is violence, hatred, fear, disease, and brokenness. Pain. Shattered dreams. Loss of hope.

There are times when the brokenness around us and within us can overwhelm us. There may be times when God seems absent for long periods of times. This intense absence has brought some people to what they call the Dark Night of the Soul.[2]

The brokenness around us affects everyone, although some experience the brokenness more harshly than others. The Psalms are full of complaining about how the pain of sins’ consequences don’t seem to affect everyone equally. In Lamentations, that pain is captured in personification – the pain of an adulterous woman who is naked, unclean, scorned, and shamed, a victim of rape, a slave, helpless, isolated, unclean. Just as we all bear the guilt of sinful disobedience against God and neighbor. Not only do we bear the guilt of active rebellion against God, but we also bear the shame of being sinned against.

Throughout its history, the church has been concerned with the sin of people but has largely overlooked an important factor in human evil: the pain of the victims of sin. The victims of various types of wrongdoing express the ineffable experience of deep bitterness and helplessness. Such an experience of pain is called han in the Far East. Han can be defined as the critical wound of the heart generated by unjust psychosomatic repression, as well as by social, political, economic, and cultural oppression. It is entrenched in the hearts of the victims of sin and violence, and is expressed through such diverse reactions as sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, resentment, hatred, and the will to revenge.[3]

None of this is comfortable, our tendency is to use whatever devices we can to cover our feelings. We want to run and cling to the hope and joy of Christ, to rush past our uncomfortable guilt and shame. There is a part of us that would be happy to join Christ in His work in the world, as long as we can skip the confession of sin and guilt, but in doing so we would skip the richness of God’s mercy and the gift of shalom.

The depths of joy and hope are not just feelings for us to receive and enjoy. Rather, the depths of joy and hope are only found in acts of the will, in a persistent choosing to abandon our interests and instead to follow God.

Knowing what was before Him, Jesus chose to push His glory to the side and to take on the form of a human with all its physical inconveniences, to endure the ridicule of people who were not fit to tie his sandals, to spend years training 12 disciples all of whom he knew would abandon him in the time of his greatest suffering as he endured the agony of the cross. But in all of this, as he shared the last meal with his disciples before his time of passion, he could say, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before my suffering.” The great joy that awaited Jesus and His disciples would be preceded by deep sorrow and great suffering.

“Throughout 1946 and 1947, Mother Teresa experienced a profound union with Christ. But soon after she left the convent and began her work among the destitute and dying on the street, the visions and locutions ceased, and she experienced a spiritual darkness that would remain with her until her death. It is hard to know what is more to be marveled at: that this twentieth-century commander of a worldwide apostolate and army of charity should have been a visionary contemplative at heart; or that she should have persisted in radiating invincible faith and love while suffering inwardly from the loss of spiritual consolation” [4]

As we consider in which ways we are called to “Dance in the Kingdom” with God, we need to keep the proper perspective. God’s work is to reconcile people and all of Creation to Himself. Whatever task He gives us to engage in, it will only ever be a portion of God’s work. Whatever task He has called us to is sufficient for us and He will supply whatever we need to accomplish the tasks He has provided. While some are called to do “bigger” tasks than others, we need to humbly accept whatever tasks God has called us to do. We also need to humbly submit to our need for one another and our need to combine whatever spiritual gifts God has given to us with the gifts He has given others as we build up one another. In the task of building up one another, we need to address another humility.

Our sin and our woundedness are deeper than we imagine. As we confess and acknowledge the sins we have committed and the shame we experience when others have sinned against us, our proper response is lament. We can neither undo what we have done nor what has been done to us. But we can take the next step. The path to restoration and reconciliation leads through a lament that must confront our brokenness and acknowledge the pain. In our lament we can recognize how we are corrupted by sin and that we are accountable for all the suffering caused by our sin.

For us to experience healing of shalom, we need to acknowledge the suffering we have caused, encounter the truth about our sins, and challenge the privileges we may have had over others. Shalom requires lament, a reminder not likely needed for those whose lives are marked by the injustice thrust upon them but is likely needed for those whose lives are marked by privilege.

“Lament in the Bible is a liturgical response to the reality of suffering and engages God in the context of pain and trouble. The hope of lament is that God would respond to the human suffering that is communicated through lament.”[5]

[1] Plantinga, Cornelius. Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition; Wolters, Albert M. Creation Regained Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview  William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1985, 2005. eBook

[2] Rah, Soong-Chan, “Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times” Intervarsity Press, 2015; Zaleski, Carol. “Dark Night of Mother Theresa;” St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul First Things, www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-dark-night-of-mother-teresa

[3] Park, Andrew S. “The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin” Abingdon February 1, 1993

[4] Zaleski, Carol. “The Dark Night of Mother Teresa’s Soul” First Things, www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-dark-night-of-mother-teresa

[5] Rah, Soong Chan. “Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times” Intervarsity Press, 2015

Reflect

What kinds of brokenness in the world do you notice the most?  For what do you lament?

Observe

Read Psalm 90. Is there any lament that touches your heart?

Our provision

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 14 – Remembering our creation

Our Provision

[Bible References: Genesis 1:29; Genesis 2:8-9; Psalm 3:5; 55:4-22; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Hebrews 1:3; 1 Peter 4:7-11]

In all of this, as his image-bearers we are to remember that we need God’s provision to do our work. He is the creator of life and reproduction; sun, moon, earth, and stars; light and darkness; intelligence and wisdom; love, joy, and peace. He is the one who always goes before us and watches over us as a father watches his children.

Within all of these possibilities, we can work with God to fill the earth with his glory and influence people towards him. Our Cultural Mandate can be linked to the Great Commission and the task of evangelization, where we can use the full range of our abilities to point people to the God who is able to redeem us all.[1]

Unfortunately, just as we can engage in obedient culture making, we can also turn from God and engage in disobedient culture making,[2] turning ourselves and others away from God. Because of our rebellion against God, our cultural tasks can take on a different dimension.

[1] Manahan, Ronald E. “A Re-examination of the Cultural Mandate: An analysis and Evaluation of the Dominion Materials” Docsbay Grace Theological Seminary dissertation May 1982 docsbay.net/A-Re-Examination-Of-The-Cultural-Mandate

[2] Koyzis, David T. “What the Cultural Mandate is Not”  First Things www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/11/what-the-cultural-mandate-is-not

Reflect

If we base the possibilities of what we can do only our own strength and abilities, we will be limited. What stewardship project should you be considering based on what you can do with God’s help?

Observe

Read Psalm 3:5; 55:22. If we are confident that God will supply all our needs, how should we handle our possessions?

Passion unto death

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Passion unto death

[Bible references: Genesis 3:12; Matthew 16:21-23; 21:4-5; 26-27; Mark 9:30-37; Luke 22:54-62; John 1:14; 12:12-19; Romans 1:18-32; 5:20; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-10]

There is a sense in which each moment of history is equally important to the next. Each moment is a moment which God pursues us as he guides us to our ultimate flourishing. There is no reason to suppose that our continuing flourishing will cease once heaven and earth are reunited, but we should expect that our flourishing will continue as a manifestation of his glory.

However, in our current state of affairs in which earth is broken from heaven, there are moments, epiphanies, in which heaven more noticeably breaks through. There are moments in which angels are more visible or in which Yahweh reveals himself through his prophets. Even more remarkable is the moment in which Yahweh submitted himself to taking on human form, even to the point of being conceived as an embryo inside the body of a human woman and then enduring the normal process of physically growing to become a human adult. Yet even that was not sufficient. Yahweh may have taken the form of a human, but it wasn’t a glorified human,[1] not yet the human as he intends for us to be.

To do that would require him to suffer the shame and justice that we ourselves have earned. The sin that brought us death would have to overcome by a sacrifice that would bring us life. In becoming human, Jesus identified himself with us, but in order for us to become like him he would have to make us ready to receive his spirit. We were helpless to make ourselves acceptable to God, to make ourselves free from sin and its consequences. Bonhoeffer once related his prison experience to Advent. He could not free himself – he needed someone to come from the outside to rescue him.[2] And that is our dilemma, we need someone to come from the outside to rescue us. The covenant revealed to Moses was given to increase our sin, to make it more evident than before about our inability to rescue ourselves. We were condemned by our sin to remain separated from God.

We saw in the previous chapter, that the world was very much like it is now, full of factions and frictions, the powerful and the poor, and everyone waiting and wanting the world to be a better place. The world into which Jesus was born was as broken as it is now. Jesus came into this world with a message of love and hope and with acts of healing and casting out of demons, but that would not be enough. Sin and death had a power over the world that needed to be broken. To rescue the world, to restore it to what it was intended to be, sin and death would need to be defeated. And there was no one who could carry out the rescue except God.

It was as true then as it is now, ever since Adam and Eve, people look at the problems around them and think that the problem lies somewhere else besides inside them. In particular, the more factions and frictions there are, the easier it is to find someone else to point to. So, when Jesus came, teaching, healing, and identifying with the common people more than the elite, it seemed that the more Jesus revealed himself the more the people seemed to think that Jesus would be the one – to rescue them from the Roman government.

Even Jesus’ chosen twelve disciples, the ones who would spend three years with him day and night … even they couldn’t understand the type of rescue they would need. Jesus would explain many times about what he needed to do, but the disciples couldn’t understand. The truth is, though, that even as we look back and see what Jesus had to do, we also have a hard time fully understanding just how desperately that we need rescuing. We don’t understand the depths of our own depravity.

When Jesus approached Jerusalem with his disciples for the last time, some of the disciples argued about which of them was the greatest, or who would sit next to Jesus on his throne. When Jesus showed his power with his resurrection of Lazarus, the crowds got more excited about the possibility of Jesus throwing out the Roman government and then they gave him a grand entry into Jerusalem. However, Jesus refused to act as they wanted, and the crowds eventually turned against Jesus. Even one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, gave up on Jesus and agreed to betray him to the Sanhedrin. Then, when Jesus was arrested, the rest of the disciples went into hiding. Even Peter, who tried to follow the lynching party at a distance, refused to be identified with Jesus.

[1] Got Questions “How does the Bible describe glorified bodies we will possess in heaven?” Got Questions www.gotquestions.org/glorified-bodies.html

[2] Kincaid, Elisabeth Rain, “Bonhoeffer: Advent is Like a Prison Cell” Christianity Today www.christianitytoday.com/women/2018/december/bonhoeffer-advent-is-like-prison-cell.html

Observe

Read John 12:12-19. In this scene, the crowd is expecting a rescue from the Romans,  the Pharisees are worried about their competition becoming too popular, and the disciples are not comprehending what is happening. How did the disciples eventually understand what was happening?

Inheriting the kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Inheriting the Kingdom

[Bible references: Matthew 5:1-12; 18:1-9; 19:13-14; 25:34; Luke 18:15-17; John 3:1-8; James 1:4]

The Beatitudes are not parables but rather descriptions of the type of people who are in the kingdom of heaven (first and last beatitudes) and the blessings that they shall obtain.[1] The poor in spirit are those who see themselves powerless, helpless in themselves and unworthy regarding Yahweh;[2] they know that they may be loved by God, but they are broken and not worthy of that love. Those who mourn are those who mourn for their sin, for loss, injustice, etc.[3] The meek are those who trust in Yahweh are will wait for Yahweh even in the face of opposition.[4] Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are those who want justice as much as they do food and are willing to take action for it.[5] The merciful are those who respond to the mercy shown them by Yahweh by showing mercy to those who need it.[6] The pure in heart are those who stay away from deceit and want the glory of Yahweh.[7] The peacemakers are those who pray for and pursue peace even for those who persecute them.[8] Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are those who are persecuted because of their pursuit of righteousness but not because they were not merciful or not poor in spirit.[9] The beatitudes show the rewards and blessings and shalom  (peace, wholeness, and well-being) for all those types of people.

No one enters the kingdom of Yahweh by their own merit, it is strictly only by family ties. Children only. Only those who are born-again, that is born into the family of Yahweh, are eligible to inherit the kingdom of God. The beatitudes describe the kind of children that one should find in the kingdom. Jesus reinforces this again when answering the question about who is greatest in the kingdom of God. Furthermore, Jesus cautions the adults in this world that not only should they become like children but that they should not cause problems for the children in this world.

[1] Piper, John. “The Beatitudes and the Gospel of the Kingdom” Desiring God 26 Jan 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-beatitudes-and-the-gospel-of-the-kingdom ; Kauffman, Richard A. “Blessed are those who mourn” Christianity Today www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/22.50.html

[2] Piper, John. “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit who Mourn” Desiring God 2 February 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit-who-mourn

[3] Biblehub “Matthew 5:3” Biblehub biblehub.com/matthew/5-3.htm

[4] Piper, John “Blessed are the meek” Desiring God 9 Feb 1989 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-meek

[5] Piper, John “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” Desiring God 16 Feb 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-those-who-hunger-and-thirst-for-righteousness

[6] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Merciful” Desiring God 23 Feb 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-merciful

[7] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” Desiring God 2 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart

[8] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Desiring God 9 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-peacemakers

[9] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Persecuted” Desiring God 16 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-persecuted

Observe

Read Luke 18:15-17; James 1:4. James encourages us to become mature in the faith. Luke encourages us to receive the kingdom of God like a little child. How do we reconcile these two thoughts?

Reprise with variations

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude

Reprise with variations

[Bible references:  Genesis 1; Psalm 8; 111; Exodus 8:16-19; John 21:1-14; Romans 8:19-22; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4; 5; 2 Peter 3; Revelation 21-22]

“The creation of the world seems to have been especially for this end, that the eternal Son of God might obtain a spouse towards whom he might fully exercise the infinite benevolence of his nature, and to whom he might, as it were, open and pour forth all that immense fountain of condescension, love, and grace that was in his heart, and that in this way God might be glorified. [1]

God created the universe for his glory, and within that, humans were created to experience the true joy of living, to bear the fruit of His nature, to reflect His presence. We are designed to be image-bearers of God himself, stewards of the creation He inserted us into as we reflect the very character of God. The exercise of stewardship is seen in the process of “subduing” and “having dominion” over the earth (its creatures and it resources), and in being “fruitful” and filling the earth. God’s initial reaction to creating us was, “It was very good.” His intent was that we would fill and take care of the earth, all the while reflecting His character to each other and to His creation.

In the beginning, heaven and earth were joined at the Garden of Eden. It was a place where the Creator could have communion with his image-bearers and walk in the garden with them. The garden was the perfect place for the image-bearers to develop and begin working out the intended future of filling the earth and ruling over it as co-regents with God.

He gave us unimaginable delight and freedom, but that very freedom He gave us was joined to a responsibility, a responsibility that was wrongly used and caused immense far-reaching damage – damage we could not possibly undo – the whole universe is groaning, waiting for to be restored. Our pride-laden rebellion damaged the relationships between each other, between us and God, between us and the world and even between heaven and earth; but God had a plan from the beginning, a plan which is now underway, to ultimately restore what was lost and undo that damage[2] and bring us to our intended destination – an earth filled with and ruled by image-bearers and where heaven and earth are rejoined so that the image-bearers can walk with God once again.

“Jesus’ own teaching during his brief public career simply reinforced the Jewish picture. He redefined a lot of ideas that were current at the time – notably, of course, kingdom of God itself, explained in many coded parables and symbolic actions that God’s sovereign, saving rule was now breaking in, even though it didn’t look like what his contemporaries had imagined and wanted.”[3]

Ultimately, we will be freed from the bondages of sin and death and all the relationships that are now damaged will be restored. In fact, in a timeline that we cannot fully grasp, God waited from the beginnings of mankind until 2000 years ago to defeat the power of sin and death and begin the process of restoring His kingdom on earth. Then He told us that someday, he will complete that process and he will return in the fullness of his glory to fully restore all things at that time. We just don’t know when that will be.

Our hope looks at the resurrection of Jesus as a harbinger of the resurrection that awaits all those of us who will be united with Him in our own transformed bodies in the new heavens and the new earth.

‘… what is the ultimate Christian hope? …what hope is there for change, rescue , transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present … if the Christian hope is for God’s new creation, for “new heavens and new earth,” and if that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth, then there is every reason to join the two questions together … “God’s kingdom” in the preaching of Jesus refers not to postmortem destiny, not to our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming “on earth as it is in heaven.” [4]

Furthermore, our hope doesn’t ask for us to simply wait for that time when the Kingdom of God is fully restored, but that we can be part of God’s plan to bring the Kingdom of God into our broken world.

[1] Edwards, Jonathan, “Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume Two,” SERMON II. THE CHURCH’S MARRIAGE TO HER SONS, AND TO HER GOD. Ed. John E. Smith, Yale University Press, 2009(p. 62)

[2] Bible Project “Pursuing God, Heaven and Earth,” Bible Project www.pursuegod.org/biblical-themes-an-animated-explanation-of-heaven-earth

[3] Wright, N.T. “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” Harper Collins 2008. Kindle Edition(p. 18).

[4] Wright, N.T. “Surprised by Hope” Harper Collins 2008. Kindle Edition (pp. 4-5, 18)

Reflect

Speaking strictly from what we know from science, we seem to be random life forms on a random planet in a random spot in the universe. In that perspective, having an anthropocentric view of the universe seems absurd. But knowing what the Creator of heaven and earth has revealed to us, the universe was designed to be inhabited … by us! How does that change your view of the universe?

Observe

Read John 21:1-14. What does this passage suggest about our resurrection bodies?

Sins consequences

Dancing in the Kingdom – Table of Contents

Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom, Chapter 4 – Deforming the intended direction for creation

[Bible references: Genesis 3; 6:5; Romans 8:19-22; Ephesians 2:10]

And so, it happened. The one thing that could create the ultimate catastrophe did happen. The good Creator, who only intended good things, allowed his image-bearers to give into their temptation, to put their own authority above His and violate the one restriction placed before them. This violation by the stewards of His creation broke everything: the relationship between themselves, the relation between them and Him, the relation between them and creation. All of creation was affected and is even now waiting for things to be made right again.

Everything in creation had been designed to be good, to reflect the good character of the good God. Creation was designed to be a place where God and his image-bearers could keep on creating good things and bring increasing glory to God. But now, although the ultimate structure of creation was still good, it was headed in the wrong direction. The broken universe would now cause things to move away from God’s glory.

“Anything in creation can be directed either toward or away from God – that is, directed either in obedience or disobedience to his law. This double direction applies not only to individual human beings but also to such cultural phenomena such as technology, art, and scholarship, to such societal institutions as labor unions, schools, and corporations. and to such human functions as emotionality, sexuality, and rationality. To the degree that these realities fail to live up to God’s creational design for them, they are misdirected, abnormal, distorted. To the degree that they still conform to God’s design, they are in the grip of a countervailing force that curbs or counteracts the distortion. Direction therefore involves two tendencies moving either for or against God.” [1]

The brokenness started with the decision that would be repeated again and again. Even in a time like now, where we can get things so quickly and easily compared to times in the past, we want what we want, and we want it now. And the desire to get what we want now overwhelms our capacity to think of others, as we put ourselves at the center of our part of the universe, replacing God with ourselves. In the case of the first humans, they wanted to grab knowledge and wisdom for themselves instead of waiting to receive it from God.

The failure to resist the temptation to grab what we want instead of waiting to receive what we want from God would only be successfully resisted by Jesus. So, after the rebellion occurred, the earth would remain separated from the Kingdom of God until Jesus began His restoration of the Kingdom. So, until that time the place of human habitation would be separate from the place where God’s good rule and reign is absolute. And it will not be until heaven and earth will be fully reunited, that we will fully experience the overflowing shalom that God has intended for us. Until that time, the broken earth will be separated from heaven and allowed to sink into disorder and chaos. Until that time, the overflowing goodness and shalom that God had provided will be masked by the brokenness of not just Creation but also by the brokenness of the co-creators. Look at what we have done!

We were meant to be in communion with each other and with God. We were meant to be “gardening” with God to make our place, a place of thriving and abundance in concord with the type of thriving and abundance with which God originally made the universe. God intended for us to be connected to Him and filled with His Spirit so that we would be fully enabled and prepared to be co-creators with Him of good works. But our rebellion has separated us from the one who is the source of goodness. In that sense, since the time of Adam, we are less human than we should be.

[1] Wolters, Albert M. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Locations 685-689)

Reflect

In what ways do we replace God’s authority with something else?

Observe

Read Gen 3:14-15, 20-21; Psalm 4:1, 8. The world around us is filled with problems. What signs of hope do we have?

Dancing through the pain

Dancing in the Kingdom – Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude

[Bible references: Luke 17:20-21; Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 21:1-3; 22:1-5]

Right now, it might seem hard to see images of the Dance of God’s Kingdom. We look at the news and wonder where things are headed to. Sometimes we look at our own lives and wonder … If there is a God where is God? What’s His plan for the world – for the church – for us? Then we pick up a book called the Holy Bible and read the stories and wonder how they all fit together. Then we look at the church – well, churches, there are so many of them – and wonder why it’s so complicated and messy and wonder if anybody’s got it right. And, what about me, my story, my mess? How do I fit into it all that?

But hints of God’s activity with His people are there to be found. God has been working through and intervening in the lives of many people that have been dancing the Kingdom Dance through the years, bringing hope and healing to the world. Their stories can be found in the Bible and in the rest of history[1] and sometimes even inserted into the news of the day, in the middle of all the stories of our brokenness.

I dance because it makes me happy! My experience is that when I dance I can express something from my heart to God that cannot be expressed in words. Dancing is a point of contact with God for me. It gives me an experience of God as the origin of creativity and beauty … “I dance because I want to spread a message of love, joy, hope and faith to the world … Among the dimensions added by the dance expression itself is the meta-message that there is room for the whole human being and life in its fullness in a Christian religious setting. Dance can teach children and adults a body-embracing way of living, believing and being in God’s world. One participant says that through dance in general, “we want to communicate heaven to people down here, the message of salvation, our freedom in God, the joy in God, and the joy of dancing with fellow Christians.” … Through dance these Christian dancers experience and practice their religion in a bodily way. This means that their spirituality takes an embodied form and that dance for them is not only a bodily practice, but also a spiritual one.[2]

For us to dance the Kingdom Dance we don’t have everything figured out, He does. We don’t even have to worry about the results of the dance because the results are not dependent on us but on Him, who is working through us. As much as we may mess things up, as we have done and will continue to do, He will ultimately restore us and the rest of creation, making us all into what He had intended from the beginning.

Among all the creatures that God created, we are uniquely made, even if we are not the physical center of the universe as some people may have thought at one time. Through the pursuit of science, we now have instruments that make it very clear that we are not physically at the center of everything, not that we can prove anyway. We are only specks on a small planet spinning around a star in an apparently random solar system in an apparently random galaxy in a universe we cannot even see the edges of. Although we don’t know where the center is, the universe seems to have been created with us in mind. The properties of the universe, the physical constants, the atomic structures, were all created such that it would support our existence.[3] Interestingly, although we are creatures made of the stuff of the universe, not only can we study and reflect on the properties of that stuff, but we can also study and reflect on and even reflect the one who created us.

In the meantime, we do not know when He will return, and we find ourselves in the middle, in-between those two times, between the beginning of the restoration of God’s kingdom on earth and the time when it will be fully accomplished. In this in-between time, sometimes we see some signs of God’s restoration – and sometimes we can’t – and it’s hard to figure out what God is doing, especially when there are times that He seems to be absent. In those times, we need to call upon our faith to hold onto the hope that God is still working out His plans. We need to recall all the times that we did see Him at work, and then we also need to remember that getting to the end of the plans that He intends for us may require some pain on our part just as it required pain on His part. And like Him, our pain will be overwhelmed with the glory that will be revealed.

Our ultimate destination is not a mere returning to the way we started out, but to the full flourishing of our potential, where God will establish a kingdom of image-bearers released to display God’s character and reflect His glory.

“And salvation only does what it’s meant to do when those who have been saved, are being saved, and will one day fully be saved realize that they are saved not as souls but as wholes and not for themselves alone but for what God now longs to do through them. The point is this. When God saves people in this life, by working through his Spirit to bring them to faith and by leading them to follow Jesus in discipleship, prayer, holiness, hope, and love, such people are designed—it isn’t too strong a word—to be a sign and foretaste of what God wants to do for the entire cosmos. What’s more, such people are not just to be a sign and foretaste of that ultimate salvation; they are to be part of the means by which God makes this happen in both the present and the future. That is what Paul insists on when he says that the whole creation is waiting with eager longing not just for its own redemption, its liberation from corruption and decay, but for God’s children to be revealed.” [4]

With that in mind, we can not only wait and hope. We can participate with God in bringing His kingdom to earth and bringing a taste of healing and hope into a broken world that desperately needs it.

“Within the biblical story, the Christian discovers a constant call for justice on behalf of the weak and forgotten. In the biblical tradition, justice is an aspect of God’s shalom, a notion that carries with it the idea of completeness, soundness, well-being and prosperity, and includes every aspect of life – personal, relational and national.”[5]

The suffering and pain in the world can be overwhelming, challenging our ability to maintain hope and persist in effort to bring shalom. That challenge forces us to focus on the taste of shalom that God has given to us knowing that it is just a foretaste of the fullness of the shalom that awaits us in the fully restored earth.

[1] See the section, “Recognizing the contributions of the Church” (p. 104ff) for some examples

[2] Schurr, Hildegunn Marie T. “Dancing Towards Personal and Spiritual Growth”) Nordic Journal of Dance – volume 3, 2012 (pp. 31-40)

[3] Slezak, Michael. “The human universe: Was the cosmos made for us?” New Scientist, 29 April 2015. www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630190-400-the-human-universe-was-the-cosmos-made-for-us

[4] Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope, Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection and the Mission of the Church. Harper Collins 2008. Kindle Edition

[5] Katongole, Emmanuel. Rice, Chris.  “Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing,” p. 72

Reflect

Think about how the universe seems designed for us, our capacity to think about and explore it and then think about our capacity to reflect on the One who created it all. What does that suggest to you about what God has intended for us?

Observe

Read Luke 17:20-21 and pages 107-108 in the text. Can you think of any stories from the past or presence either from your experience or your reading that help remind you that God or his people have been working at healing and restoring our broken world?