Advent – on earth and in heaven

Over the last three weeks I have focused on the process waiting and longing to see Our Father’s kingdom come and his will be done. This is a prayer that ties heaven and earth together:

Your Kingdom come
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Matt 6:10

In a few days’ time we will celebrate that heaven and earth met in a manger in Bethlehem more than 2000 year ago. God’s kingdom came, his will was made clear on earth as it was in heaven.

The incarnation – the fact that the ‘word became flesh’ – ‘God became man’ (1), was the first real meeting-point between heaven and earth. So when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, why did he include a prayer that had already been fulfilled the day he himself was born?

Because the fulfilment of that prayer needs to be repeated again and again until Christ returns at the end of time. The only way it can happen is through heaven meeting earth in the incarnation of the Word becoming flesh, however with a ‘face’ of our present day.

This miracle of incarnation happens every time I, like any born again believer, see that I live in Christ and He lives in me. Then God’s kingdom comes, salvation for all men in Jesus is proclaimed so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Every time I study the Lord’s prayer, I am reminded of its perfection. It is saturated with matters of importance. The part ‘Let your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!’ is even a ful surrender to his will and salvation. When we pray in this way, there is Advent on earth and in heaven because more of God’s Kingdom will come.

‘Manna’ for today:

Let every heart prepare Him room! (2)

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(1) John 1:14

(2) Line from “Joy to the world!"

A new move!

When we read the stories of the Old Testament, it is not difficult to see how God is moving in and through his chosen people, and how he also reveals to them what his plans are. The author of the letter to the Hebrews has captured this and described it in this way:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.
Hebrews 1:1-2

The belief that Jesus Christ was present in God – the ‘first mover’ – when the world was created, was very important for the first followers of the Way, who later were called Christians. When God became flesh, his presence and identification with his creation became even more evident. God was not just a distant Creator, but lived as a human being among ordinary people, “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (1).

The prophets saw that this would happen, and Isaiah described it in this way:

For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15

Therefore, the birth of Jesus Christ is so vital for the Christian faith and for the momentum of God’s plan of salvation. In the incarnation the first mover is giving his creation a new move. Some of Jesus’ last words were: “Go therefore…” 

- If we do not grasp the mystery of the incarnation, but still want to do what he asks us to do, we are likely to try to move but with the parking-brakes on. More about incarnation in the reflection on the ‘third move’ next week.

‘Manna’ for today:

I move because He is with me always (2)

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(1) Hebrews 4:15b

(2) Matthew 28:20

It is about an important confession

NORSK
If it is correct that the holiness and fruit are captured in one word: Love, why should it be important with confession?

This is an important question for me, primarily because I will much rather have life than doctrine. At the same time the spreading of spiritual life depends on the fact that I know something about how the spiritual matters are connected. I believe that is the background for John’s statement:

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God”
1 John 4:2

Why was it important for John to remind his readers about this confession if all is about believing in Jesus and loving one another? And why is it important for me to write about holiness?

The answer is simple:

If it is not possible for me to accept that Jesus fully and truly God and fully and truly man, I clearly limit what is possible for God:
How can I believe that he can work through his body in our present time if he is not able to reveal himself in Jesus Christ?

Already in the first century after Christ, this teaching was challenged. However, even today the connection between the faith in Jesus as man and God is a precondition for believing that the Spirit of God in Jesus’ body will be able to be in the body God has chosen to use today.

Thus, what I confess about Jesus is important for the spreading of his life. What I confess and teach will either limit or nourish life. The same applies to the subject of holiness.

Manna’ for today:

Jesus has come in “flesh”, and Jesus comes in “flesh”

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It is about secularisation

NORSK
Yesterday I wrote that the kingdom of God comes close when “my presence in the world 'secularises' holiness” and this statement needs an explanation. The word ‘secularisation’ has its origin in the Medieval Ages and was used to describe what happened when the worldly powers took over properties that used to belong to the church. The church regarded this as an increase of the power of the world while the clergy lost influence and power and the "sacred space" steadily decreased.

In a secular perspective, this is likely to be a correct perception, but in a spiritual perspective, it is a tragedy if I believe that the influence of God’s Spirit in the world is dependent on the church’s number of properties and that the institution constitutes an economic and political force.

The challenge is that both believers and non-believers constantly confuse the church as an institution and the kingdom of God as a spiritual reality. Ideally, the church and the Kingdom of God should share a common goal - but unfortunately it is not always the case.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was concerned about this issue and writes about a ‘Christianity free of religion’. This does not mean that Bonhoeffer empties Christianity of its content, nor does he present an existence without God. His aim is to speak about God in a way that brings God back into the reality in which he has become homeless (1).

In other words, holiness must return to the world. Expressed in a simple way: For the secular to become holy, the holy must first become secular. The question is: How can that happen?

There are probably several answers to the question; but is there a divine method?

I believe so, but according to the mind-set of this world, I doubt that it is logical:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8

This declaration is in a context, which also establishes that the word the Lord does not return to him before it has accomplished what he has said. So, the Lord’s way is incarnation, not only through Jesus 2000 years ago, but in the ongoing incarnation through you and me. This ongoing incarnation of God’s holy presence is vital if we want to see his perfect Kingdom become a reality. Jesus made the following statement:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Matt 24:14 

The only effective way to proclaim the gospel is through incarnation. It is God’s own way.

'Manna' for today:

Holiness is about secularisation

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(1) Bonhoeffer: "Resistance and submission"