Luke Timothy Johnson got a bunch of us started on the idea of a "world imagined." He said that many parts of Scripture imagine a world that is not yet put in place. But because of the incarnation, we are closer to seeing the new heaven and the new earth, closer to the possibility that the peace of Christ is not just a saying at church, but a permanent/eternal reality that will be here the day after tomorrow.
We read this world imagined yesterday from Isaiah 32:
The LORD's justice will dwell in the desert,
his righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.
Just imagine. Justice. Peace. A perfect balance of "quietness and confidence." (What a cool use of words!) A life where we live in "undisturbed places of rest." A hammock in Cancun has nothing on that world.
And so we go out into our communities and announce a world imagined from Luke 10. Jesus said to go tell everyone, from the sick to those who reject the Lord, to go tell them the same thing: "The kingdom of God has come near." Whether I receive that as good news or bad news is up to me. But there it is.
"The kingdom of God has come near."
This is more than inviting people to church. This is about welcoming people into the presence of the Lord that changes our lives beyond what we can dream. It's even more than a world imagined. The danger is when the end results of all this talk is "church as institution" where we dwell on ourselves and our Sunday morning preferences more than the impact of the one true and living God upon a dying world. Like I've said, "When church becomes the point of church we miss the point of church."
And like Jesus said, "The kingdom of God has come near."
Just imagine.
People in Jamaica have a saying along these lines, especially those who live in abject poverty. They say, "Evahting Irie." It sounds like, "Everything's all right." But that doesn't quite cut it. The Jamaican phrase imagines a world where we look around and there is no more poverty, death, oppression, or disease. Children don't cry themselves to sleep hungry. Greed does not trump anything. All people live in peace. They live in a perfect balance of quietness and confidence.
Evahting irie.
Just imagine.
Can you hear it coming?
"The kingdom of God has come near."
