TENET TALKS: The Kingdom of Heaven

Parenting helps us view things in new ways

THE TOPIC: The Kingdom of Heaven

TENET: “The redemptive work of God which transforms our broken relationships, revealing Heaven on Earth - which will be fully realized at God’s second coming when the Earth will be completely renewed to its original ideal.”  - from our Tenets of Belief

“Our culture is so fixated on dying and going to heaven when the whole Scripture is about heaven coming to earth.” -N. T. Wright

READING FROM THE BIBLE: John 15:9-17 (The Message)

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.

“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.

“You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

“But remember the root command: Love one another.

“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

HOMILY: The kingdom of Heaven is a large topic. Hard to boil down into a few minutes. But I want tonight to give us some new ways to consider the Kingdom of Heaven.

Recently we have been teaching the little boys the Lord’s Prayer. It’s interesting to watch them learn it, to stumble over the unused language and to fit the parts together. The other night as I was tucking him into bed, Everett asked me, “What is evil?”

All too soon he’ll understand that evil is the darkness everywhere. I tried to explain as best I could that it’s when bad things happen. It’s what makes bad guys bad, which he seemed to understand, “But it's not here, it’s down in the other town.”

HA! I wish! But sadly it’s in our own home, it’s in our family and it’s in our hearts. Even as idyllic a life as he has, with happiness, peace, security and many many people who love and shield him, evil lurks. I pray he doesn’t have to know it in any real way soon.

We all know evil, and so does he, which is how he can recognize bad guys. It’s a real part of our lives, and our realities. Recently kids movies have tried to avoid the topic, but to no avail, it will always be real in our lives, sometimes especially for kids because they can’t escape some truly awful situations. We desperately want to avoid evil, even as we’re not always quite sure how.

But these ideas about evil also help us understand the Kingdom of Heaven too. John in his gospel used a lot of light/dark language to help us pinpoint what it is. “The life-light blazed out in the darkness; and the darkness couldn’t put it out.” No matter what evil isn’t going to win!

There are two Kingdoms, one evil and one good. But what does the good one look like? We have a tendency to sometimes think that Heaven is a far away place for later, after death, and then only if we’re good enough. Is that true? If evil pushes in around us, then doesn’t Heaven too? As the quote from N.T. Wright reminds us, Heaven is also pressing into our lives - here and now!

But talking about the two kingdoms might lull us into thinking that these are opposites. The little boys are learning about opposites this week in school — hard/soft, fast/slow, on/off. So are good and evil — the two kingdoms — opposites? I would argue that they are false opposites. Things that seem on polar ends but actually are more a lack of one where emptiness fills.

If we take a glass of water from the hot tap and leave it on the counter overnight does it change? Sure. It’s not hot. But it’s still water. So it was actually missing something - the heat. If we turn off a light in a room or blow out a candle is the room the opposite of lit? Darkness is the absence of something. The devil isn’t the opposite of God, he only represents the lack of God and goodness and love. As we move out of the presence of God we move towards the absence of light, and life and love.

God is giving us in each moment an invitation to reunite with Him and each other, to participate in the warm life light of the Kingdom. Something in us fights that, we dissent, rebel, we’re stubborn and difficult often for incredibly stupid reasons. And yet the Kingdom of Heaven presses around us as well, here and now.

But the Kingdom of Heaven needs light bearers to help bring it all to visible fruition. Will we be part of helping the light blaze out in the darkness?

May God bring His Kingdom and the Power and the Glory here and now forever and ever, amen!

-Pastor Sierra Ward

(This is a written version of the talk I gave on Saturday night 1/27/24)