What Do You See? What Does GOD See?

Readings for this Week before Pentecost are about the coming Kingdom designed by God. They include stories that we’ve known, and bow to the Spiritual Visions which were and are today rampant. Perhaps God’s Spirit is seeking YOU to explore territories which are new but not-so-new! Read on, and find where God’s Spirit is calling each of us…

St. Paul & Co. have been working the mission field in Asia Minor, what’s now Turkii. And Paul has a vision of a “man of Macedonia” (he could tell by the costume?) calling out an invitation. (ACTS 16:9-15) So they went right away, and spent some time in Phillippi, the capital of Macedonia. On the sabbath they found Lydia and some other women (!) ready to hear about Jesus; she found the God who was finding her and opened her home to be the disciples’ base of operations. This is the convergence of Divine Initiative and human obedience: the story reminds us that God sets up such discernment.

REVELATION 21:10 tells of the New Jerusalem spilling out of heaven upon the Earth, a second Incarnation. (“Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him”–Christina Rossetti) And we continue in verses 22 through 22:5 to hear about how this City “looks”. (Notice that there’re no Pearly Gates!) “The revealing light of God illuminates every corner and every closet. There is no longer a place for pretense or deception.” (Paul Johnson, FEASTING on the WORD, C 2:488) The Empire–Rome? Babylon? America?–is but transitory; this City shall last forever. How do you envision it??

Jesus’ Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper detailed so well by JOHN (14:23-29) tells of Jesus’ interpretation of what this final kingdom will look like. Not the Age of Aquarius, it DOES fill with Peace and Love. This vision announces that even if Jesus is “gone” from them, he himself will be there to steer them into a new/lasting community. Here is the crafting of a “home” for this community, now that the Temple is ruined and other capitals lost.

There’re few opportunities for the Visionary in today’s system. Our prophecies seem irrational, and only TV commercials show us what’s necessary for successful living. Yet the challenge is out there: if we but follow the Spirit of God’s leading, others with vision will join us. Dark days for the Church are all about us, but we’re instructed to persevere in our visionary journey.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come every Tuesday with your friends to be confronted by scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary which will be heard on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com