We discover afresh God’s dream for the worldGod has a vision for our planet. It is easy to forget this. Often we experience life as a repetitive cycle of daily duties. Kids grow like weeds. Our bodies creak in new places. But in the wider world it is hard to see history as “going” anywhere, moving toward a particular purpose or end. Many days look just like the ones before. Indeed, the nightly news reads like an endless spiral of violence and chaos where the strong hold tightly to their power and the weak continue to disappear into the margins, just in rotating corners of the globe. But God has a vision.
The prophets painted this vision for us in rich images drawn from their desert homeland. Images of mountaintop feasts and wolves dining next to lambs. Swords beat into farming tools and cooling shade in the parching heat. They promised that “on that day” those who were blind would be able to see; those who were deaf would be able to hear; those who were constrained in any way would be free; those who were hungry would be satisfied.
Jesus so loved the prophets’ “day” that he gave “that day” a name: Basileia tou Theou. Or, as we translate in English: The kingdom of God. He preached about it every chance he got and offered more vibrant illustrations of what it would be like. He prayed ardently for the kingdom “to come” and taught his disciples to do likewise. Moreover, he gave signs of what the kingdom would look like in its fullness. Persons who could neither hear nor speak were suddenly singing God’s praise. Persons who were paralysed could dance. And multitudes were fed. The early Christian apologist Origen once referred to Jesus as “autobasileia” – the kingdom of God incarnate.
We live in a time when sometimes the miracles of Jesus seem like a quaint stories from a distant past – a time before doctors and modern medicine, before journalists and fact checking. Miracles don’t happen anymore except in television docudramas. And the kingdom of God again seems far away. In our darkest moments, we sometimes wonder whether at this point in history it is even possible to meet society’s most basic needs much less have leftovers.
But as Habakkuk reminds us, God still has a vision. “If it delays,” he writes, “wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” (Habakkuk 2:3) And God’s concerns—for sight, hearing, freedom and fullness—remain constant.
Each year as the solstice nears, the church marks the season of Advent as a time to nourish hope in God’s kingdom. So many of us want to take the season of Advent seriously. We want to be persons of the kingdom. We hope our liturgical participation and works of justice during these sacred weeks will lead us to a deeper understanding of that kingdom. Come Christmas morn, having been faithful to this journey, may we stand together in awe of the goodness of a God who dreams so much for us that He sent His only son to show us the way.
