Heaven on earth, what would it be like? What would it look like? Is it possible to dream about it without seeming foolish, idealistic? What if there were a way to bring heaven on earth? What if this was God’s will? What if this was our role as God’s people, a people called to bring heaven on earth?
In these last few weeks at RGC Geneva, we have been taking a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:5-15 and these are some of the questions we have wrestled with.
In a prayer so dense in meaning, so counter-cultural and counter-intuitive, God, the maker of the universe, the one on whom we depend for everything, the one who does not need us, comes close to us and we can call him Father! Since when has our culture taken for granted who God truly is and the amazing fact we can call him ‘Father’?
And how does Jesus invite us to come to him? As a community. It’s OUR Father who gives US OUR daily bread, who forgives US. And what does Jesus ask his community to pray for? For ‘His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven’. So how will His people react? Will they just wait for Heaven to come?
In praying this, God’s people share in God’s passion to see heaven on earth. In context of what Jesus did at the cross in sacrifice for us, where he calls us just a few lines before to ‘love our neighbours’, to ‘love our enemies’, to ‘be the light of the world’, to ‘be the salt of the earth’, doesn’t it make sense to assume he is calling us to be active participants in bringing his grace on earth, His hands and feet?
So what will it look like in our context, in our lives, in our time? It means having Faith, which means taking a risk, which means taking the risk to look silly or foolish, to care about others more than oneself. The refugees, the poor, the lonely, the disabled, the needs of this world are crying out and God has called his people. How will his people react?