Rethinking Judgment

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Rethinking Judgment
A God Who Weeps - Part 3
Sunday, September 18, 2022
Jeremiah 18:1-11

So I went down to the potter’s house; he was working on the potter’s wheel. But the piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him. Then the Lord’s word came to me: House of Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter, declares the Lord? Like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine, house of Israel!

Jeremiah 18:3-6 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Mold me, make me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

We sing these words.  We pray these words.  But do we really mean these words?  Of course we want God to bless us.  Of course we want God to heal us and our loved ones.  Of course we want God to take care of us.  But do we really want God to mold us, to make us, to fill us and to use us?

To understand exactly what this means, God sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house… a place in the Hinnom valley outside the city walls, a valley that would later be called Gehenna which would become a metaphor for a place of eternal punishment.  It was a valley filled with he fire and smoke of industrial work including pottery, but it was also a place known for the devouring fires of child sacrifice (called Topheth in 2 Kings 23 and Jeremiah 7 and 19).  We can imagine Jeremiah walking down the steep hill beyond the city gate into this valley of black smoke and fire, stepping carefully through piles of clay, heaps of broken potsherds and filthy hard working people like we might imagine in the industrial era sweatshops of the early 20th century.

There in the midst of industrial fires and piles of broken potsherds, among some of the lowest classes of people in Jerusalem, Jeremiah sees a man shaping and then casting aside a flawed piece of clay  In this man covered in mud and clay, he sees the hands, the face and the heart of God. 

Are we willing, like a piece of clay, to trust the potter’s judgment, even if it means being cast aside or entirely absorbed into something new because we are not useful in our current flawed state?  The potter does not destroy flawed pieces of clay out of anger, but he or she will do whatever it takes to make the clay useful and to be certain that no flawed piece will ruin the whole of the pottery.  What if God’s judgment is like this?  What if God’s declaration of coming disaster for Israel is less about destruction, vengeance or punishment and more about redemption and restoration? 

Yes, judgment is painful, whether individually or at a national or even global level.  It is painful in the same way a sentient piece of marble would feel pain under the blade of a chisel or as C.S. Lewis says, a sentient painting would feel after being rubbed and scraped away and restarted for the tenth time in the process of creating a masterpiece.   Lewis observes that in such a case, we may prefer to be just a thumbnail sketch that does not require much work.  But this is not for God to love us more by leaving us to our own comfort… rather it is asking God to love us less, to let us settle for far less that who God created us to be.  And so we must ask ourselves again… do we really want God to mold us, to make us, to fill us, and to use us?  If so, let us pray...

A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

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For a deeper reflection on what it might look like to be molded and shaped by God, check out the video below from the Skit Guys.

A Heartbroken God

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A Heartbroken God
A God Who Weeps - Part 2
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Jeremiah 2:4-13

My people have committed two crimes:
They have forsaken me, the spring of living water.
And they have dug wells, broken wells that can’t hold water.

  Jeremiah 2:13 (NRSV)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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“Look at all I’ve done for you… and this is how you respond?  This is how you treat me?”

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of a parent trying to navigate the tumultuous years of a rebellious teenager. 

It’s easy to see the anger of God in passages like this, scolding Israel for their idolatry and disobedience, but perhaps the teenager analogy actually gives us some much needed perspective.  What if God is not simply exploding with anger and wrath against a sinful people?  What if God does not want to destroy Israel by sending them into exile?  What if despite all the horrible things they have done, God still loves them and wants the best for them?

Are there consequences for their choices?  Absolutely! Just like there are consequences for the unlicensed and underage teenager who takes off in his or her parent’s car at night for an unsupervised party where they drink far to much and end up totaling the car on the way home.  This may be a pretty extreme example that is hopefully more common in movies and TV shows than in real life, but the point is that even with such an extreme act of rebellion, the rightfully angry parent still does not wish harm on their misguided child.  They don’t wish their teenager had died in the accident.  Before they are angry, they are first relieved when nobody is hurt. 

What we see here in Jeremiah 2 is not the wrath of a God who is ready to wipe a rebellious people off the face of the earth, but the overwhelming heartbreak of a parent who has given their now adolescent child every possible opportunity only to find that the child would rather run away from home and throw away their lives on temporary pleasures that will never satisfy. 

Living on a friend’s couch might work out in the short term, but eventually the tearful parent peers into the child’s empty room with all the luxuries of home and wonders why this wasn’t good enough for them.  In the language of the Biblical prophets, the cry sounds something like this… “they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

Building cracked cisterns is Jeremiah’s way of saying, “why are you trying to do it yourself when God has already given you everything?”  Today we might ask the same question.  Why do we turn to politics, money, fame, weapons, walls, divisive speech and action, and even religion to “protect us” and make us feel secure, included, or even loved as if somehow God is not enough? 

What cracked cisterns have we built to sustain ourselves that continue to break God’s heart?

An Impossible Call

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An Impossible Call
A God Who Weeps - Part 1
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Jeremiah 1:1-10

The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son,  and throughout the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

The Lord’s word came to me:

“Before I created you in the womb I knew you;
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I made you a prophet to the nations.”
“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak
    because I’m only a child.”
The Lord responded,
    “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’
        Where I send you, you must go;
        what I tell you, you must say.

 Jeremiah 1:2-7 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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God calls pastors.  God calls missionaries.  God calls chaplains.  God calls prophets.  Maybe God even calls seminary professors or Sunday School teachers.  But what if I were to tell you that God has called you, that God is calling you, and that God will continue to call you until you breathe your final breath on earth?

The point of Jeremiah’s call story is not, as so many argue, to make a scientific claim about when life technically begins.  The point is to show Jeremiah, and all of us, that God has been intimately involved in our lives from the very beginning, and even before the beginning. 

This is not to say that God predetermines some to be born into riches and others to grow up as slaves or that God’s plan requires some to live healthy lives while others suffer and die as infants or children.  God’s so-called “plan” for our lives is not a mystery to solve or a puzzle that can only be put together one way and requires that we somehow find all the right pieces hidden somewhere throughout our lives by making the right choices along the way. 

What it does say, however, is that God knows and loves each and every one of us before we are born, and that God invites us to participate in God’s redemptive purposes for the world long before we could even hear or process such an invitation.

The question for us, as it was for Jeremiah, is how do our lives, our gifts and abilities, our heritage, our circumstances, our geographical and socio-economic position, our choices, and so much more shape us in ways that God can use for the sake of the world.

Jeremiah was not waiting as a baby soul in heaven for the right body to come along to be placed into on earth so that he could become a prophet.  But Jeremiah’s location in life, as a member of a priestly family during a time of tremendous social, political, and religious upheaval and renewal in Jerusalem, prepared him well to proclaim God’s good news to the exiles in Babylon and to the remnant left behind in the ruins under foreign control. 

• What have you learned from your own experience that can help others? 

• Where do your gifts and passions intersect with the needs of the world? 

Perhaps these questions are the beginning of hearing God’s call for yourself? 

If we listen close enough, maybe even a child or teenager like Jeremiah will lead the way.

Just Your Boy

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Just Your Boy
Let the Children Come - Part 4
Sunday, August 28, 2022
1 Samuel 16:1-23, 1 Timothy 4:12

Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Is that all of your boys?”

“There is still the youngest one,” Jesse answered, “but he’s out keeping the sheep.”

“Send for him,” Samuel told Jesse, “because we can’t proceed until he gets here.”

 1 Samuel 16:11 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Though he didn’t become king until around the age of 30, David was most likely between 8 and 15 when Samuel first called him in from the fields and anointed him as Saul’s successor to the throne of Israel.  He was quite literally “just a boy”.  He was so young and insignificant, in fact, that his father didn’t even see the point in bringing him along when Samuel invited his family to the sacrifice.  While his father and older brothers were going through the ritual purification to be cleansed before God for worship, young David was out in the fields with the sheep composing psalms of praise. 

How appropriate that God would use Samuel, himself called as a child, to anoint another child king over all Israel.  We know the stories of David’s heroism, how he defeated Goliath and the Philistine army with just a sling and a stone, and how he united the tribes of Israel and strengthened the whole nation with its most expansive borders ever from Dan to Beersheba.  We know how he spent so much of his life on the run from King Saul who sought to kill him because he was a threat to his own dynasty, despite God’s clear ruling that Saul’s family would no longer reign in Israel due to his own sin.  And we see David at his lowest point, committing adultery and murder to attain what he couldn’t have.  We read and sing his psalms of praise and lament, of joy and of repentance.  Yet despite all his accomplishments and all his mistakes, in the end only one thing mattered… He was just God’s beloved child singing praises in the field.

As you look at your own life, your highs and lows, what matters most to you?  What matters most to God?

Heaven's Whisper

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Heaven’s Whisper
Let the Children Come - Part 3
Sunday, August 21, 2022
1 Samuel 3:1-21

Then the Lord came and stood there, calling just as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel said, “Speak. Your servant is listening.”

1 Samuel 3:10 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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According to the religious hierarchies of the day, the people who should have heard God's voice in this story were Eli and his sons.  They were the authorities, the ultimate insiders by birth and by vocation.  But they were not the ones God chose.

 Instead, God chose Samuel.  A child.  A boy on the periphery, one whose capacity for openness and wonder was dulled, perhaps, but still recoverable.  A child who wasn't bound by the political interests of his elders.  A child who could tolerate an unfamiliar voice and an uncomfortable message — a message that would upend the very institution he knew best.

Debie Thomas, journeywithjesus.net (Lectionary Essays)

The historian Josephus writes that Samuel was likely around 12 years old when he heard God’s call, and as we might imagine, he was extremely confused.  He had been raised in the home of a priest and knew all of the inner workings of the religious system, but he also had a front row seat to the scandals and brokenness even within the priest’s own family.

The system was so broken, in fact, that the writer says in verse 1 that the word of the Lord was rare in those days.  How tragic, that this 12 year old boy whose mother dedicated his life to the service of God and who quite literally grew up in the church, would not recognize God’s voice and in fact would find himself quite surprised to hear a word from God at all. 

And yet if we consider our own lives, especially among those who have spent most of our lives in church, I wonder if we should not be so surprised after all.  I’ve met people who sat in churches for 80 years who had never heard of Jacob (Abraham’s grandson and the father of the 12 tribes of Israel).  Biblical illiteracy is as common in the church if not more-so than in the culture at large.  We take our identity as God’s people for granted to the point that we no longer actively listen for God’s voice.  It’s almost as if God has already said all there is to say.  We believe the Bible, even if we don’t read it or actually know what it says.  What more do we need?

What if what we need is the open heart, the discerning ear, and the humble yet courageous voice of a child to remind us that God is not finished talking yet?  And maybe, just maybe, God’s word is not as rare as we may think in our world today.  Maybe it is simply being heard by those who choose to ignore it, or those who don’t recognize it, or even worse, those who know it and speak it while we ignore them because they are too young, or too different, too radical, or too unexpected a person to carry the message of God to those of us who think we know better.

A Mother's Heart

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A Mother’s Heart
Let the Children Come - Part 2
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Exodus 1:8-2:10

“When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.” Now the two midwives respected God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.

 Exodus 1:16-17 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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For the Jew, the Exodus out of slavery in Egypt is the single most defining event in their historic identity as God’s people.  We typically associate the Exodus story with images of God’s power and strength.  We see Moses in the face of Charlton Heston standing over the Red Sea with his staff raised as the waters rise into great protective walls at his command. 

In all the demonstrations of God’s mighty power throughout the Exodus story, I wonder if we miss something very important about the way it all began. 

Just as God’s redemption of the world through Christ did not begin with the power of the resurrection, but with Jesus taking on the weakness of humanity and surrendering himself to death, even death on a cross, so in the same way the Exodus story of deliverance does not begin with Moses’ strength over Pharoah, but with the revolutionary compassion of four unsuspecting women, two Hebrew midwives, a Hebrew mother, and an Egyptian princess with a mother’s heart.

Without Moses, there is no Exodus and without these four women, there is no Moses.  Isn’t it just like God to begin the work of salvation not in a show of power and glory, but in the quiet faithfulness and love of a mother’s heart, not only for her own children, but for every child, no matter the cost.

Shiphrah and Puah knew all to well the cost for defying Pharoah.  If caught saving the lives of male Hebrew babies against Pharoah’s orders, they certainly would have been killed.  But their compassion for the children was greater than their fear of death.

Moses’ mother knew the consequences for allowing a baby boy to live, and yet she not only gave her son a chance at life by floating him down the river, she boldly followed and manipulated the circumstances so that she would not only get to raise her beloved Moses, but that he would also have the full protection and privilege of a member of the royal household.

And Pharoah’s daughter knew full well her father’s hatred of the Hebrew slaves, and yet her compassion for this child floating in the river was greater than the murderous racism of her extremely powerful family.  The daughter of Pharoah came to love this foreign child as her own.

It is not the power of an eternal king or authoritarian judge or even an overprotective father that saves, but the mother heart of a God who loves her children no matter the cost.

Like A Child

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Like a Child
Let the Children Come - Part 1
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Mark 10:13-15, Matthew 18:1-5

Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.

 Matthew 18:5 (The Message)

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Can I be honest?

I didn’t really like being a child. I’m not sure I was ever really good at it.

Even in my earliest memories I hated kids games, I hated the silliness, I hated arts and crafts projects., especially ones that involved paint, glue, and worst of all, glitter! I hated having to run outside, especially in the heat. And most of all I hated having to dress up as a clown for a circus themed Vacation Bible School at a church that wasn’t even my own. The only saving grace was that at that church nobody knew who I was.

Most of the time I would much rather sit down with an adult over a game of chess or read a book in my room by myself than hang out with other kids.

So if I’m really being honest, today’s teaching from Jesus is tough for me.

No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they become like a little child?

What!?!?

I have spent my whole life trying to be seen as an adult. Even as a younger or almost middle aged adult, it seems some people will always treat me like a child. The last thing I want is to actually be like a child again. I never even liked it the first time around.

There is one part of childhood, however, that I cling to dearly, and hope I never outgrow. It’s the need to question everything, to keep exploring and to get lost in wonder and amazement. It’s the hunger for learning and the thirst for wisdom and understanding. The one thing I loved about being a child is the one thing so many children seem to hate… school. I love learning so much I keep finding new ways to stay in school. I just finished my Doctorate Degree from Duke and I’m still wondering what other educational opportunities I can find to keep exploring, learning, growing, and becoming more of who God created me to be.

I find it interesting that when people say you should have the “faith of a child”, what they often mean is, “Don’t question, just accept what we tell you. Don’t doubt, just believe,” or as I was taught more explicitly, “be seen and not heard.” As a child you don’t have an opinion, at least not one that matters to anyone. Funny that as an adult, and even as a well educated pastor, I find that to most people my opinions still don’t matter much, no matter how well informed.

Those who say that having childlike faith means not asking questions or expressing doubts or opinions clearly haven’t been around a lot of children. One of my favorite things about my 8 year old daughter is the questions she asks. In fairness, she asks a lot of silly questions too. She’s a lot better at being a kid than I ever was. But she is also wise beyond her years and she asks the kinds of questions so many adults are afraid to ask. Questions about who God is and about the nature of humanity and why people do the things they do. Questions about the differences between people and the ways people believe and disagree on so many issues. She asks the kinds of questions that quite frankly would make us all better human beings, less angry and judgmental and more empathetic and understanding, if we would only be open enough to ask and bold enough to hear someone else’s answer.

I can’t help but wonder, and hope, that this is at least part of what Jesus means when he says we must become like children.

Never stop being curious. Don’t lose your sense of wonder. Keep exploring. Keep asking questions. Keep learning. Keep growing. The mysteries of God’s love are endless so if you ever think you know enough, remember… you are still just a child. Have a teachable spirit. You can never know it all. Dive deep into the mysteries of the universe, the mysteries of life, the mysteries of the human mind and soul, the mysteries of grace, and the mystery of the Eternal One.

Maybe I missed the point. Maybe I am just supposed to be silent, obedient, have no opinions or thoughts of my own, and be seen and not heard the way children are so often treated in this world.

But I really hope not. I hope with all my heart that Jesus is inviting us to childlike wonder, to joy, to eyes and hearts wide open to beauty, to mystery, and to love.

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With the service this week being geared toward children, we did not have a formal sermon to share. Feel free to enjoy a video of the full Back to School Worship Experience below…

Treasures in Heaven

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Treasures in Heaven
Burning Questions: Week 5
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Luke 12:13-34, Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

 Matthew 6:24 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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John Wesley’s Three Rules
for Faithful Stewardship of Money

 (excerpts from “Use of Money”, a sermon by John Wesley)

I. “Gain all you can.”  We ought to gain all we can gain, without buying gold too dear, without paying more for it than it is worth. But this it is certain we ought not to do; we ought not to gain money at the expense of life, nor (which is in effect the same thing) at the expense of our health… We are, Secondly, to gain all we can without hurting our mind any more than our body... We are. Thirdly, to gain all we can without hurting our neighbour… Gain all you can, by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you.

II. “Save all you can.”  Having gained all you can, by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence, the second rule of Christian prudence is," Save all you can."… Do not waste any part of so precious a talent merely in gratifying the desires of the flesh; in procuring the pleasures of sense of whatever kind… or in gratifying the desire of the eye... Lay out nothing to gratify the pride of life, to gain the admiration or praise of others.

III.  “Give all you can.”  But let not anyone imagine that one has done anything, barely by going thus far, by "gaining and saving all he can," if one were to stop here. All this is nothing, if one go not forward, if one does not point all this at a farther end. Nor, indeed, can anyone properly be said to save anything, if one only lays it up. You may as well throw your money into the sea, as bury it in the earth…  If, therefore, you would indeed "make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness," add the Third rule to the two preceding. Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then "give all you can."… As you yourself are not your own, but God’s, such is, likewise, all that you enjoy. Such is your soul and your body, not your own, but God's. And so is your substance in particular. And God has told you, in the most clear and express terms, how you are to employ it for him, in such a manner, that it may be all an holy sacrifice, acceptable through Christ Jesus. 

No more sloth! Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might! No more waste! Cut off every expense which fashion, caprice, or flesh and blood demand! No more covetousness! But employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all people! This is no small part of "the wisdom of the just." Give all ye have, as well as all ye are, a spiritual sacrifice to Him who withheld not from you his Son, his only Son: So "laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that ye may attain eternal life!"

Questions for Self-Examination:

• How am I guarding against greed instead of obsessing over fairness?

• How does my awareness of my own mortality affect my relationship with money? 

• What makes me feel secure or insecure.

• In what ways do I acknowledge that even my hard-earned, well-earned, self-earned wealth comes from God and belongs to God. 

• How am I prioritizing my connection with others over personal gain

• How often do I dialog with God about my financial resources instead of relying solely on my own planning?

Return of the King

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Return of the King
Burning Questions: Week 3
Sunday, July 17, 2022
Matthew 12:38-40, Matthew 24:35-42, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11

For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man.

 Matthew 24:35-42

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Popular modern teachings on the end times center around ideas of “rapture” and escape from this world.  There’s only one problem.  Until the late 1800’s, nobody in any Christian denomination had thought of such a theology. 

Consider Matthew 24:35-42.  The idea is that those who are not prepared for the return of Christ will be “left behind” when the “rapture” comes, while true believers are caught up into heaven.  The misunderstanding here is in the passage itself.  Jesus says it will be as it was in the days of Noah.  Those who were “left behind” included Noah and his family on the ark.  The rest were “swept away” in the flood.  If it is truly like the days of Noah, then we should want to be left behind and not swept away in the flood.  To be left means to be rescued or “saved.”

The problem with modern versions of End Times Theology, Brian McLaren writes, is that they are

 ...desperate, escapist and globally hopeless…. The world is going down the toilet, they say. There is no hope.  It’s all going to burn.  So we should jump into the life rafts and paddle away like mad away from the sinking ship.  We should retreat into our  Christian enclaves, listen to Christian radio, watch Christian TV, pray, study the Bible, tell drivers what we believe with bumper-stickers that say, ‘in case of rapture, this vehicle will self-destruct,’ keep our contact with the world at a minimum, concentrate on our personal righteousness, and anticipate heaven, a supernatural life beyond history - instead of anticipating the just society [of the Kingdom of God fully manifest on Earth as it is in Heaven].

The overarching movement of scripture is toward restoration and re-creation, not destruction, toward a call to building the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven rather than escaping to some other heavenly realm.  Christ will indeed return, and as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, we have a hope of being caught up with Christ.   But the early writers and hearers of this text would never have considered being caught up to go to another place.  Rather, they had in mind a common military image of going out to meet the King who is coming to rescue their city.  Then together they return to take back the city and restore the throne to it’s rightful ruler.  Christ did not conquer death only to be run out of creation by some devil in the end, taking only a few chosen ones with him.  When Christ returns, he will rule a new heaven and a new earth as one, and he has made us heirs of this kingdom.  More than that, he has given us the responsibility to start building it here and now.

… on earth, as it is in heaven.