Community Sunday: Heavenly Things

This morning was our monthly Community Sunday where we have communion together as well as have time for coffee, snacks, and fellowship after musical worship. This month, Dave offered a brief reflection on living in the heavenly kingdom here on earth.

Please find the slide deck for this week's teaching here.

Home Church Questions:

1. What stood out to you from this week's teaching?

2. Read Colossians 3:1-2 (preferably in multiple translations). What stands out to you from this passage?

3. Where are the thin places in your life where you have a greater sense of heavenly things?

4. How can we help reveal the heavenly kingdom to those around us?

5. Pray with and for one another, our church community, and our world.

Instagram: @theharbournewmarket
Website: theharbournewmarket.ca
Email: david@theharbournewmarket.ca

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:22

Well, our scripture today for our reflection time is uh a couple of verses you're probably aware with aware of. I remember it from my old Sunday school days at Langstaff Baptist Church, where we did the equivalent of Christian service brigade. And we memorized, since you have then been risen with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things above and not on earthly things. Of course, back then, some 65 years ago, that would have been said in the King James Version. Um, so it sounded much more much more scary. So here's my question of the day. And uh next we can move into some of our Old Testament stories. But if I asked you about heaven and what comes to mind when you hear the word heaven, what what would you think? Now I've had Rec Clark's brisket after 14 hours on a Traeger Smoker, and sitting there consuming that on a deck on a summer evening, that would be quite heavenly, but that won't do for heaven. And we talk about a place far away, a Christian's future destination, you know, the opposite of hell, where the angels live. But for many of us, we picture where we go after we pass. And we imagine clouds and angels and reunion with loved ones, the presence of God. And these are wonderful images, to be sure. And I know coming to faith as a teenager, um, heaven was a long ways off. It was far away. Um I can remember going to church on a warm summer evening, and uh the pastor didn't want to speak on a summer Sunday evening, so those Ken Anderson films would come all about the rapture and uh people who are whisked away and the shaver still in the sink because the guy shaving had gone to heaven. And so it was highly motivational to get your heart right with the Lord. And as I've gotten older, I've processed a little more because questions have come up along along the way. Like, if we're going to heaven anyways, why worry about creation? So now it begins to frame how we live right here, right now. And it's safe to say that uh over the last year I've become much more introspective about heavenly things. And uh and I've noticed that we're often reluctant to speak of heaven specifically to our peers and our friends. Um and I'm beginning to think it's a present reality that we don't really see it, we don't wrestle with it. Um I've bought a book by Brian Zonn, it's his new one, and uh called Unseen Existences. And it's um it's wonderful. And he makes the statement in there the greatest danger is not that heaven has disappeared, it's that we as a society have forgotten how to believe in it and perceive it. And he also makes the case that in modern, even in modern Christianity, we've become very, very focused on the material world. And the more we're focused in that world, we get conditioned to think, maybe that's all there is, although we know differently, we live in that space of the right here, right now. And again, Paul says in our scripture, we've we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but what is unseen. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians. Since what we've seen is temporary, but what unseen is eternal. Now, the Bible opens with remarkable simplicity. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn't just say God created the earth in the beginning. So two realms. Not two universes competing. I would submit two maybe two dimensions of God good, God's good creation. One certainly visible around us, and one invisible. And as we track through scriptures, we see this all the time. Jacob's dream, the dream of angels ascending and descending, Isaiah seeing the Lord high and lifted up. Elijah's servant suddenly has his eyes open to see the hills filled with heavenly armies. In the New Testament, shepherds seeing angels. Stephen sees heavens opened, ready to receive him. And the biblical writers simply assume that heaven is real, active, and near. And perhaps not that far away at all. And I think as I process this over the past couple of weeks, thinking about this and doing my reading, I'm not sure it's our unbelief that gets us into trouble. I think it's the distractions of the of the world. I mean, my attention is constantly captured by stuff screens, news, politics, you know, appointments. Appointments just seem harder now, trying to actually make voice contact. And then there's all those emails, and then there's social media, because I got to keep up with Susan up top there to make sure that uh things are being posted. And it's all good. I mean, it's not, these aren't bad things, but they train us to think that reality only consists of what we can measure, what we can purchase, what we can photograph. Gracious, we are good at taking photographs. We take a lot of photographs. So if we can't see it, maybe we assume that it's not there. And scripture gently tells us otherwise. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the work of C. S. Lewis and the Narnia series. Um The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is certainly a popular one. And um, we all we all know um the story there, or most of us. Um I don't know if you've read his work called Underland, but if you have, there is probably the best piece of Christian apologetics I've I've ever seen, and a wonderful explanation. So in this story, um, the characters Jill, Eustace, and Prince Rillian have been captured, and they've been taken beneath the earth to a place called Underland. Now the green, their green witch throws an enchanted powder into the fire. And it's a hypnotizing powder that hypnotizes them into believing there's no world above. So they're trapped in this underground space. And she slowly conditions them to think that the lamp is really the sun, and it's right here. There's nothing out there. As for Aslan, who represents Christ in our story, well, Aslan is nothing more than just a cat. And one by one, the children slowly begin to doubt their memories. And the Green Witch almost succeeds in convincing them that the world above doesn't exist. And what happens is people, the characters start really thinking that, well, none of this is real. Lions aren't real, Narnia is only something we've imagined, and little by little they're they're kind of worn down. But and really their prison there becomes their home. Until finally, a character named Puddleglum, I'm not sure who names the characters, but that's his name, he's an unlikely hero, and he stamps out the enchanted fire, and then says something I believe is quite extraordinary. And he says, suppose we have only dreamed or made up all those things. Trees and grass and sun and moon and stars, and Aslan himself. Suppose we have, suppose it's all made up, then all I can say is that in this case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. I'm on Aslan's side, even if there isn't any Aslan. So he says, in effect, that suppose this dark world is all there is, even then I'd rather live like a Narnian than believe your small little world is everything. And with this, he refuses to let the visible define reality. And he knows there's another world, another king. And in the world of Narnia, it was Aslan. And in our world, it is the Lord Jesus. So we live in a culture that quietly whispers to us there is no heaven, there is no unseen world, this life is all there is. And I challenge us to be careful not to believe that. Jesus teaches us to pray pretty simply. Doesn't say, take us to heaven. He says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the direction is clear. Heaven towards earth. God's intention, never abandoning creation, but fulfilling creation with his presence. And so the story of Scripture, church, doesn't end with souls escaping earth, it ends with heaven and earth becoming one, God dwelling with humanity, creation restored, and everything made new. And I think we've seen it. I've heard stories around this community. I'm convinced we've seen it. I call those the thin places. Moments when that veil between heaven and earth can become thin. Watching my grade eight granddaughter graduate when I held her in the hospital, it seemed like yesterday was one of those times. Those of you that have held newborn children. Those of you that have stood with loved ones in their final hours. And they were writing their vows in the sunset. And, you know, they shared that just heaven felt near. Sharing communion is all often one of those places. Those of us who are campers, you know, sitting quietly in the woods, even if we can't explain it, heaven's near, and not because God suddenly arrived, but because for that moment we're aware that, well, God's been here all along. So when Paul writes, set your minds on things above, he's not encouraging us to ignore the earth. We certainly have a responsibility to care for it. He's simply inviting us to see the earth differently and to see those around us differently, to see our work differently, to see suffering differently, to see beauty differently, to recognize that every act of kindness, every prayer, every moment of forgiveness is important. And that's participation in the light of heaven. Heaven isn't merely where we're going, it's the reality that is breaking into this world through Christ. And so I would say, as a church, that's perhaps our greatest calling. To become people who can prayerfully and carefully with confidence and humility share with people that there's more. There's more than fear, there's more than politics, there's more to consumerism, more than success, and certainly more than death. And we become people who live quietly through this as image bearers of Jesus because he's present. Well, maybe that's why Paul could write, we look at what is seen. We look at not what is seen, but what is unseen. And not because we deny reality. Um I've heard that one, and I don't accept it. Um I think there's way more to reality than meets the eye. So this summer, my prayer as we, you know, we weave in and out in vacation and have longer days and maybe a little more time to think and to pray. Um, I just invite you to notice what God's doing around and that heaven isn't far away. Um Christ is here, Christ loves us, and he calls us to a personal relationship with him. So just as Puddle Glum reminded his friends that the sun was still shining, even though they cannot see it, may we uh be assured of that very thing in our lives. Let's pray together, and I'll invite uh the worship team to come. Well, Jesus, thank you. And thank you that you you call us to love and to serve, and that you bring heaven here on earth. Help us to see that heaven has not disappeared. Help us not to forget how to believe it and how to perceive it. We are your people, and we're grateful for your grace and your mercy, and ask you to continue to walk with us this day. In Jesus' name. Amen.