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On this past swelteringly hot July Saturday afternoon, the high grass blades of my lawn beckoned me to provide them a substantial trim. No sooner had I begun this noble task than I was summoned to my fence by a most beautiful sight. Big, ripe raspberries as wild as they were red, had grown in my own little patch of God’s good earth. I immediately thought of God’s promise to His covenant people as they walked along in the wilderness preparing to enter the land of promise, that He would provide for them “…vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant…” (Dt. 6:11; Josh 24:13). I picked a bowl full of this luscious, sweet, juicy fruit to share with my family before returning to the lawn mowing task at hand. As I trudged along behind finely coiffed rows of green, I pondered the departed Edenic glory, the land of Canaan, the new heaven and earth. I considered what theologians refer to as the “already/not yet” dimensions of the Kingdom of God. As if to remind me that I still wander in the “not yet”, I unknowingly stepped on a yellow jackets’ nest beneath the surface of the ground and was stung by one these dastardly flying Philistines on my ankle.
Each Lord’s Day, as we enter the corporate worship of our Triune God, we experience with all five of our senses the delights of being in His Holy Presence. We hear, confess, and sing the glorious Gospel proclaimed in word and song. We taste, touch, smell, and see this Gospel in the Eucharistic bread and wine. As we cherish the love, fellowship, unity, and peace of the Body, we see Jesus, and, just as importantly, the world around us sees Jesus. We are tempted to think that we are in the “already”. Yet, something is still terribly amiss. We are still surrounded by Philistines and, didn’t we just confess our own sins before God as we first entered into His Presence before receiving His absolution? We fully recognize that our Lord has been busy “putting things to rights” (as N.T. Wright correctly puts it) since His resurrection from the dead on that blessed Sunday morning so long ago. We confess with the prophet that the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). Yet, with all creation, we eagerly await the renewal of all things, the new heaven and earth, and the resurrection of the body at the return of our Lord (Romans 8:18 ff).
One evening very soon, like a thief in the night, I will go to the dwelling of these unwelcome squatters on my lawn and destroy them with fire.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (II Peter 3:10-13)
Each Lord’s Day, as we enter the corporate worship of our Triune God, we experience with all five of our senses the delights of being in His Holy Presence. We hear, confess, and sing the glorious Gospel proclaimed in word and song. We taste, touch, smell, and see this Gospel in the Eucharistic bread and wine. As we cherish the love, fellowship, unity, and peace of the Body, we see Jesus, and, just as importantly, the world around us sees Jesus. We are tempted to think that we are in the “already”. Yet, something is still terribly amiss. We are still surrounded by Philistines and, didn’t we just confess our own sins before God as we first entered into His Presence before receiving His absolution? We fully recognize that our Lord has been busy “putting things to rights” (as N.T. Wright correctly puts it) since His resurrection from the dead on that blessed Sunday morning so long ago. We confess with the prophet that the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). Yet, with all creation, we eagerly await the renewal of all things, the new heaven and earth, and the resurrection of the body at the return of our Lord (Romans 8:18 ff).
One evening very soon, like a thief in the night, I will go to the dwelling of these unwelcome squatters on my lawn and destroy them with fire.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (II Peter 3:10-13)
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