There’s this guy I have been reading for years and the first of his books I read he talked about the interlocking of heaven and earth as the reign of God. This is the thing that Jesus was says was happening in his actions in the world. God’s reign God’s heaven was in some way embodied and shown to us in Jesus’ life death and resurrection. Jesus’ way is where heaven intersects with earth. Where the kingdom of God has focused opportunities to invade and reclaim and redeem this old limping world. So Jesus of course begins in the gospel of Mark with ‘the kingdom of God is here-repent and believe.’ In other words, ‘turn from this old way and trust that what God is doing in me will last forever if you just try it on.’ Saint Columba called this reality a ‘thin place’, where the reign of heaven and this earth are nearly blurred. To live the life of heaven then, here and now, is to be freed and trust Jesus in such a way that the the very fabric of your lived reality is made up of the stuff that would last if heaven crashed into earth in a definitive second coming kind of way.
What lasts then? How does the presence of the future embody itself in our lives? I do not believe it to be always so specifically individualized that I-me-my life has nothing to do with others. As if God just wants me to get my stuff together live so radial so that I stand out as a martyr. I think God’s intention through a Torah formed Israel and a Jesus formed church is to narrate the arch of his kingdom reality through a lived flesh and blood hitting the ground community. Take this for instance…
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There is 613 commands of Torah. The rabbis counted and in the time of Jesus to the present day the conversation in Torah study centers around these 613 commands. But early on Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananiah pointed out that there was 613 Hebrew letters that made up the 10 commandments. Interesting. And it was common in the time of Jesus for rabbis to break down the law into a few great commands. Loving God and loving people is a common way of breaking up the 10 words because the first half deals with God and the rest our neighbor. So Jesus does this as well at one point when he is grilled to interact with this conversation. He gives the 2 greatest commands and in doing so interacts with the rabbis of the day. But notice what he says near the end of his ministry to his closest followers that will represent him in the time following his departure. John 13.34-35:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
This is the end if doing and the beginning of being. For normalized commandments we can do and check off our individualized list of ways we live up to God’s call. But to love one another requires a mutuality that can only be embodied by being a kind of loving community in ones context. Us-we-a friend is needed for this lived reality of the kingdom of God to be expressed through love… the thinnest place of all.
