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There is an ache for Eden in every human heart. I think that many of our best human efforts and energies tend toward that recovery of what was lost. We long to build a heaven on earth. Of course, conflict arises when we actually talk about how to get there. While we may tend to want the same destination in principle, we also tend to have many opposing ideas of how to achieve it.
Now, ideas are powerful things. When Satan came at Eve in the Garden, he didn’t use an AR-15. He used an idea. Ideas aren’t just nebulously floating, having no impact on reality. On the contrary, they are a driving force moving human beings every moment of every day.
One of our chief problems as individuals and societies is that we may or may not be especially aware of the ideas we believe. Belief is to live as though something is true. For example, I believe in gravity. And I demonstrate this belief, not by affirming it verbally or intellectually, but by being cautious around cliffs.
All of us then are believers in any number of things and ideas. The thing is, there is no shortage of ideas and philosophies in the world today promising (to the faithful) the deliverance of Utopia — a world of peace and justice and prosperity and righteousness and love. In that compendium of ancient texts that we call the Bible, the word given to this vision of Utopia is “kingdom.” The real tragedy, that is all too often played out on a global stage, is that we try to achieve the kingdom without the King. And the body count is, almost always, devastatingly high.
God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom with the King, is steadily present in our world now. But the consequences and fallout of Death’s reign still wreak havoc. The day is coming soon, as the prophets declare, when this enemy shall fall, though. The last enemy to be defeated is death, after all.
But perhaps the greatest wonder (to me) is that the body count delivering this vision of Utopia, the Kingdom with the King, is unthinkably small. It is not millions who must be sacrificed to achieve this Kingdom vision. It is only One, the King himself, who chooses willingly to lay down his life for the sake of the world. In my opinion, this version of the Kingdom is well worth believing in. Our task, as ever, is to live like it’s true.
Stephen Hopkins is pastor at Kendricks Creek United Methodist Church in Kingsport.
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Belief is to live as though something is true - Kingsport Times News
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