Yesterday was the day
of the eclipse. #Solareclipse2017. The hype and preparation and warnings had
abounded for months. Moon pies and Sunkist drinks were the snacks of the day.
Companies tried to all get in the marketing frenzy of this event by altering their
items in a way to appeal to the eclipse theme, Denny’s offered all-you-can-eat
pancakes for $4 (since pancakes are round like the moon and sun), and Krispy
Kreme put out their one day only eclipse donut (their traditional glazed
covered in chocolate). Of course, I also heard the doomsday predictionists,
that this celestial event was God’s sign to America, our need to repent and an
indicator of His coming judgement and imminent arrival. I read more than a
couple articles that stated that Jesus would step out from behind the moon as
it passed in front of the sun so that when the moon moved the Son would be in
place of the sun.
I don’t doubt or deny our nation’s need to repent. I
know full well my own need of repentance on a daily basis, but I don’t think
that this eclipse was sent by God as a sign of our need of repentance. The
sings of our need to repent and turn to God are right in front of us every singles
day.
I know that one day Jesus will return and that the “sky”
will be the avenue in which he comes. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and
ascension, His disciples were standing looking up into the sky because they had
just seen Him taken up into heaven right before their very eyes. While they
were gazing upward, an angel appeared among them and said, “why are you standing here staring into
heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return
from heaven in the same way you saw Him go” (Acts 1:11).
I also believe that when the masses of people are
predicting that this is the day Jesus will come to judge the nations, that it
probably won’t be. Jesus was pretty clear that His return would not be
announced and expected, but that it would rather be like “a thief in the night”
(1 Thessalonians 5:2), and that only God knows when this will happen (Matthew
24:36).
So, yesterday I stood with hundreds of others in
downtown Jonesborough as we all looked up into the heavens as the moon passed
in front of the sun. Amazing shadows were created, the temperature dropped
about seven degrees, there was a stillness and quietness around, and I was
reminded of some other words of Jesus.
“The kingdom of heaven is near”.
The gospel writers record this as a common saying of
Jesus. When He was preaching and teaching, when He was sending out his disciples
to share this good news of God’s reign, and when He was healing physical and
emotional pain. The kingdom of God is one of wholeness, where there is no sin,
no pain, no tears, no hate, no death. In this kingdom God reigns as king, and
we live as His people in peace. Jesus said this kingdom was near, and at times
said this kingdom was “at hand”, and in response to being questioned about this
at one time said the kingdom is “among (or in) you” (Luke 17:20-21).
One of my favorite books on the concept of this “kingdom”
is Announcing the Reign of God by Mortimer
Arias. In this book Arias says the kingdom that Jesus talks about is like an “eclipse”.
What he means is that the kingdom of God is partially already visible to us,
the arriving of this kingdom was ushered in when Jesus came (John 1:14) in
flesh and blood, so we can see glimpses of this now. We see these glimpses when
we see people love rather than hate, give rather than take, help rather than
hurt. This is the Kingdom Eclipse.
The Kingdom is coming, in fact the Kingdom is rapidly
advancing. Just remember to not stand around staring up the sky for too long,
there is work here to do today. Work of justice, mercy, love, reconciliation,
repentance, forgiveness, and grace. So be full of these because we don’t know
when His Kingdom come, but it will. And right now it’s just an Eclipse of the
Kingdom.
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