World 2.0

Deep in our hearts we long very much for a bet­ter world. Jesus came to us to show us this bet­ter world, His King­dom. If we fol­low Him, we will bring His King­dom (World 2.0) into this world.

I have fond memo­ries of the first time I flew to Cana­da. And it was dou­bly won­derful becau­se it was right after my recruit school. I was imme­dia­te­ly fasci­na­ted by the natu­re, the vast­ness, the pos­si­bi­li­ties and free­dom that this huge coun­try has to offer. This visit gave me the big dream of living and working in Cana­da for a while. It was my gre­at desi­re to move to a coun­try that was more fasci­na­ting than the one I grew up in. For­t­u­na­te­ly, I had the pri­vi­le­ge of living in the coun­try of my dreams for almost twen­ty years. At about this moment, my wife Joce­lyn boards a pla­ne in Klo­ten to take her to Canada. 

I am not the only one who dreams. We all dream of some­thing bet­ter, big­ger or more beau­tiful. For some, this is a nicer house, a bet­ter car, a bril­li­ant job or sim­ply a life wit­hout worries. Sta­tis­tics show that many peo­p­le are sim­ply not hap­py with their cur­rent lives. Many are not satis­fied with theirörbo­dy, what they have achie­ved or how they have been trea­ted.. Last week I read a gruel­ling report in a news­pa­per: The USA has a new sad record – in twel­ve months more than 100,000 peo­p­le have died from drugs. The­se 100,000 and the hundreds of thou­sands or even mil­li­ons who use drugs are not satis­fied with them­sel­ves or their envi­ron­ment. With drugs they could for a short time escape into ano­ther world and for­get ever­y­thing. By exten­si­on, I’m sure we’­ve all noti­ced that in this world, or in the skin we’­re in, not ever­y­thing is per­fect. The many Coro­na dis­cus­sions con­firm this: Our world is any­thing but flawless.

Longing for a new world

I möWe now want to dis­co­ver, through the Bible, what this world we long for looks like. In the second chap­ter of the first book of Moses, we hear what this per­fect world loo­ked like. In the begin­ning, Adam and Eve lived in harm­o­ny with God. In this clo­se rela­ti­onship, God ent­rus­ted them with his pro­per­ty. We read: «So the Lord God took man and put him in the gar­den of Eden to till it and keep it.»(Gene­sis 2:15 EU). At that time, peo­p­le lived in harm­o­ny with God, natu­re and them­sel­ves. They cul­ti­va­ted with joy what was ent­rus­ted to them. For Adam and Eve, this was cer­tain­ly not a job for which they clo­cked in at seven in the mor­ning and could hard­ly wait until five in the evening. No, they were given a voca­ti­on with which they che­ris­hed and cared for what had been ent­rus­ted to them with joy and crea­ti­vi­ty. But only for a short time did they live in this per­fect world. Many will now remem­ber the fall of huma­ni­ty at this point. Adam and Eve were banis­hed from this beau­tiful land. They now had to work hard for their dai­ly bread and morals suf­fe­r­ed ship­w­reck. In the next chap­ter we read how Cain kil­led his brot­her Abel. Two pages later we learn how man’s wicked­ness beca­me so gre­at that God had to send a flood to stop this down­ward spi­ral. Even after the flood, coexis­tence was any­thing but harmonious. 

From the begin­ning we now make a gre­at leap to the last book of the Bible. In Reve­la­ti­on, the book about the future, we read about the city on the moun­tain. In this won­derful place, whe­re God wipes away the tears of all his fol­lo­wers, the­re is com­ple­te heal­ing. It will be a won­derful place. In a reve­la­ti­on, John sees this new city whe­re all peo­p­le live tog­e­ther in per­fect harm­o­ny with God. «The thro­ne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city of (the city on the moun­tain) and all its inha­bi­tants will ser­ve and wor­ship God.»(Reve­la­ti­on 22:3 NGÜ). In this new world, as the city on the moun­tain is cal­led, we will ser­ve and wor­ship God. Wor­ship is not just words, it is much bigger. 

Wor­ship is ever­y­thing we do to honour God. We can work in such a way that we give Him the glo­ry or not. In the new king­dom of hea­ven we will work and be crea­ti­ve. We will enjoy and crea­tively use with joy all that is ent­rus­ted to us. We will ser­ve God and fel­low human beings with enthu­si­asm and crea­ti­vi­ty. This new city will be a very inte­res­t­ing place whe­re we will live tog­e­ther in joy and harm­o­ny. Deep in our hearts we are eager­ly wai­ting for this place, we are bur­ning to expe­ri­ence this city on the mountain.

That’s all very well, but what does it mean for us today? Do Chris­ti­ans now all have to wait eager­ly for death in order to expe­ri­ence this fan­ta­stic city on the moun­tain? Cer­tain­ly we can look for­ward to it, but God’s plan is that we expe­ri­ence a fore­tas­te of this city alre­a­dy today. God sent his Son Jesus to earth with a mis­si­on. At the age of thir­ty, he had the honour of rea­ding the Scrip­tures and was given the book of Isai­ah. He ope­ned it to the place whe­re it is writ­ten: «The Spi­rit of the Lord is upon me becau­se he has cal­led and empowered me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor. I pro­cla­im free­dom for the cap­ti­ves, to the blind I say that they shall see, and to the oppres­sed that they shall be free from all vio­lence. I pro­cla­im to them a year in which the Lord will show his mer­cy. Jesus rol­led up the scroll, gave it back to the syn­ago­gue ser­vant and sat down. Ever­yo­ne loo­ked at him expec­tant­ly. He began: Today, as you hear the­se wordsört, the prophet’s pre­dic­tion has been ful­fil­led.» (Luke 4:18–21 HfA). In the book of Isai­ah the­re was the pro­mi­se of a King who would bring good news and heal­ing. Jesus said after the lec­tu­re in the syn­ago­gue that He is that per­son. After this lec­tu­re He began His offi­ci­al mis­si­on and brought the good news with heal­ing to all. Jesus spo­ke again and again of this city on the moun­tain, as can be heard seve­ral times in the Ser­mon on the Mount. For­t­u­na­te­ly, He not only spo­ke of it, but also brought a fore­tas­te of this city on the mountain.

Befo­re dying on the cross, Jesus told His disci­ples that it was good for Him to go. He pro­mi­sed the disci­ples to ask the Father to send the Hel­per so that they could con­ti­nue His mis­si­on. God com­pli­ed with the request when He sent the Holy Spi­rit at Pen­te­cost. All who fol­low Jesus recei­ve this Spi­rit to expe­ri­ence heal­ing. Jesus came with the mis­si­on to bring hea­ven to earth. He pas­sed this mis­si­on on to us and empowered us with the Spi­rit. How exact­ly does this work? In the para­ble of the sower, Jesus explains how we are empowered. 

The new world in our midst

This para­ble is about the seed that falls into four dif­fe­rent hearts. The seed is «If anyo­ne has the mes­sa­ge of the king­dom of hea­venört»(Matthew 13:19 NGÜ). The word of the new king­dom of hea­ven is scat­te­red in our hearts. This seed is like a new DNA that chan­ges our heart (meta­mor­pho­sis). In a healt­hy heart, this seed grows and pro­du­ces the vir­tu­es that will reign in the city on the moun­tain. This plant con­ti­nues to grow and bear fruit abundantly. 

Jesus had descri­bed the fruit in the Ser­mon on the Mount. Fur­ther­mo­re, we find a list of the fruits of the Spi­rit in Gala­ti­ans. The Fran­ciscan pray­er that we hear in the trai­ler befo­re the ser­mon also speaks of this fruit. At the end of this pray­er we hear some­thing very pro­found: «He who gives recei­ves, he who for­gi­ves is for­gi­ven. He who dies is born to eter­nal life.«For us humans, this does not sound logi­cal. If you give, you have less, if you for­gi­ve, you lose some­thing and if you die, you are dead. The­se new values do not seem obvious at first sight. But in the King­dom of God, other laws app­ly. I call this «the upsi­de down king­dom». The Holy Spi­rit helps us to under­stand and grow in the­se new values. A small exam­p­le about the upsi­de down values: In this world you have to be beau­tiful, super smart or work per­fect­ly to be loved. You have to work for «being loved». In the king­dom of God, we are loved first and only from this love does the fruit spring.

Some­ti­mes, when we hear about bea­ring fruit, we imme­dia­te­ly feel stres­sed: «Again, I’m being asked to do some­thing that I’ve never done befo­re in my life. The fasci­na­ting thing about Chris­tia­ni­ty is that it is not about fol­lo­wing rules in our own strength, but that God helps us. Jesus pre­pared the way and the Father sent the Holy Spi­rit to help us. We read in the Scrip­tures: «It is the spi­rit that makes ali­ve; the fle­sh is not able to do so. The words that I have spo­ken to you are spi­rit and are life.»(John 6:63 NGÜ). Jesus explai­ned that his words, tog­e­ther with the Holy Spi­rit, make us ali­ve. In Ephe­si­ans we read how this seed sent into our hearts chan­ges us: «For what we are is God’s work; he crea­ted us through Jesus Christ to do what is good and right. God has pre­pared ever­y­thing we are to do; It is now up to us to car­ry out what has been pre­pared». (Ephe­si­ans 2:10 NGÜ). We must rely on His power, our will fails us and we will be exhaus­ted. We must not con­stant­ly compa­re our fruit with that of others, other­wi­se we also run the risk of beco­ming eit­her arro­gant or depres­sed. God does not expect us to be the best, but to give our best. He has crea­ted us dif­fer­ent­ly and given us dif­fe­rent tasks. With His help, we ful­ly rea­li­se the poten­ti­al given to us.

In con­clu­si­on, I would like to sum­ma­ri­se: God brings his King­dom of Hea­ven into this world through our hearts. God is plan­ting a seed, a new DNA, in our hearts that will grow and bring the king­dom cul­tu­re into this world. God wants to express his love through us. Over the next few days we can think about what that might look like. We can dream crea­tively how God, through us, wants to bring his king­dom into this world.

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Luke 4:18–21

1. At what moments do I want to escape into ano­ther world? With mista­kes, dis­ap­point­ments, rejection …
2. What do you wish God would chan­ge in you?
3. Which vir­tue comes easie­st to you? Joy, pati­ence, generosity …
4. With which vir­tue do you best repre­sent God?
5. Have you thought (drea­med) about how God wants to bring His King­dom into this world through you?
6. 10 years after your death, what do you want to be remem­be­red for? A sin­gle memory.
7. If our crea­ti­vi­ty con­ti­nues in hea­ven, how would you like to serve/worship God through your crea­ti­ve work?