The Way Forward

The world can change. We can change. I truly believe this, and I think that it is an important concept of Christianity.  There are many Christian world views, but one of the most common is the idea that the world is the way the is and that is how its going to be.  This idea was the dominant theme for Medieval Christianity.  The King was the King because God made him that way.  The surf was poor, because God had made him that way.

We still have vestiges of this thought in our current spirituality.  In popular Christianity, the entire goal has become to 'convert' or 'save' souls for the afterlife and not worry too much about changing the world.  I believe that if we examine some things that Jesus said we will see that Jesus was not just about life eternal after death, but in creating a kingdom of God on Earth through divinely inspired human actions.

One example is something we all are probably familiar with, the Lord's prayer (where Jesus says pray this). Christ says, "On Earth as it is in Heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Jesus tells us to pray for earth to be like heaven, for God's kingdom to come to earth.  Now if you define the Kingdom of God as heaven, then you would argue that Jesus is discussing the end times.  But I don't think that is what Christ is doing here.  Jesus goes through the rest of the sermon on the mount telling us, his followers, how to live.  If it was only important where our souls end up, I don't think Jesus would spend so much time on our actions, would he? As I continue to blog, I hope to help recast Jesus' words so that we don't over spiritualize them and those, amazing, powerful statements can lead us to live differently.  To try to change the world.

Here is a great story of people simply living out the great commandment of Love God, Love neighbor and creating a little bit of heaven on earth.

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