GOD IS NOT IN HEAVEN ANYMORE

Yes, you read that right. God is not in heaven anymore. God has stopped watching from a distance.

There are so many people who are fixated on going up to heaven. There are those who do most of what they do in order to secure themselves a place up in heaven. There are also those who believe that investing their 70 to 80 earth years on "heavenly" endeavors--putting numerous bills in the offertory, donating land, building air-conditioned churches, and making sure that everyone accepts Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior--will get them a reward in the afterlife that spans eternity. A mansion over the hilltop. 

Then there are those who read their Bibles, pray everyday, and grow, grow, grow in the realization that many times in scripture, God does everything possible to live among God's people here on earth. Whether it is coming down to liberate God's people from slavery, descending on Sinai to give the Law, journeying with the Israelites via the Tabernacle, taking residence at the Temple in Jerusalem, and fulfilling the promise of "Immanuel", God wants to be with us.

Given the choice, God wants to come down. We, on the other hand, want to go up. 

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Matthew talks about the baptism of Jesus by John. Mark and Luke have parallel versions. Only Mark reports that the heavens were torn or ripped apart when the Spirit descended upon Jesus. Sunday's text resonates with divinity's need to come down. The passage says that the Spirit descended like a dove. I would like to believe that the Spirit tore or ripped the heavens apart because the Spirit could not wait to leave heaven for earth. 

And, do not forget this, ever: the Spirit that came down has not gone back up to heaven. Because Jesus is still here. The Risen One is still down here on earth, particularly in places and spaces where we do not want him to be; in places and spaces where we are afraid to go. He is waiting for us to join him as he works among the destitute, the discriminated, the disenfranchised, the dehumanized, the occupied, and the silenced.

My friends, God is not in heaven anymore. God has stopped watching from a distance.

*art, "John baptizes Jesus," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.