I like my life to be simple. I especiall
y like life in my kitchen to be simple. I use cookware that makes cooking fast, nutritious meals simple. I organize things in my cabinets so that they are easy for me to get to. My husband on the other hand…well, let’s just say he is not utilitarian. He likes things to look nice. I do too, but I also need the things that I use most close at hand. He does not know what I use the most on an everyday basis. He does not do much cooking at home, so if he were to organize my kitchen cabinets as he has done before, he would put things way at the top and way in the far back! Of course those items that he does this with are those items that I use the most. Not at all simplicity and ease right at my fingertips! He is not allowed to organize my kitchen anymore.
We all enjoy convenience and simplicity. We all like for things to be easy and right at our fingertips. This is what we enjoy so much about technology. And in times like we are living, boy do we ever have things right at our fingertips!
Last weekend, we celebrated the Feast of the Theophany, one of the Great Feasts of the liturgical year. “Theophany” comes from the Greek for “God shining forth,” or “The appearance of God”. The emphasis at this feast is on the shining forth and revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and second Person of the Holy Trinity at the time of His baptism. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven and a voice said, “This is my Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” It is at this time that we see God in three Persons…The Blessed Trinity.
We have been talking a lot about St. John the Baptist with Landon in recognition of the Feast we were about to celebrate. What Landon remembers most about St. John the Baptist is that, eventually, he is beheaded! That’s our little macabre Landon for you! To take his mind off that gloom and doom side of the story, we touched on what it must have been like to be a cousin to Jesus Himself. We are all quite fascinated that John, as a baby in his mothers’ womb, knew that the Lord was near and leaped for joy inside! How he must have loved his cousin. We wonder what it was like to be John, living in the wilderness and having the awesome responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus before people knew who He was. The forerunner to our very Lord and Saviour would say, “Repent! And be baptized! For the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”
The Kingdom of Heaven is near. I wonder if people knew what that meant. Suddenly, Jesus comes to the waters of the Jordan. He asked John to baptize Him, and John, though feeling unworthy, does so. People there behold the Blessed Trinity for the first time. And from then on, we hear Jesus say not that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, but “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand…What does this mean? If we believe that Jesus is the very Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then we must also believe He has a Kingdom and dwells there. And because He is also God, He is not limited to time and space, so His Kingdom is everywhere! Because of His virgin birth, His death on the Cross, His resurrection, and ascension into Heaven, He brings the Kingdom to us! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Near us…right at our fingertips! On Sunday, when we were in His Church with His Body of believers, the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand because we were really in it – mystically transported right into the throne room of Heaven! That is too awesome to fathom!
The Lord also tells His disciples that the “Kingdom of Heaven is within you”. Another mind-blowing concept! After being Baptized, we have the unbelievable gift of the Kingdom right within us. He came to us, dwelt among us, and is in us. It is so easy now to see why there are so many prayers about repentance, forgiveness and holiness in our Orthodox prayer books. As ruler of our lives, we should do well to live according to His perfect ways as to not be exiled from His Kingdom. When we live according to our own ways, our own flesh, or how the world would have us live, we cut ourselves off from Him and cannot benefit from the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is not so much a place. It is not so much a where, but a Who. He is right at our fingertips. He is near, within easy reach. Just how we all like it to be. Will we not reach out and grasp Him? Especially when He has made it so easy?
