Emmanuel

Monday October 7^th, Habakkuk 2:  1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.  2 Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. At the end of time the Kingdom of God will come down to humanity, the Holy City descending, and God with God’s people and peace and justice will prevail.  In the meantime (or in this case, perhaps, mean time) it is up to us.  How do we bring about God’s kingdom in the here and now?  How do we live in the already not yet? The answer is that we live as if the Kingdom were already among us, because it is.  We live as if Christ himself will knock on the door and come in and have a cup of coffee with us in the morning or tea in the evening and discuss the day ahead or the day behind, because Christ is with us even now.  We live in disgust at the injustice hatred and war we have perpetrated, with so much disgust that we actively try to do something about it, because that is what we are called to do as the children of God.  The lingering time is not a lounging around time; it is an actively living the kingdom time, because the kingdom is near and God is with us, Emmanuel.