parking, clocks, seeing the Kingdom come with power…
DST
Here’s a little public service announcement: Day Light Savings Time begins on Sunday. So move those clocks forward an hour as you crawl into bed on Saturday night. We don’t want you to miss the 9am!
And great news if you come to the 5pm… after church snacks and refreshment are BACK!! Woo Hoo! A little lingering daylight, a nice pastry aperitif, sunset… Anyhoo– move your clock.
Park at Washington-Lee and get clicked
So we did 2 things this week:
- We shifted the shuttle hours earlier and later. You can now catch the shuttle at 8:15am [DST] from the W-L lot and you can stay after the 11am [enjoying the snacks] until 1pm. That’s right, we aim to meet your needs. So, please park at W-L early and stay late.
- We bought a clicker. Yep, as you jump on that shuttle and say ‘hi’ to James the driver, he will say hi with a rousing ‘click’. We want to see how many people we can get on that shuttle every week. So say hi to your friends, enjoy the plush seats, and know that you’ve been counted…
Mark 9.1
Mark 9:1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”
I got several questions this week from various small groups about this tasty verse. Boiled down, the gist of it was– huh? What does this mean?
As you can imagine, it is enigmatic enough that there have been many theories over the years. The answer hinges on what you understand Jesus to mean when He says ‘see the Kingdom of God after it has come with power’. This could be:
- the transfiguration. It is actually the very next event in Mark. We’ll talk about it on Sunday. In the transfiguration, Jesus’ glory, his divinity, the stuff that makes Him fully God gets revealed in His fully human body. In favor of this is the fact that the ‘some standing here’ in verse 9.1 DO actually see the transfiguration in 9.3. The weakness of this is that they see Jesus’ glory, not necessarily the entire KoG coming with power.
- the resurrection. This is definitely a great manifestation of the power of God over death. And most of the people standing there in 9.1 [save Judas] get to see His resurrected body. The weakness of this is yes, it is power, but it seems to lack the broadness of the KoG coming in power.
- the ascension. This occurs at the end of Luke and at the beginning of Acts. Watching Jesus ‘lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight’ [Acts 1.9] must have been awesome, unique, an unusual display of power. But it lacks the transformative punch of THE KINGDOM coming on earth.
- the pentecost. The story is found in Acts 2. The disciples, the nascent church, is waiting in an upper room. God shows up with wind, fire, and new language. An empowering presence comes upon those who are gathered. Some from every tongue, tribe, and nation hear the disciples speaking in their language. Over the next few years the disciples are scattered to the ends of the known world and they are planting churches. Within 300 years, the entire Roman Empire considers itself ‘Christian’. Over the next 1700 years, no movement is more transformative of philosophy, government, or science than Christianity. The world is changed. The Kingdom has come, is coming, and will come in its fullness.
All 4 theories have had their adherents over the centuries. But, [you can tell], I think Jesus is referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is the event that ushered in this age we live in of the already and the not yet– the Kingdom we can taste and see from time to time while we seek first the Kingdom that will come in all its fullness.
Restoration, indeed.
-David
