God has a dream for the universe and for the earth. In general, God's dream is to create the universe, and with it the earth, so that all creation might ultimately share in the intimacy of love with God who is Trinity.
Christians have come to understand God is Trinity. Within the essence of God is a community of love so intimate and so marvelous that words cannot begin to express it. The love that exists between the Father–Creator, the Word spoken and made flesh, and the Spirit emanating within the Godhead, is so intense and so ecstatic that it must be shared.
In that moment when the incipient universe, still existing as micro or nanoparticles, burst forth into existence, God–Love spilled over into it and began the process of unfolding it into complexity, wholeness, and unity which would eventually culminate in a return to oneness with the Trinity – the final Reign of God, the Omega Point.
For billions of years, God's dream or vision has been unfolding throughout the universe and upon the earth. Gradually, the work of perfecting creation in love has been happening, and brokenness and disharmony overcome. We cannot imagine how long into the future God will work in perfecting creation in love. But eventually, God will bring about the final union of all creation and humanity with the Trinity.
God's work of unfolding the wholeness and healing of the universe and earth now involves humanity. Humanity, with its freedom to love and reconcile, can now work with God to help realize God's dream.
While we may say God has a dream for the universe and for all creation, we also understand God's dream involves God's mission to further advance and perfect that dream.
Christians believe that, to further advance God’s dream or vision for the earth, God became incarnate, enfleshed, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus witnessed to the dream and mission of God. Through his witness and teaching, Christians sense what is God's dream for the earth and how it is to be accomplished. In other words, Jesus is the carrier of God's dream for the earth. He has revealed the destiny of humanity and all creation – oneness with God within the love of the Trinity.
As we read the Gospels, we gain insight into Jesus's mission of enabling God's dream. Jesus referred to God's dream as the Reign of God. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, he began his public ministry by calling people to repent and believe in the Good News. His ministry was a healing and saving mission, a mission of overcoming evil, unifying, and bringing wholeness. He heals and casts out demons. He teaches and preaches the good news – "because that is why I came." (Mark 1:39). He calls or invites others to follow him. He eats with "sinners" or those who were seen as on the fringes of society – those of no account. He preaches "doing the will of God" (Mark 3:34). His words are seeds to take root (Mark 4:1 –9). He sends disciples "to preach repentance and to cure the sick" (Mark 6:7 – 13). He performs miracles to reveal God in their midst. The miracle of loaves shows a vision of all people, regardless of status, coming together as one, simply as people, in the final Reign of God. He challenges the Pharisees who were divisive and not unifying people – "Guard against the yeast of the Pharisees" (Mark 8:15). He calls his disciples to "take up your cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). He is transfigured, showing himself in his final fulfillment of resurrected life, his destiny ending in glory. This destiny of transfigured wholeness in love is the hoped for destiny of all people. He teaches the one who is greatest in the Reign of God is the "one who makes himself servant of all" (Mark 9:35), “who welcomes the Reign of God as a little child" (Mark 10:15). He teaches that we are to sell what we have and then come follow him (Mark 10:21) – in other words, to remove from our lives whatever stands in the way of the Reign of God. If we do so, we become more vulnerable, but we will receive 100-fold more people who love us, and persecution (Mark 10:29 – 30). We will also receive "in the world to come, eternal life”. He teaches that anyone who wants to be great must become servant or slave of all (Mark 10:43 – 45). Above all, he teaches that the greatest commandment is to love God with all one's heart, strength, and understanding, and to love one's neighbor as one's self. And as a witness of what he teaches, he surrenders his life upon a Roman execution cross. But he is restored to life, through the resurrection, into a new form of humanity, unbounded by limitations of time or space. United in the Trinity, his all-pervasive Spirit encourages and guides the Church to continue Jesus’s mission of fulfilling God's dream for the earth – the Reign of God.
The reason for the Church's existence is to continue Jesus’s ministry of advancing the Reign of God. Before Jesus began his ministry, he was anointed by Holy Spirit. After Pentecost, his disciples were anointed with the same Spirit to continue his work to the ends of the earth. Here, we have the beginning of the Church. And Christians today, through their baptism, are empowered with the same Holy Spirit to work for the advancement of God’s dream.
The Church today needs to carefully reflect on God's dream or vision for the earth, and of the mission of Jesus for advancing the Reign of God on earth. As it does so, it also reflects on what structures are needed to serve the Church’s mission. The Church, first of all, is missionary. Its structures (like laity, clergy, papacy, dioceses, and parishes) are to serve the mission of the Church.
In summary, God has a dream or vision for the universe and the earth. God 's mission is to accomplish that dream. Jesus of Nazareth, anointed by the Spirit, reveals and initiates God's dream for the earth. The Church exists for the purpose of mission – to advance, with the risen Christ, God's vision of the Reign of God. To successfully accomplish its mission, the Church must be effectively structured for that purpose.