|
||
|
Our Hope Text: Isaiah 35 Review: [our story rooted in the decidedly Jewish story] ● The Jews believed… …in one Creator-God, …that they were chosen by God to reverse the effects of the fall; that this God would act decisively in history to overcome evil and take his place as the world’s rightful King: when he does, all of creation will experience ‘blessing’. …and, they believed that all of history was moving toward a purposed-end (really a beginning)- “shalom” (Christian story is decidedly ‘eschatological’). Eschatological discussions are meant to produce one posture: “hope”. ►The Christian longing has always been for “Emmanuel”… God with us [not us with God]. The hope was not for a day when God would come and get us, but for a day when God would come and join us! Come and fix this; come and set things right! ● Admittedly, it’s hard for us to think about the future because it seems so ‘fanciful’; maybe it’s just wishful thinking; it’s hard to imagine life any differently. Or, maybe it’s just our ‘happy place’; the place where we go in our thoughts and imaginations to escape the painful challenges of our present reality. But, talk of God’s new world challenges our definition of reality and stretches our vision of what’s possible. ● But, the Christian hope would never have solidified and flourished without the firm conviction of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, which… … affirmed the goodness of creation (being human was not the problem), … signaled his victory over death and God’s approval of him as the one suited to judge the world (world’s rightful ruler).
● The resurrection caused the early Christians to conclude that they were living in the “last days”: this way of speaking about what was happening presently (present age) as it relates to God’s promised future (age to come). The ‘last days’ was considered to be a hopeful time (even though it might involve suffering) because it was not believed to be the time just before God returned to annihilate creation, but the time leading up to the restoration of all things! ● Admittedly, much of this was taking shape in ways that they would never have imagined. Listen, at that point, they had no ‘systematic theology’- they had a ‘story’. For example, before the resurrection, for someone like Paul to say, “We declare Christ crucified” would have been considered an ‘oxymoron’ (i.e. liquid-sunshine); a dead Messiah is no Messiah at all! ►We, as Christians, will always be defined by how well we manage/navigate through the ‘in-between’; how well we hold to a future hope without losing sight of how that hope comes to bear on our present reality. So, our present situation? feeling caught in-between, frustrated, fatigued, unsure as to how to pray; we ‘groan’ (sigh), we live with a fuzzy and impartial view of what’s real; but, with hope! In a word, we’re “heartsick”. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”. ● But, challenged to ‘not get tired of doing good’ (Galatians 6:9) and to ‘do everything as if we were doing it for the Lord’ (Colossians 3:17) and to ‘work enthusiastically for the Lord , because you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless’ (1 Corinthians 15:58). ►Our eschatological outlook (belief about the future) always determines (influences) our present values and priorities. In the Christian story, the events of the past are worked out in the present- in anticipation of the future. Two erroneous approaches to life became apparent: 1. Arrogance: Progress… our confidence in the human project: if we could just keep God from poking around in our world, we could achieve this ‘utopian’ existence with no one to thank but ourselves. That’s optimistic, but not achievable. The world has not actually been getting better. The real failure? It has no answer for evil; it can’t adequately respond to rape, murder, senseless hunger and child pornography. All these are seen as just ‘glitches’ in the system. In fact, many of the measures we have taken to ensure progress has only resulted in more ‘creative forms of evil’ (Romans 1:30). The result? It leaves us IN, BUT OF THE WORLD- our unwillingness to challenge the values of the prevailing culture often causes us to adopt them ourselves, therefore losing our distinctiveness. 2. Fatalism: Indifference… an over-reaction to evil that declares that the world is dark and corrupted, matter is evil and the only alternative is to endure it and finally escape it, hopefully sooner than later (‘beam-me-up-Scotty’ theology). Why try to make the world a better place, it’s all going to be destroyed anyway?! I propose that such a posture is diametrically opposed to the heart of stewardship and is not consistent with the Christian story. IN, BUT OUT OF THE WORLD- we disengage from our culture in order to ensure that we will not be tainted by the prevalent evil. In so doing, we forfeit our influence. Bad eschatology says… God created a world perfectly suited for humanity; Adam and Eve forfeited all that through one ‘really bad’ decision; God, then, saw no other alternative but to annihilate creation and write the whole thing off as a failed experiment. Therefore, since all of creation is ‘tagged for demolition’, it’s every man for himself! No sense fussing over incidentals like poverty and creation-care, it’s all the result of sin anyway, and frankly, there’s not much we can do about it except hunker down and wait around for God to ‘swoop down and get us all out of here’. I suggest that such a posture leads to an indifference toward human suffering and disaster. “Wars, famines, earthquakes, disasters… you know what that means?! Jesus is coming soon!” Instead of ensuring ‘awareness’ and challenging us to ‘be alert’ and proactive, we end up ‘gloating’. The Kingdom says… God lovingly created a good world and mankind with the capacity to make think, feel, and make determinations. Mankind’s decision to ‘go it alone’ not only provoked his wrath, but stirred his compassions. God’s choice was love’s only option: ‘restoration’, not ‘annihilation’. God knew if left to ourselves, the consequence would be ‘self-destruction’ (“the way that seems right to a man…”); he saw us as sick (in need of a doctor), lost (in need of a shepherd) and enslaved (in need of redemption). His desire was that such a posture toward us would ‘inspire us to fear him’ (Jeremiah 38). Rather than ‘side-lining’ us in such a way as to not ‘mess it up again’, he actually desires that we become part of the healing process: having ourselves been transformed, we live transformationally… “your kingdom come!” This allows us to be IN, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD FAITH- fully functional, fully incarnational, fully engaged. ►Our task is to bring the future into the present; to live as if the future has already arrived. If God’s future is about a ‘just world’, then we must live ‘justly’ in the present; if in God’s future, no one goes hungry, maybe we help prevent hunger now; if love is the theme of the Kingdom, we must look for ways to ‘act lovingly’; if God will wipe away all tears, then we have to wipe a few ourselves. ● We are claiming to stand at the intersection of heaven and earth; of present and future. The final Kingdom will always remain a massive and fresh act of grace and new creation (i.e. like architects and builders who have undertaken the task and not lived to see it to completion. They may not now see the end result, but they see how setting this stone on top of that one, or laying this piece of tile next to that one contributes to the beauty. They may not see how it will be used). ►The work of the church is implementing what Christ initiated in the resurrection. Jesus’ parting words were not, “Sit right here; don’t touch anything. Wait right here until I get back!” ; they were, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me (as if taken back from a world subjected to evil), therefore, go…” Matthew 28:18- Restoration always involves our posture toward God in worship, our movement toward others in service and our commitment to loving creation-care in stewardship. What I’m suggesting is that… ►Eschatology seems far more concerned with impacting the present than with explaining the future. ● When all is said and done…
I don’t want to hear God
say, “Nice try”; I want to hear him say, “Well done”! |
