Advent Reflections: Hope 4

Lectionary readings: Amos 4:6-13, 2 Peter 3:11-18, Matthew 21:33-46.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

—2 Peter 3:11-18 (TNIV)

Yesterday, I began to address the “so-what” question of Christ’s First and Second Comings. Why do these two things matter to us as we live our days? I suggested that the hope and promises contained in the First and Second Comings should elicit a response of profound gratitude and thanksgiving in us that produces joyful obedience to God. Today I want to focus on the hope contained in the New Creation.

The promise of the New Creation about which I wrote two days ago tells us that God’s creation is good and that he cares about it. You cannot read the creation narratives in Genesis 1-2 and miss this. At the end of each day, God looks at what he created and declares it good. But then we read about the Fall in Genesis 3 and the terrible consequences for both humans and creation that ensued. It is a heartbreaking story for both humans and God. The point, however, is that God created this world as good, but our sin has corrupted God’s good creation. The promise of the New Heavens and New Earth means that God intends to redeem not only his people but also his fallen world. Consequently the promise of the New Creation means that even though we Christians have a forward-looking, and other-worldly hope, we are not to check out of our present world and engage in withdrawn, navel-gazing behavior. No, we are called to roll up our sleeves and get busy as God’s faithful stewards to help him bring about his New Creation. Let me be clear about this. It is God alone who will ultimately redeem his fallen people and creation, but we are called to do our part here and now. This means that we are to take seriously Jesus’ command to love and serve others, especially the least, the lost, and the most helpless. We are to strive for justice and to care for those who are the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society. I cannot tell you specifically what God is calling you to do in your life, but I can tell you that he is calling you to do something. Perhaps it is in the area of politics or education or charitable work. Perhaps it is in the context of your daily work. Perhaps it is helping to build up Christ’s Body, the Church. Perhaps it is within your own family. Whatever it is, God is calling you to use the gifts he has given you to love and serve others, and in doing so we can be confident that we are helping God in some small way to accomplish his work of redemption started on the Cross.

You see, we show our love for God in a significant way by how we love others.

What a magnificent incentive to live holy lives! This is what Peter is pointing to in the last two Epistle lessons. He warns us that we are going to have to give an accounting of our lives, but he also reminds us—sometimes using vivid apocalyptic language that should not be read literally—that there is a better day than we can ever imagine coming, all because of what God did for us the first time he visited us in human weakness and humility.

Again, let me give you a couple of examples from my own life that I trust will help illustrate what I am talking about. What the promise of the New Creation has done for me is to allow me to roll up my sleeves and use the gifts God has given me for his service. Currently, I am called to help spread the Gospel in a day and age when it is under a significant and sustained attack by its enemies, both from without and within. I can do that best in the area of teaching and education because that is where my gifts are. My future hope and orientation have always allowed me to work in a field where immediate gratification is not usually forthcoming (although I have been blessed beyond measure to have had my fair share of that too). I have always seen teaching as planting seeds, whether it was in the high school or college classrooms or now at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. I am a seed planter and that takes the monkey off my back in terms of needing to produce results. In the context of a classroom, sure, I wanted my learners to succeed and I measured some forms of their progress. But ultimately, I commend those whom I teach to God and trust he will use my efforts—sometimes good, sometimes not so good—to help him accomplish his good will and purposes for us. In the context of my work as a priest at St. Andrew’s, when I preach what I am supposed to preach on any given Sunday (another form of teaching), I am content to let God use my efforts to work on his people, myself included. I cannot adequately tell you how remarkably freeing this is because I know I don’t have to save the world; I only have to use God’s gifts to serve his people. This same perspective is also what drives the development of this series of Advent reflections. I am not kidding myself. Very few people drop by and soak up all my wonderful musings (perhaps proving there is  yet a semblance of sanity to this world?). Yet I felt God prompting me to write this series during prayer on Monday. And so I write. I am writing as a form of discipline because I have become quite undisciplined of late. I am writing because I think God has prompted me to do so. Regardless whether 1 person reads this series or 1 million people read it, it is here for God to use should he choose to do so. The scale in which he uses (or doesn’t use) this blog, is not that important to me. That I am using his gifts in obedience to his will is. This is a wonderful antidote to runaway ego as well.

My future orientation also gives me great comfort in the midst of living in God’s good albeit broken and fallen world. Last night I was looking at a picture of my parents from the late 1960s-early 1970s. It is Christmastime at our old house, and there they are, a reminder of some of the happiest days of my life. As I looked poignantly at that old picture, I was also reminded just how dearly I miss my folks. If I had no Christian hope, I cannot imagine how desperately sad I would feel because I would have no hope of ever seeing them again. How remarkably cruel would a god be who created us to have a relationship with him and each other, and then set up the conditions to permanently yank the rug from out under our feet sooner or later. But that is not a god I worship, nor would I ever want to do so. The God I worship is the God of life. And because I have the hope and promise of his First and Second Comings, I know I will be reunited with those whom I have loved but lost for a little while. And best of all, we will get to live directly in God’s Presence forever, not for the span of a human lifetime, but forever. Does this mean I don’t miss my parents or never grieve, or that I am immune from hurt or sorrow that inevitably comes with life? Of course not. Who isn’t sad when they are separated from those they love? Or who isn’t sad when they see their loved ones struggling or suffering? But I have this Christian hope and it helps sustain me during life’s darkest times because I know there is a better day coming, and that is not to be sneezed at. Dealing with life’s dark valleys also helps me to develop my trust in this crucified God of ours. I don’t understand all that is involved in the mystery of suffering or living in a fallen world, nor would this be my first choice in how to develop trust in God. But I do understand enough to believe the Promises and the Story, and the strength I gain from my hope is sufficient for me to generally live my days with joy, confidence, and hope. I know that without my Christian hope, I could not endure this life for very long.

What about you? How does your Christian hope help you walk through life’s dark valleys?

Tomorrow: Hope lived.

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