Friday, December 12

Scripture: But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13). 

Observation: Peter is writing to a church community that is on the verge on abandoning all hope that Jesus is ever going to return. Here we must empathize with the earliest Christian house churches. They were told that Jesus is coming back to earth any day now, indeed any second now, and will put an end to all pain, suffering, and death. The return of Jesus meant no more spouses sent off to war or dying in childbirth, no more children waking up with a fever that won’t go down, no more opening up the kitchen cabinet and finding it bare and having to beg for bread. But the church members must address the brutal fact that Jesus is delayed, and pain and suffering continue to continue, so is Jesus ever coming back? And if he’s not, if the belief in Christ’s return is not grounded in reality, then what else about this new Jesus movement is untrue? The newborn Christian faith in showing its first signs of crumbling. 

Peter (or the author using his name) introduces an innovation, which proves effective and still stands as a critical building block of the faith. Rather than place our hopes in the immediacy of Christ’s return, we must be rooted in the expectancy of Christ’s return. Immediacy means Christ’s return is soon to happen and the burden of action is on Christ to hurry up already. Expectancy means we, the believers, choose to hope that Christ will return eventually, and the burden of action is on the believer to expect, not just believe, but expect Christ to come back and repair the world. Peter uses the phrase “looking forward.” Christ will do the returning; we must do the looking forward. 

Does our choice to expect Christ’s return do anything to expedite his return? Of course not. Our expectancy has no effect on God’s calendar, but it means the world for us. It means we can choose to hold on to hope. It means grit. It means we keep pushing to the next thing after the worst thing. If we put our hope in something beyond our control, namely, the timetable of Christ’s return, then we set up ourselves up for disappointment. But if we put our hope in something within our control, which is our God-given strength to expect better times after hard times, then we set ourselves up for resilience. What Peter wants for us, and what Christmas is supposed to do in us, is a soul set up for resilience.  

Application: I choose expectancy. Expectancy is a synonym for hope. I choose to look forward to Christ’s return, both in the unknowable future and in the concrete of the present. I choose to expect Christ to make a difference in my life now, to fill me with good things, to grow me heavenward. I choose to expect – Lord, I’m counting on it! – for Christ to be born again in my heart, so I might be the body where righteousness dwells. 

Prayer:  

Listen up, God. I’ve had it up to here   

(I’m holding my hand way up high)  

With the way the world is. There is

    too much violence, not enough grace,

    too little sharing, too many heads without a roof,

    greed greedy for more of what it has too much of,

    too much anger at the other side, too much distance between us,

    far too little caring to understand and understanding what it means to care,  

And what really burns me, God,  

(now I’m holding my hand higher)  

Is I don’t see you in a big hurry to fix this mess.

And now that my arm is tired, I recognize

     I am asking too little of you and even less of myself.

What I need from you is to ignite the flame of expectancy in me- 

Or just plain hope. 

In my frustration with the world, I’ve put on the bad old Christian habit

    of imagining you will work on my schedule, that you will work now,

    simply because I’m under the delusion you work for me.

  But no. You’re the Big Boss. I’m the employee needing

    hope that the collective human effort to make the world better

    is not for nothing,

    that your light unblanketed by the darkness

    is not for nothing,

    that fighting for the next thing after the worst thing

    is not for nothing.

Give me the grit to claim what is mine to claim:  

Expectancy for you to work in the world, through me, and in spite of me.  

Lead me to draw from the resilience you put within me,

     to hope for better times after hard times

    because you, Merciful God, are working in all times.  

Grant me just plain hope.  

May I be the body where hope takes a stand.