Taking Expectation Seriously

Hope is an interesting thing. To believe that something better is coming really flies in the face of our cultural pessimism. It’s easy to look at the world all around us and lament the terrible future that awaits us all. We hear wars and rumors of war, we hear of disease that threatens the planet and we hear of poverty that seems incurable (just to name a few of the injustices that can be observed).

Yet, at advent, we hope. We talk of expectation of a coming kingdom where wars will cease, where sickness no longer threatens and where equity rules all of humankind. It seems foolish, but we are a people of hope. We are called to long for that Kingdom coming.

There is perhaps nothing more counter-cultural than to be a people that proclaim a Kingdom where the lion lays down with the lamb, where justice is done for all.

Why are we a people of such expectation? Simply put: because of Jesus. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, we are introduced to a new reality, a new economy. Life is valued above all else, and justice is introduced as something that can and will be achieved.

At Journey last week, we talked about John the Baptist. This prophet was so convinced that the way of Jesus and the Kingdom were indeed coming that it radically changed the way he engaged with the world. As I said Sunday, we are called to be the John the Baptists of our day… people who radically live into a Kingdom vision even when it pushes us to the fringes of society.

Lest we forget, God is often (if not always) found on the fringes in the people that choose to take this message seriously.

As we celebrate this season of Advent, may we be a people of hope. May we say to the powers of this world that better days are coming. Our present reality is not all that exists, and God’s Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace is coming.