GOD WINS
Followers of Jesus have been let in on a
secret, yet it is an open secret, open to all who will acknowledge it. This
special open secret is, in the end, when all is said and done, when the last
tick-tock of time has sounded, God wins. That “end of time” knowledge
should tell us that we are to live in the present as different people, as
people who are expecting Jesus to return to earth, as people who know the
expectations and requirements of eternal life, as people who are hopeful and
confident in the Jesus story because we know the end of the story. At the
completion of history, we will experience the fulfillment of God’s promises of
a new heaven and new earth, and we can be a part of it.
In Isaiah 65:
17-25, we find the prophet predicting a day when there will be “new heavens and
a new earth.” He tells us there will be peace and rejoicing for the world. All
that is wrong with the world will be set right by the intervention and
intrusion of a judgmental, yet loving God.
In Luke 21, we
hear Jesus warning his disciples and us not to try to predict when he will
return and set up his kingdom. We do not know the details of the “end times” or
what the future holds, but we can live with the confidence in the present age
because we know that God holds the future. Throughout all of Jesus’ teachings
about the “end times”, he focuses on living holy and acceptable lives here in
the present so that we will be ready for what ever the future may hold. The
present age, with all of its tribulations, is a time to bear witness to the
loving purposes of God, because now is a time filled with grace and opportunity
for repentance and outreach to others.
When Jesus talked to the people about his
kingdom, he was referring to a spiritual kingdom made up of the body of
believers, those who believed in him and followed his teachings daily. We sing
a hymn from time to time about this kingdom. The chorus tells us, “For the
darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noon day bright, and Christ great kingdom shall
come to earth, a kingdom of love and light.” Jesus’ kingdom can be found in the
heart of every believer. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven,” we are inviting Jesus to set up his kingdom now in
our hearts and lives.
Just as those
ancient people in Isaiah and Jesus’ time looked around at their world and saw
that it was not the world that God intended for it to be, we too look around at
the lives of our neighbors and our own lives and say there must be a better
way. Can this world go on the way it is going? Can it ever be restored? Can the
world that God made so good, ever recover what it has so carelessly squandered?
Is there any hope for humanity?
Maybe this is all
about hope, because it is on the basis of hope that we are called to be
faithful to God in the world. We are called to live now on the witness of a
certain future. Because we have hope, and faith, that God will not leave the
world the way it is, frees us to be his people, frees us to light candles in
the present darkness of sin, knowing that finally the darkness will be
vanquished! God wins now, and he wins throughout eternity!
Jesus’ kingdom
is not some future mystical creation that he will someday create. Jesus’
kingdom is now. Jesus did not come here just to get us ready for the next
world, he came into this world to transform us into people through whom he
could do his work in this world. He is creating now. He is creating disciples,
transforming lives, and shining the light of salvation into a dark and confused
world. God invites each of us to become
a part of his future kingdom today.
Rev Tim McConnell, Long’s Chapel 
No comments:
Post a Comment