A Bigger Hope--July 21, 2020
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." [Romans 8:19-21]
Any time I hear a radio preachers or televangelist fire up their audiences with promises that God will make them rich (provided they make a contribution to their ministries, of course...), I think to myself, "Friend, you are setting our sights too LOW."
You read that right--my complaint with prosperity preachers and the health-and-wealth style Name-It-and-Claim-It voices of religion out there is not that they promise too much, but that they offer too little to hope for. My goodness, if all I'm following Jesus for is to make myself more money or get that boat I've always wanted, there are quicker ways to make a buck in this life. But that's not the issue; it's that just getting more money or piles of stuff isn't worth pinning your hopes on this life. There's more to look forward to.
For that matter, any time I hear Respectable Religious folk reduce the gospel to an over-simplified, "Jesus is your ticket to heaven when you die," kind of message, I find myself thinking, "That is too small a hope if that's all you have to say to us!" And it's the same thing as the ones promising money: it's all just too narrow a promise, too self-focused a gift. The living God keeps stretching our hopes wider than we dared to dream was possible--God turns our hopes outward beyond just me-and-my-interests to the renewal of all creation!
It's not that I don't think God will provide for us--I do. And it's not that I don't believe Jesus assures us of life beyond the grip of death--he does. But reducing the Gospel's Good News simply to the individualistic terms of prizes for me, whether before or after death, seems like burying the lede here. We have so much more to hope for, if we dare to believe the Scriptures. God has so much wider a vision than we do, if we can trust these words of Paul the Apostle as he wrote to the Romans.
As Paul sees it here, the Gospel is bigger than just individual people making one-on-one transactions with God in order to secure their spot in the afterlife. It's bigger than believing the correct theological facts in order to win material wealth in this life, too. It's about all of creation longing to be put right. It's about the whole universe being mended in love. It's about renewal beyond the power of death for the whole world, not just me, or people I approve of on my personal list. God dares us to hope a bigger hope--resurrection and re-creation for heaven and earth themselves.
That includes me, to be sure. And... it includes you. My hope for my own life beyond death isn't really complete, though, until it includes the hope for you and for others as well. It includes "being with Jesus when we die," but it also includes more than that--it includes Jesus putting right all that is broken in the world... Jesus healing the wounds within us and between us... Jesus bringing justice where we have stepped on one another... Jesus restoring all the places we have wrecked the beautiful interconnectedness of life in God's world. So, yes, that means I trust God to give me my daily bread... but it also includes the trust that God will provide yours for you, too (after all, Jesus taught us to pray in the plural, "Give us today our daily bread..." And that means, too, that I can't be satisfied any longer with a shriveled and shrunken faith that reduces Jesus to my personal heavenly fire-insurance, here to guarantee me a spot on a cloud some day in the great by-and-by, if that faith does not also push me toward the hope of all creation being renewed, all people being drawn to God in Christ, all of our relationships being made just, and goodness overflowing for all of God's handiwork. That's what Paul holds up for us to look toward--something that includes each of us, but goes so much wider and farther than any one of us alone.
That's why, I believe, in the ancient statement of faith we now call the Apostles' Creed, we profess our belief not only in my life after death, but in "the communion of saints," "the resurrection of the dead," and "the life everlasting." These words remind me that Christians from the beginning have been taught to hope a wider hope than just for themselves, but to see each of our salvation as a piece of God's sweeping and saving work that reaches beyond me--to you, to our neighbors, to strangers, and to our enemies. From the beginning, voices like Paul's have been telling us to think bigger than just Me-and-My-Personal-Ticket-to-Heaven, but to hear the Gospel as God's wide-reaching commitment to make all things new.
Once you've stepped into that radiant kind of light, the old self-centered schemes of the televangelists seem pretty dim, don't they? Once you've seen that the Good News includes me... and yet is vastly bigger than just me, you'll never want to go back to such an impoverished and undernourished hope. It's bigger than just me. It's wider than just getting my soul into the Heaven Club. It's deeper than just increasing my personal bank account. The Gospel's promise is about a hope so wide it includes all creation. Anything smaller just won't do any more.
Today, go and hope bigger. That's not to say, "Go and wish for more stuff for yourself," but rather, "Allow God's goodness to overflow beyond the bounds of just Me-and-My-Group-First thinking, and to see God's good intention to renew and restore all things."
That seems like a wide enough vision to start with. Dear ones, don't settle for something smaller. Hope a wide hope.
Lord Jesus, make us new as you are making all things new. Redeem us as you are redeeming all of creation itself.
You read that right--my complaint with prosperity preachers and the health-and-wealth style Name-It-and-Claim-It voices of religion out there is not that they promise too much, but that they offer too little to hope for. My goodness, if all I'm following Jesus for is to make myself more money or get that boat I've always wanted, there are quicker ways to make a buck in this life. But that's not the issue; it's that just getting more money or piles of stuff isn't worth pinning your hopes on this life. There's more to look forward to.
For that matter, any time I hear Respectable Religious folk reduce the gospel to an over-simplified, "Jesus is your ticket to heaven when you die," kind of message, I find myself thinking, "That is too small a hope if that's all you have to say to us!" And it's the same thing as the ones promising money: it's all just too narrow a promise, too self-focused a gift. The living God keeps stretching our hopes wider than we dared to dream was possible--God turns our hopes outward beyond just me-and-my-interests to the renewal of all creation!
It's not that I don't think God will provide for us--I do. And it's not that I don't believe Jesus assures us of life beyond the grip of death--he does. But reducing the Gospel's Good News simply to the individualistic terms of prizes for me, whether before or after death, seems like burying the lede here. We have so much more to hope for, if we dare to believe the Scriptures. God has so much wider a vision than we do, if we can trust these words of Paul the Apostle as he wrote to the Romans.
As Paul sees it here, the Gospel is bigger than just individual people making one-on-one transactions with God in order to secure their spot in the afterlife. It's bigger than believing the correct theological facts in order to win material wealth in this life, too. It's about all of creation longing to be put right. It's about the whole universe being mended in love. It's about renewal beyond the power of death for the whole world, not just me, or people I approve of on my personal list. God dares us to hope a bigger hope--resurrection and re-creation for heaven and earth themselves.
That includes me, to be sure. And... it includes you. My hope for my own life beyond death isn't really complete, though, until it includes the hope for you and for others as well. It includes "being with Jesus when we die," but it also includes more than that--it includes Jesus putting right all that is broken in the world... Jesus healing the wounds within us and between us... Jesus bringing justice where we have stepped on one another... Jesus restoring all the places we have wrecked the beautiful interconnectedness of life in God's world. So, yes, that means I trust God to give me my daily bread... but it also includes the trust that God will provide yours for you, too (after all, Jesus taught us to pray in the plural, "Give us today our daily bread..." And that means, too, that I can't be satisfied any longer with a shriveled and shrunken faith that reduces Jesus to my personal heavenly fire-insurance, here to guarantee me a spot on a cloud some day in the great by-and-by, if that faith does not also push me toward the hope of all creation being renewed, all people being drawn to God in Christ, all of our relationships being made just, and goodness overflowing for all of God's handiwork. That's what Paul holds up for us to look toward--something that includes each of us, but goes so much wider and farther than any one of us alone.
That's why, I believe, in the ancient statement of faith we now call the Apostles' Creed, we profess our belief not only in my life after death, but in "the communion of saints," "the resurrection of the dead," and "the life everlasting." These words remind me that Christians from the beginning have been taught to hope a wider hope than just for themselves, but to see each of our salvation as a piece of God's sweeping and saving work that reaches beyond me--to you, to our neighbors, to strangers, and to our enemies. From the beginning, voices like Paul's have been telling us to think bigger than just Me-and-My-Personal-Ticket-to-Heaven, but to hear the Gospel as God's wide-reaching commitment to make all things new.
Once you've stepped into that radiant kind of light, the old self-centered schemes of the televangelists seem pretty dim, don't they? Once you've seen that the Good News includes me... and yet is vastly bigger than just me, you'll never want to go back to such an impoverished and undernourished hope. It's bigger than just me. It's wider than just getting my soul into the Heaven Club. It's deeper than just increasing my personal bank account. The Gospel's promise is about a hope so wide it includes all creation. Anything smaller just won't do any more.
Today, go and hope bigger. That's not to say, "Go and wish for more stuff for yourself," but rather, "Allow God's goodness to overflow beyond the bounds of just Me-and-My-Group-First thinking, and to see God's good intention to renew and restore all things."
That seems like a wide enough vision to start with. Dear ones, don't settle for something smaller. Hope a wide hope.
Lord Jesus, make us new as you are making all things new. Redeem us as you are redeeming all of creation itself.
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