Tuesday, 19 October, 2004

This week's devotions are written by Vicar Steve Bond.



More from Marva Dawn's Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God…



The Christian life does not spring from a "cause," which often becomes an idolatry and often attempts to abuse power. Instead, Christian life moves toward an "end," the goal of God's fulfillment of the kingdom, which we receive both now and in the end by God's tabernacling in our weakness and at the end of time (2 Cor. 12:9-10 and Rev. 21:3). Meanwhile, the church not only lives in light of the future shalom of God and proclaims it to our neighbors, we also take steps together in humility to display the meaning of God's peace.



At our most faithful, the church is an "odd" people. As we live in the world (and that is just as much a part of being faithful), we will always be somehow out-of-step with the rest of the world. Almost as if we lived in a different time zone, we are called to live in the present while oriented toward God's future reign and God's past saving acts. So unlike all the institutions and systems that seek to preserve the order of things as-they-are (whether in the name of national security or promoting prosperity or keeping our comfortable way of life), the church is always called to embody the life-that-is-to-come. And so, as we look forward to the day when all creation is at peace, we live at peace and promote peace now. As we pray, "Your kingdom come," we live in ways that point to the Reign of God now.



But at the same time, as the people of God, we are always unlike so many social activist movements that are convinced that they will bring about the "kingdom" (however they conceive of it) on their own. We are freed from the illusion that the fate of the universe rests on our shoulders. Rather, the grace of God reminds us that life in Christ centers not on what I do, but on what God has done, is doing, and will do. And so as we trust that God will be at work in all we do, we also know that God is the primary actor. Because the "kingdom" we pray and hope for is God's, we can trust with a sure hope that God will really bring about that final reign of peace. And that hope sustains us to live out our calling as the odd people of God.



Connection: Since we trust that the future remains in God's hands, ours are free to point to God's final, gracious Reign, even as other hands shake fists at each other or grasp at present power. It is enough for us to point.



Let us be your hands today, Lord, even those nail-scarred hands that embrace the world in love.