17 January 2005

An ongoing look at hope - Jurgen Moltmann.



'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope', writes Paul to the congregation in Rome (Romans 15:13).

This is unique. Nowhere else in the world of the religions is God associated with human hope for the future. God is the one who is Eternally Present, the deity is the Wholly Other, what is divine is Timelessly Eternal: all that is common coin. God is 'above us' as the Almighty, or God is 'within us' as the ground of our being: that is familiar. But a God of hope, who is in front of us, and goes ahead of us in history?



This is the God who suffers death right to its end without anything being withheld. This is the God who goes through death and invites us to follow. There is no lecture on how to rise above the pains and sorrows of the day...there is no systematic way of understanding our human predicament and mastering it. Our God faces death and walk through it and walks out the other side and bids us to follow. We do not "get out" of the death we all fear. We go right into it because that is what it is to be human. But we follow the one who has "been there and done that" and promises something for all who do not turn away from death. Therefore, our God pulls us from where God is - the future & waiting for us to arrive - and is simultaneously with us along the way. In this way, we will never be alone as we reach out into the fullness of God's love that keeps unfolding for us.



Connection: I think it take a committee of people to keep ourselves filled with hope. I don't mean a formal committee...I mean a bunch of folk - maybe only two or three - who will help us lift up our eyes to that which is not seen so clearly - just yet. Do you have those kind of people around you?



Bring us out of the slavery of these days and set us up within the grace-filled Reign of your love, O God. For within the bounds of your love is a future we cannot see on our own...and yet we long to be there...even now. Amen.