26 January 2005

I find this piece by Moltmann one that invites much contemplation...so we will use two days. Here's part one



...according to the Apostles' Creed, it would seem as if since the ascension Christ has disappeared from the earth, is now sitting at a particular place in heaven, and is waiting for a time when he will all at once 'come again' to judge the living and the dead. That is the picture behind the saying about Christ's hoped-for parousia - 'maranatha, come Lord Jesus' (Revelation 22:20) - is translated into Latin as adventus Christi, and that means his 'coming' in the sense of something coming to meet us out of the future (as we speak of a 'coming' event).



In this picture of the Christ after the ascension, there comes the grand temptation that the Christ is still out there...somewhere. With that type of vision, it is easy to think that we must somehow...get there...and how do we do that! But what is coming is coming. It is not static. It is not like a pond waiting for someone to take a leap into its refreshing water. It is coming like a river flowing toward us. Yes, it is to come, and yet it is coming already to sweep us up in its refreshing flow of life. So, in the meantime, we prepare for the swim...we act like we are doing everything that needs to be so that as the water cascades over us in time...real time...we will swim or paddle on our inflatable rafts and enjoy the day full of grace that encompasses this time.



Connection: How does one begin to prepare - within the ordinary stuff of this day - for the outpouring of God's promises that bring life - even now? This is a good lense through which we must look at the relationships we enter and the way we follow through with what we would call the love of God alive today. We are always at the edge of promise and stepping into its domain.



Lord of the Day to Come, it is by grace alone that our lives are shaped with a sense of what is to come and what is now grasping us and taking us into a new life. We give you thanks for the many ways you take hold of us and lead us and encourage us as we stumble and bumble along in these days. Amen.