We end the week as we started it - in hope. Jurgen Moltmann in "In the End - The Beginning"
In the community of Christ we experience foretastes and anticipations of God's coming kingdom. To put it theoretically: hope lives from the anticipation of the positive and therefore sees itself as the negation of the negative. The two things belong together.
Even as this is said, remember that hope is not simply positive thinking. That foretaste has substance to it...it is the very promise of God. The substance is the life of the community of Christ as the promises of God breaks forth among us in, with, and under the life we live together as followers of Jesus. That is why the community is so vital. I know how ugly and off-base communities can become, but in that group...as we continue to reflect on God's promises...as we point to the life of the Christ...as we come to share the love that is first given us, there exists that wonderful taste of something beyond our ways. It is in the community that we may have the experience of actually seeing the negative side of life lose its power to the power of the love of Christ.
Connection: So why no find a community and enter into it with the intention of trusting that God is bringing a whole new life to us... and while your waiting - begin living that life already.
Lord of Promise and Community, you come to greet us with promises of new life and it is enough to change our hearts and minds so that life that was once destructive and cruel will become ones of loving kindness and hope. We give you thanks for your power of transformation. Amen.
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