More going on about hope - Willimon and Barth.
Barth's view of salvation is strongly "objective" - our feelings and responses have little to do with it. Barth means to say, in effect, Jesus Christ has accomplished your salvation. This is an undeniable, ultimately irresistible fact. Now live in the light of the fact - repent and believer the good news. We need not strive to be included in salvation; in Jesus Christ all are included as the gift of the miraculous love of god in Christ. By stressing this objective, accomplished quality of salvation, Barth hopes to defeat any modernist notion that salvation is just another personal preference, something that human beings fabricate.
What joy to simply hear this: our salvation is an "ultimately irresistible fact." Oh, we might run from it and try to put in conditions that will make us feel good or reject it outright and say it is something we don't really give a damn about. But...it is still and always will be an irresistible fact always ready and available to be our ground and foundation and future. This is the kind of word that is able to lift one's head when despair and hopelessness is swirling around our lives. For then, we can ask what will be next? What is the day to become for those who rest in this fact? There is no magic and no everything will turn out as we want it. There is simply this announcement of what is...forever. I find that to be quite powerful and yet, at times, I continue to forget it or turn to some other power to sustain me. Unfortunately, nothing else really does.
Connection: What are the kind of facts that help to make the day for you? In the middle of all that can go wrong or turn sour...is this "ultimately irresistible fact" able to reach you?
Lord of the Day, you are the available power for life that is able to transform us and turn us into new directions and into experiences of your loving presence. Be for us again this day as you always promise. For in this day, we know there will be times when we are all too willing to run to other powers and other promises. Amen.
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