Saturday, November 21, 2009

'In the Wilderness ... Prepare the Way of the Lord'

I have heard it since childhood, and sung it in youth, and preached it over two generations. Yet at no time in my life has the call to prepare the way of the Lord seemed more urgent.

Think of some stark statistics that recently came to my attention. The average pastor currently stays in ministry 11 years, two or three pastorates at most--before abandoning the office. The same is true of marriages, which on average last no longer in America. What is happening in the soul of America? And given the exponential rate of change these days--not to mention the explosive nature of political and even religious life--what is likely to stem the flow?

I confess sometimes to feeling like Jeremiah who spoke of shedding rivers of tears over the people and conditions of his time. Why with a loving God, almighty and everywhere present, are we as God's people settling for so little, if indeed paying attention to him at all?

Why, indeed? Hear again the good news of Jesus Christ, who in coming among us to teach, suffer, die, and be raised from the dead has already established the kingdom of God among us. And to what end? Not simply to fit us for heaven someday and deliver us from this sinful earth, but to put us to work here and now as an earnest of the same kingdom yet to come in its fullness when Christ returns a second time.

N.T. Wright in his new book, Surprised by Hope, has renewed my own energies toward that end. He is clearing my cluttered mind of the problems by opening up in fresh, new perspectives the solution to them all, already given and at work. And in the process he is renewing my sense of hope.

If in Advent this year your own faith needs reviving, pick up Wright's book and let it take you as it has me on a wonderful journey through Scripture. It will supply a whole new perspective on yourself and your role in God's kingdom work. Unreal as it may seem on the surface of things, God's right hand and his holy arm have already gotten him the victory.

Surely it's time, therefore, to stop bemoaning all that is wrong with his world and engage it rather in the power of God's Spirit and Word. Our calling is not to leave this world but to love it as he did and await with great eagerness the day when his kingdom now manifest in us will become fully known in the whole world.