Second Sunday of Advent: Waiting Upon God in Hope

During the past month, I have been reading NT Wright's, Into the Heart of Romans in preparation for Bible study on the book of Romans. Wright's work is an intense "deep dive" into the 8th chapter of the letter, the heart of the book and perhaps the most sublime piece of all Paul's writing. I am anticipating this study being full of surprises and challenges for our class, especially in two areas: first, the ultimate promise of Jesus' death and resurrection and the sending of the Spirit is NOT a disembodied eternal life in heaven, but the eventual coming of a new heaven and a new earth in which God, in the language of Revelations, is all in all. NT Wright has rather famously said, [[the goal of our lives is not life after death, but life after life after death]]. 

This leads to a theology where the goal of life is not "getting to heaven" but instead to an ongoing commitment to a world where the creator and covenant God dwells with and through us as he did in and through Jesus. The second related area of surprise and challenge is a shift in our theologies of suffering. Ordinarily, we think of suffering as the result of estrangement from God; intimacy with God is marked by peace and the absence of suffering. However, in this theology where we are on the way to a new heaven and new earth, we suffer with and in Christ in the power of the Spirit as we live in love and hope so that we might demonstrate the full content of the Gospel to others. These two shifts have repercussions for our faith all along the line, not least in terms of ethics, character development, our commitment to God's good creation, the way we approach life in this world, the idea of vocation, any suffering that comes our way, etc. The climax of Romans 8 is expressed in two statements, 1) Therefore there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and 2) Nothing at all can separate us from the love of God. We are called to live our lives in light of these related affirmations.

During the rest of Advent, I will try to write a bit more about Wright's reading of Paul's theology and some of the implications. For now, I want to focus on the fact that Paul has reworked his Jewish faith in terms of the God of creation and covenant who is fully revealed in Jesus as Emmanuel. We believe in a God whose greatest desire is to dwell with us and who, in Christ's life, death, and resurrection, has begun the complete recreation of heaven and earth. This means that the human vocation is to live a covenantal life with God so that in and with us in the power of the Spirit God may be glorified in his creation --- the WHOLE of God's creation. 

At a time when Christians often treat reverence for creation as something far down any list of priorities because their sights are set on heaven (some even suggest destroying this world to initiate the end times and get them to heaven more quickly!), Paul's vision of God's will and intentions may be a shock. Those embracing a dualistic spirituality where heaven and a disembodied existence leaving material bodies behind forever will be similarly astounded when this vision is revealed to be contrary to both God's will for his creation and humanity's ultimate destiny. For those who suffer in various ways and who tend to associate suffering only in conjunction with personal sin and a lack of intimacy with God, or who may believe that because one suffers one must not pray well enough or must have a deficient spirituality, this alternate vision will also be a surprise. After all, it means we are invited to understand our present suffering as part of an inestimable vocation to be images of God's presence in our world in, with, and through God's Christ and the power of the Spirit. 

Today's readings focus on images related to these "new" theological ideas. Even so, I was struck as I listened to them just how infrequently homilists take them seriously or preach on them. For instance: [[According to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness (God's justice-making presence, especially when embraced by human beings) dwells.]] (2 Peter 3:8-14) God is doing something new and is doing it in our midst.  Importantly, God depends upon our cooperation for the fruits of the new creation begun in Jesus' death and resurrection to be fully realized. God desires that new heaven and earth where, through Jesus' death and resurrection, God dwells with, in, and through us as Emmanuel.

Waiting is rarely easy and Advent puts a significant accent on waiting. But we are not called merely to wait passively; instead, we are called to wait upon, and even more specifically, to wait upon God. Of course, we wait for God's will to be completely accomplished in our world, yet we do this by waiting upon God in the sense of serving him and his will until the "final" day. We are those who do the will of God in this world as we anticipate the coming of the new heaven and new earth. This means our waiting is active and full. In waiting we act to let God make us the people God calls us to be. This means we act to steward our world in the way the Creator God wills and always did will us to steward it.  It means we commit freshly to allow God to be Emmanuel, and to make us more and more into those who are Imago Dei for one another and for the sake of the whole of God's creation. 

Already, because of Christ's death and resurrection, our world is not the same as it was before the Christ Event. And now, we are asked to claim our vocation to work with God freshly -- as he brings that changed world to an unimaginable completion. It is not a medieval disembodied heaven we are working and living towards. It is a new heaven and a new earth. We are called to participate in that recreation and completion NOW by glorifying the God of creation and covenant in this world. Reclaiming that vocation by stewarding his creation and suffering with and in Christ is something we embrace in hope remembering that in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, there is no condemnation, and too, that nothing at all can separate us from the love of God.