Why
wait until December when we can start now? There are just 355 days until the
winter solstice and the end of the world…at least according to the Mayan
calendar and all kinds of serious sounding programs on the History channel.
Hmm…what to do whilst we wait…
I
know! Let’s live like the end of the world already happened! After all, this
Jesus whose birth we are celebrating and with whose cross we are marked is
raised from the dead. Apparently, death and all its attendant anxieties do not
have the last word for us. Rather than being stymied like deer in the
headlights at our oncoming doom, we are given the freedom to work and play and
build and invest in the world which God is coming to make new.
Need
a suggestion for a New Year’s resolution? Well…here’s one anyway. Get off your
keister and go plant an apple tree…or speak a word of gratitude to your
neighbor…or teach a kid how to read. Not that any of these things will
guarantee your salvation or make you a better person. You’ll still be the same
old simul-justus-et-peccator dependent upon Christ. But the new creation which
we have foreseen in Christ will be reflected in you…a building block laid
towards the coming of the kingdom of God, and a witness for the One whom we often
too glibly name as Lord.
This,
it occurs to me, is what it means to be Church…missional, confidant,
faithful…and not sitting around waiting for someone else to take up the cause
or do the heavy lifting. Christ leads the way. We follow in his footsteps. Let
the timing be God’s…and let the day-to-day joy and toil of ministry be ours.
