Next Year’s Outlook (Part 2)
Whatever the plan is by this time a year from now, I am convinced that neither success nor failure, promotion or sending away, new friends or departure, health or sickness, graduation or ordinary mundane repetition can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus _our_ Lord.
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Next Year’s Outlook (Part 1)
You will inevitably have success at some point in an aspect of your life. Those successes should be held in the right perspective in light of Christ’s accomplishment once for all. Also, inevitably a real failure of some sort will occur. No matter how deeply real the failure is, or the lingering effects, they cannot overshadow that there is a courtroom where all your failures are paid for.
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Christmas Proves that God is on Your Side
God is on your side, not only in that God has saved you through Christ, but also in that God has called you to be on God’s own side, so to speak. The God who is at work mending and restoring the entire universe has chosen to use you in this effort. Your life, therefore, has extraordinary, indeed, eternal meaning. Moreover, God has also chosen to dwell within you through the Holy Spirit so that you might be reassured that you are God’s beloved child and so that you might be empowered to participate in God’s redeeming work. This is indeed wonderful news—news that we know to be true, in part, because of the reality of Christmas.
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God Works in All Things With Us for Good
As God’s beloved children we get to share in the lavish benefits of God’s grace. But Romans 8:28 adds something more. We also get to share in God’s work in the world. This work isn’t just what we might call “religious” work. It isn’t only about church, evangelism, and mission. Rather, God is working with us in “all things” for good, including what we do in our daily jobs, in our parenting and grandparenting, in our cultural engagement, and in our citizenship.
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The Surprising Groaner
Romans 8 encourages us not to hold back in Advent as we observe and experience the “sufferings of this present time” (8:16). We are invited and emboldened to “groan” in prayer, knowing that God not only hears us, but also joins us in our groaning through the indwelling Spirit. Thus, our groaning draws us near to the heart of God.
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Groaning with Hope
Advent helps us to hope even when we’re groaning with pain and sadness in this broken world. When we focus on what God will do in the future, and when we remember the faithfulness of God, then we are helped to have hope even in hard times. Christian hope does not expect that everything in this life will turn out as we wish it would. But our hope is confidence in God and God’s future. The same God who once came among us as a baby born in a stable will come again in victory and glory. And we will share in his glory. This is central to our celebration of Advent.
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The Glory of the Children of God
In the seasons of Advent and Christmas, we rightly focus on God’s glory, especially the unimaginable glory of God revealed in the birth of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. But Romans 8, with its Advent emphasis on hope and waiting, stretches our imaginations even further. There will be a time, a time we often identify with the second advent of Christ, when we will be glorified with him (8:17). When this happens, we will assume our rightful place of authority over creation. Then, creation itself will be set free from its sin-induced futility and bondage. The created world and all within it will once again be free to flourish as God had intended from the beginning.
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What Do We Mean by Glory?
Glory, in Scripture, is closely associated with authority (see, for example, Psalm 8). Consider ways in which God has given you authority and how you’re stewarding that gift. To be sure, our glory/authority as human beings has been tarnished by sin. We’re not yet experiencing the fullness of glory that is to come. But God does entrust us with care for this world, including its people and institutions. Moreover, God has chosen to put the very Spirit of God within us as a foretaste of the glory that is to come. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, right now we are “being transformed . . . from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” Thus, God is already present in you, helping you to express faithfully the glory/authority you have already received.
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Advent and the Created World
When we consider the futile and decaying state of our world, including our own lives, we could easily fall into despair. But Romans 8 encourages us to join creation in waiting for the time when God mends what is broken. We wait “in hope,” which from a biblical point of view isn’t wishful thinking but rather confidence in God’s faithfulness to restore and redeem all things. Thus, when we hear of natural disasters, suffer with decay in our own bodies, or worry about the state of the natural world, we are invited into a deeper experience of Advent.
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Suffering and Glory in Advent
In the season of Advent, we rekindle our hope for God’s future, a future that includes our sharing in Christ’s glory. Yet this season also invites us to recognize the reality of our present experience, which includes suffering. Acknowledging the suffering in our lives and in our world augments our hope for the age to come. It also opens our hearts to a deeper relationship with Christ, who suffers with us and calls us to share in the sufferings of others.
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Advent for the Children of God
Chapter 8 in the New Testament book of Romans offers a different experience of the themes of Advent. It fuels our hope. It accentuates our waiting. It points to our future inheritance as children of God. Yet this chapter also invites us to live today in the Spirit-filled reality of the coming future.
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Graciously Receiving God’s Gift of Sabbath
When we take in the wide expanse of biblical teaching on sabbath, it seems clear to me that God intends for us to rest regularly and intentionally. Our times of rest may well be private, though we also need to gather with other believers on a weekly basis for worship and fellowship. Moreover, though we rightly put aside our ordinary work in order to receive God’s gift of rest, we should follow Jesus in recognizing that certain kinds of work – healing, for example – are fully consistent with faithful sabbath keeping. The sabbath is God’s gift to humankind, a gift that enhances restoration, relationship, and reflection. I believe we need to receive this gift today as individuals, friends, families, and churches.
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We Do Pray for Mercy
The calling of the Gentiles is a marvelous thing, but it complements the Hebrew story and does not replace it.
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More Than Conquerors
Paul lays out a picture in Romans 6-8, not of good people to whom bad things never happen, but of redeemed people on whose behalf Christ intercedes.
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While We Were Yet Sinners
We will no doubt fail during Ordinary Time. And when we do, we can turn, confess our sin, and return to the Lord who forgives.
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