July 29

Often in Christian circles we use the term “now and not yet” to discuss our current place in time and The Kingdom. We also use this to reconcile the paradoxes that we find embedded in the scriptures and in our daily lives. Although this term packs a lot and holds great substance in and of itself, there is a massive gap between those two ideas of the now and of the not yet; there is a missing element.That gap can make things seem impossible, it can make acting out Christian love seem like an indomitable task (especially if the person focuses on big social questions such as myself : ^ ) How do we maintain an anchored hope in the present when the now seems like millennia (at least) away from the not yet? The answer that brings me hope is the past. The place where we have come from that has shaped our current questions and meanings reveals the human community that we are apart of and that we are in the midst of trying to understand and love. It is this community that Christ decided to join in with in incarnational fashion and the same community that he has decreed you and I belong to. When we look at the past we realize that the questions asked then are, in the existing sense, the same questions to the ones being asked now. Israel constantly drew upon its Exodus narrative to ground them in their present context. It is this past lens which provides a sense belonging, and anchoring that can spur us on to find peace and hope in the middle of our present age.