By Neil Earle
As British journalists might put it: "This was the year that was."
We in the Worldwide Church of God mourned a pastor general, and the State of Israel lost a prime minister.
The New Republic ran a clever cover title--"The 50th Anniversary of Almost Everything." The United Nations turned 50. And the world recalled the grim memories of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, only to shudder at the all-too-real present with the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
O.J. Simpson was declared innocent of murder, and Quebec almost separated from Canada. And in our fellowship many did separate themselves from us, even as others took a firmer hold on the new covenant.
The significance of 1995 is abundantly clear, however: This aching world demonstrated once again in 1995 how much it needs the healing balm of Christ's gospel message. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened," Jesus taught, "and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
The apostle Paul's insight into human history never seemed more up to date than in 1995. "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Romans 8:20-21).
As Christians we can rejoice. We are more than mere spectators to a meaningless string of tragedies. There is meaning and-- mercifully--a divine closure to history.
We live with purpose. We accept our sufferings in hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Spiritual closure is promised to the events we all struggle through. Healing is coming for the nations. The Bible documents a soaring vision that transcends the often discouraging present.
The hope of certain resolution to human struggling propels us into tomorrow and convicts us that we have work to do today-- to bear witness by our lives of the certain future, the coming fullness of the kingdom of God.
The coming reconciliation of all things in God and Jesus Christ--which Paul exulted about in Ephesians 1--gives us hope. God's purposes are unfolding even when tragedy strikes close to home.
Missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigin writes: "The Bible is unique among the sacred books of the world's religions in that it is in structure a history of the cosmos.... [I]t sees the history of the nations and the history of nature within the large framework of God's history--the carrying forward to its completion of the gracious purpose which has its source in the love of the Father for the Son in the unity of the Spirit" (The Open Secret, pages 1, 33).
It is vital to know that history is going somewhere, that it will have a triumphant conclusion. Help and hope and healing are assured.
Such powerful biblical symbols as the lion dwelling with the lamb (Isaiah 11:1-9), the plowman overtaking the reaper (Amos 9:13) and swords being beaten into plowshares (Micah 4:3) were inspired visions of realities that culminate in the reign of Jesus Christ over all things, reconciliation and peace at last.
That confidence, that conviction, we simply must share with others.
Russian spiritual writer Fyodor Dostoyevski often explored Christian themes in his novels. He wrote of our human need to live in light of a positive vision of the future: "Surely I haven't suffered simply that I, my crimes and my sufferings, may manure the soil of the future harmony for someone else. I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for."
The gospel intimates what it has all been for and where it is all leading. Jesus struck the tone perfectly in his first sermon: "He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19).
The work Jesus began will continue, as Peter well knew, "until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21).
Revelation 21 and 22 is the glorious capstone of the gospel. It proclaims in the most vivid--though visionary--terms the good news that humans are heading toward a universal fulfillment of such worth that compared to it all human suffering will be rendered worthwhile.
This is part of what some call the power of the future. The future, in many wonderful ways, tugs at us now. J.B. Phillips has a provocative rendering of Romans 8:18-19: "In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own" (The New Testament in Modern English).
Knowing that we will participate in the future gives meaning to what we do today. The coming fullness of the kingdom gives us hope to carry on, to continue to bear witness in the great commission.
The body of Christ of which we are part--the visible expression of God's presence on earth--the church of Jesus Christ was not silenced this year.
If there were AIDS and abortion there were also Christ-centered nurses and doctors reaching out to help. If there were bombings and shellings and the death of the innocent there were also concerned Christians doing what they could.
That task, that mission, must continue, as Jesus said, "to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
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