We live in the present and the not-yet kingdom. In Christ and in the church (when we are at our best), we have a glimpse of what God’s will is for all the world. We have seen it and felt it, only to notice it slipping through our fingers. We know it has arrived but await its full appearing. We know it is here and yet we proclaim it is also coming.
It’s a little like buying a Christmas gift for someone special. We know the gift is in the present (pretty clever, huh?) but its full impact of joy and happiness –when it is opened and received will come later. It has been secured, but it awaits a future revealing.
Consider, the life and ministry of Jesus. He proclaimed and offered the wide mercy and forgiveness of God to others. But don’t you think they still stubbed their moral big toes in later experience? They were forgiven and still had times they would need forgiveness. Or consider those Jesus healed as the lame walked and the blind were able to see. They were touched by the Master, yet at a later day still became sick of body and died. Their healing, while substantial was temporary. It had been received but would still again need renewal and completion.
Or how about the disciples who were chosen by Jesus? He picked Benedict Arnolds and Patriots, bringing together a community who would obviously have conflicts with one another. But he saw in them – as he sees in us – a potential not to be realized well after their choosing. Isn’t it revealing how none of them really came fully into themselves until after Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, torture, execution and final victory in the resurrection?
The kingdom had come. The kingdom had yet to be revealed. On this Christmas Eve, we welcome again the Savior who has come and who is coming again. In this witness we learn how any threat whether: economic disaster or moral failure, separation or sickness, personal injury or illness, heart attack or cancer advance; how not even death itself can conquer its advance.
The baby was born. The baby will be born again. And with this new Christmas morning, we move one day closer to the kingdom, present and yet to be.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
