echoes of redemption

The Messiah is coming.

Of course, he wouldn’t be the military leader everyone had made him to be in their heads. He would come of peace.

And he wouldn’t be the political leader they wanted him to be. In fact, he sat under one of the most unjust governments in the world’s history and told people to submit to it.

And he wouldn’t build an empire on this earth. Because he seemed obsessed with God’s Kingdom – a holistically redemptive, servant-oriented, way of living that would change everything.

So he spent his life engaged with people. Never missing an interruption. Always showing grace. Pouring himself out for all of man. You couldn’t pry him away from the poor. You couldn’t keep him from those who benefited from corrupt business. Or from befriending prostitutes. He brought hope to the darkness of life on this planet. Peace to a people who had been almost continually at war and under oppression. Life to anyone who would listen.

His name was Jesus. And he is the Messiah.

So during this season we join with centuries of people in anticipating him. Because we do it on this side of the cross, we get to celebrate his coming to the earth while we anticipate his return to complete the redemption of man.

Jesus saved you so you could go to heaven.

True. But also incomplete.

Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross so that we could live in reconciled relationship with the Father, God.

And that relationship starts now.

Because Jesus story doesn’t end at the cross. And the resurrection seems to be more about living than dying.

The narrative of our faith should be just as much about we live as it is about what will happen when we die.

And that’s why it matters that we give our lives for the distant, marginalized and oppressed.

And why it’s central to our faith that we live as a people of peace, reconciled to God, to ourselves, to each other and to the planet.

And that’s why everything is so urgent. Because our time is limited to work out our faith on this planet, and every step counts.

You have enormous potential.

Of course, if we don’t believe that, it doesn’t really matter.

And if we spend our lives on ourselves, we’ll never experience it.

Because God created us to live connected to one another. And the height of our potential is only reached when we’re engaged with each other.

Caring for one another.

Laughing together. Hurting together. Meeting each other’s needs.

Listening.

Jesus didn’t suffer and die on the cross so we could watch an hour long show every weekend.

So how are you tapping into your potential this week? Who are you connected to? Who needs you?

Find a person you can connect with.

Get a cause that you can be the voice for.

Awaken your potential.