echoes of redemption

Much of the Hebrew Scriptures are devoted to the prophets warning God’s people to turn from their sin. To repent and follow the God they claimed to follow. They warned that if God’s people didn’t return to him, he would take everything from him.

And the people didn’t listen.

So Jerusalem was destroyed. God’s people overtaken. Enslaved. Murdered.

The next logical step in the prophetic narrative is a book called I Told You So. We called it. Dedicated our lives to telling you this would happen.

Instead you get Lamentations. Five chapters weeping over the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of sin. Because although things went exactly as the prophets said they would, people were hurting. So instead of pride, arrogance and gloating, you get phrases like:

For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears.

Because the prophets represent the heart of God. And God’s heart weeps when people hurt – even if they willingly choose the path that brings pain upon themselves.

How strange and powerful to have a God who hurts. A divine being who knows fully the pain sin causes. Who engages deeply enough with his creation to feel their pain.

There’s beauty in the weeping.

Because in weeping we find God next to us. Comforting. Listening. Weeping with us.

Even if you start now, you’re not going to solve the water crises over night.

Or repair a fractured relationship

Or create the massive change you want to see.

The key question – the question it’s easy to miss when the stakes are high – is what is the next step? And when that step is complete, you ask, what is the next step?

Because the problem is solved one decision at a time. One conversation at a time. One reaction at a time.

So what do you feel God created you to do? And what’s the next step?

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.