In participatory eschatology, when we ask, “What does the
future hold?” the answer begins, “That depends.
It depends on you and me. God
holds out to us at every moment a brighter future; the issue is whether we are
willing to receive it and work with God to help create it. We are participating in the creation of what
the future will be.
Brian
McLaren
______________________________________
How shall we then live?
As leaders lie
And propaganda floods the media?
As masked thugs stalk the streets
Looking for stereotypes?
Where brutality is the modus operandi
And destruction is the coin of the empire?
How shall we respond
As the planet burns?
And the existence of precious souls is denied?
As war morphs into war into war?
What does the future hold?
What is going to happen to us?
Is Jesus going to return
Bloodied and brandishing a sword
To slay the evil doers and save the righteous?
Is God going to come and rip creation apart?
Like a painter slashing his or her own painting?
Who’s going to make it?
Who’s going to cease to exist?
Who is going to win and who will lose
Who will find their way to “the Father’s House”
And who will be “tormented in the flame?” (Rich man Dives/)
Perhaps it wrong
To think of an avenging God
To think of a Jesus who is almost the antithesis
Of the Jesus walked the earth
As Jesus becomes the Christ (Christus Victor)
Does he suddenly become a judger rather than a forgiver?
A hater rather than a lover?
One who deals in death rather than life?
An excluding punisher, who wreaks vengeance and
destruction?
I don’t think so
I don’t think Jesus can deny himself
What I think is that Jesus the Christ,
Who dwells within us as Spirit
Works with us every day
Creating and recreating
I think that God became incarnate in this creation
And that God will not abandon it
I believe that Jesus was another incarnation
Creator coming into creation
And I believe that the incarnation happens
And happens
And happens again
In us, where God becomes real in the person of the Holy
Spirit
Through us, as we
Follow
As we forgive and give
As we take care of the planet
As we feed the hungry and welcome the stranger
And become the voice,
And the hands and feet of Jesus
Become Jesus saying
“Suffer the little children”
Which does not mean to make children suffer
But embrace them
Become Jesus, healing, reconciling,
Making peace
Creating justice and equity
And in doing so, we participate
We determine
The future
What does the future hold?
It depends on us
Every moment
With every word, every act, we make the world better or
worse
We make the future better or worse.
We co-create the future with God
We have that power
A power Donald Trump can only dream of and MAGA will
never have
We are the incarnation of Love
We are the creative power of God enfleshed
And we should live accordingly
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