Why I'm sad the world didn't end a year ago

As you may have noticed the world did not end on 12/21/12, and a year later we are still here. Don't get me wrong, I had no expectation the world would end last year. The Mayans have joined the long list of people who have incorrectly guessed when the world would end.

But it still makes me kind of sad.  Allow me to explain.

Often we think of the apocalypse as some horrible event, this great disaster which we all live in dread of. It is very human to see Judgement Day as some terrible day to be feared.  It sounds like a day of punishment and every nightmarish depiction of Hell. But in truth the Day of Judgement is a day of justice.

For now the wrath of God is being held back and building, waiting for the day of release. Judgement Day will be the day when every hurt, every wrong, and every sin will be redeemed and washed away. There will be justice for every crime committed against another. God is not mute to the sufferings of the world. It is with this future hope of justice Paul writes Romans 12:19
"Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

Judgement Day will be the day when sickness, cancer, sex slavery, oppression, exploitation, and every other horrible thing which plagues humanity will be defeated. It will be glorious! It will be a day of true justice. No more suffering.

And it's hard to wait sometimes. This world is a dark and broken place, there are a lot of terrible things happening to people who God deeply loves, and it seems like there is no end in sight. Humanity will never save itself.  But our great God of Justice will. And I yearn for that day.

Palm Branches of the Rebellion

Palm Sunday has become one of my favorite liturgical holidays.

Having grown up in a liturgical church we celebrated Palm Sunday each year complete with waving palm branches.  And I understood we waved the palms because the crowd had waved them during Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Jn 12:12-15).  But I never wondered why the crowd waved palms in the first place.  And the answer is what makes things interesting.

According to Jewish tradition Jesus was not the first person to have palm branches waving as he marched into Jerusalem.  Over a hundred years prior the Jewish crowds had waved palm branches as a symbol of the Maccabean victory over the Greeks.

And so as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the eve of Passover, the great festival of their ancestors freedom from slavery in Egypt, the question for the Jews and the Romans alike is what kind of king is Jesus?  The crowd waved palms as a symbol of victory over their oppressors.  They spread their cloaks in homage to their king.  This was rebellion against Rome.

Everyone thought Jesus came to be a political king.  The Jews saw his arrival in Jerusalem for Passover as the perfect time to begin his uprising.  Little did they know His plans were so much greater.

The people wanted a rebellion.  Jesus came to start a revolution.  They wanted to seize power, Jesus came to lay down his power for us (Phil 2:5-11).  The crowd underestimated the extent of Jesus's kingdom.  And often we do too.

I like to think somehow Jesus is only king over segments of my life, my moral behavior, or the "spiritual" portions, as if his truth and his kingdom do not affect all aspects of who I am.  The truth is we all have been seduced by the appeals of empire, and have accepted the values of this world as "normal".  But Jesus is not just an addendum to my nice comfortable life.  

In reality Jesus's plans are so much greater than mine.  His ways are more encompassing than we want to believe.  I have to surrender more than I expected.  I am still learning the extent of what truly following Jesus costs.  My hope is to one day leave the empire behind completely and to be free from the propaganda.

I love that hosanna means "save now".  Here we have the crowd cheering "save now, save now" without understanding Jesus has come to die for our sins so we may be saved.  Jesus in his goodness knows what we really need.  He understands our desperation better than we do.  And he is faithful to answer us even when we do not understand.

So let us wave our palm branches in protest of the empire which has seduced us into complacency.  Let us walk in the ways of the kingdom as exiles not a part of this world.  May we proclaim truth and fight injustice, starting with the injustice in our own lives.  Jesus please "save now" because I need you to save me.

"Life Isn't Fair"

We've all heard the saying.

And it doesn't really help anything or comfort anyone.

There are so many unfair things in our world around us.  Like the guy I cut-off today or the child born with HIV. There are two kinds of unfairness/injustice/sin: that which originates from human action/inaction, and that which originates from the brokenness of this world (which distantly originated by human action in a garden somewhere).

God's desire is to see both forms of unfairness/injustice/sin redeemed/overcome/dealt with.

I think we often forget, at least I do, how just God is; that justice is very much a part of His nature.  Justice and injustice cannot cohabitate.  Deep down we all yearn to see justice in our lives because we have all be wronged.  Daily.  In a million ways.

And while we all desire to be loved, as God alone can, we also desire to be justified.  I need to know that I am both loved and justified.  Without love justice is brutal, and without justice love is meaningless.  I find it so awesome and beautiful that we see love and justice married at the Cross.  I am loved (Jn 3:16) and justified (Rom 5:9).  For all the hurtful and harmful things that I have done to others and myself, it is comforting to know that those hurts don't just have to be tolerated.  They can be redeemed; the price for justice has been paid.  One day there will be vengeance in its fullness.  Judgement is coming, and while that idea usually makes us nervous we should be glad that all the wrongs we have received in life will be repaid.

Justice.

Through God's continued redemptive work in creation we are seeing the unfairness in life challenged, overcome, and removed.  Slowly we are a part of bringing justice to the world.  Purposefully being kind to others waiting in line at the grocery store, driving courteously, sitting with the brokenhearted, or working to cure disease and disability.

Often a violation we receive stems from a violation someone else received and has passed on to us.  I can either in turn allow my hurt to affect how I act toward other and thus multiply the harm, or I can instead absorb the injustice (by giving it to Jesus) and not pass it on.  We affect the atmosphere around us, we either make waves or we calm them.

This broken world is inclined toward injustice just as it is also tends toward chaos/entropy.  Life on this rock isn't fair.  But God is fair, and He is bringing redemption and fairness to life.  The question is will we be a part of His solution?