In America we are in the midst of an election cycle, one that feels interminable since it's a year before we will vote for any presidential candidates. Each candidate has a plan to fix our problems: unemployment or the educational system; immigration or terrorism; foreign policy or military spending; food stamps and same gender marriage. Each candidate describes the world they hope to build for us.
That's not the kind of hope we are talking about.
That's not the kingdom we are talking about.
That's not the life we are hoping for.
The kingdom of God is not a perfect version of the life we already know. It is not our current life without the traffic jams or unexpected drops in the financial markets. The kingdom of God is GOD'S kingdom, and it operates on entirely different set of values, different processes, different understandings of 'success' and 'peace.'
In Advent we watch and wait for the coming of God's kingdom where reconciliation, healing, forgiveness, mercy, open invitation and abundant life are the building blocks of life together and life eternal. It has no resemblance to the world in which we currently live and there are no simple fixes that will correct this world and make it look like that one. It took a cross, a tomb, and a resurrection to open the way to God's new life.
God breaks in. Crashes through the barriers of time and space and comes to us in Jesus and invites us to a different journey and a different life. The perfection we encounter in God invites us into something bigger than we now know.
Jesus is our HOPE and our hope is for his kingdom to come. Come Lord, Jesus.
Dear Lord, remind us of the radical gift of love that is you and nowhere else.
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