Peace amidst the Frenzy

I was just digging through my old RSS files in my mailbox and re-encountered a few nice words from Scot McKnight over on the Jesus Creed blog. First, in the post Where is our hope?, he refers to one of my great influences, David Bosch:

"Our hope is in God. The great South African missiologist, David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission impressed upon many of us that the church’s mission is not in fact the 'church’s' mission but God’s mission. Our calling is to participate in the missio Dei, the mission of God in this world. So, at election time we can use the season to re-align our mission with the mission of God. Therein lies our hope."

Realign our mission with God's mission. A wonderful idea in it simplicity and truth. Some will be disappointed come the close of the day November 4, and some will be elated. When my real and unwavering hope is aligned with God and not the victory of a party or person, I will never be dismayed.

Placing hope in people has always been a fateful trap. Roll back through the kingdoms which have fallen and the rulers of the empires which have become little more than curiosities today. Pyramids, tombs, ruins, dead languages and cave drawings all point to a past which has only become speculation (faith+scientific method). If I am going to speculate (faith+witness+experience), I'd rather it be in something that endures. There will come a day when people will look back on the office of the president and speculate as to what and who they were, for that office will only be a memory. So when Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 13:
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"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

I don't believe he was speaking of faith, hope and love in people. The faith, hope and love of people (God's children) in an abundant and grace-filled God is what the world needs the church to be. And come November 5, 2008 or January 20, 2009 and every day after that, I need to direct my life and ways in that faith, hope and love.

And McKnight concurs in an earlier post; a letter in response to one from a reader.

"... on November 5 I will get up and go about my business no matter who gets elected. There will be people who need to hear about Jesus; there will be people who are suffering from systemic injustices; there will be people abusing power; there will be good reasons to drink coffee and eat lunch with colleagues and prepare dinner and go for a walk with Kris before supper. Changing Presidents will not end those needs and those problems and those parts of my life. So, my task as a Christian is to follow Jesus by loving God and loving others as well as I can. Changing Presidents won’t change that one bit. I don’t see that either candidate has the intent of depriving us of these things."

God is still going to be God when the election is over, when the war is over, when the recession is over, and when the world is over. There is nothing that can change that and there is nothing that will stop that. Again, from Paul (Read all of Romans 8 for more on being in the flesh):
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"If God is for us, who is against us? ... Who is to condemn? ... Who will separate us from the love of Christ? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

As am I.