“You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” Luke 21:16-19
Jesus doesn’t always paint a serene portrait of what it means to live a faithful life committed to his way of love, his way of service, his way of justice, and his way of self-sacrifice for the life of the world. In the passage from the Gospel of Luke quoted above, Jesus tells it like it is: A life lived faithfully committed to Jesus can put a person way out of sync with the rest of the world, and out of favor with those who would prefer to live life as usual.
Jesus pulls no punches. He keeps it real. BUT…
The core of the Gospel is hope. The Good News of Jesus is always HOPE. Yes, Jesus’ way of love is also the way of the cross. Yes, the way of Jesus can be hard; there is suffering, there is loss; there is sacrifice; there is death. BUT, there is hope, always hope. Jesus’ way of love, the way of the cross, is also the way of the resurrection.
There is an abiding narrative of loss, fear, and helplessness in our churches these days. It is a narrative of shrinking numbers, and a loss of resources, dying community. There is also a narrative of fear, conflict and helplessness in our nation, and even in our world. While it is important for us to name the struggles, the challenges, the losses, and the fears that confront us–it is important to be honest and truthful about the narrative of life in this world; it is even more important that we remember that a narrative of grief and loss will not move us forward. For that, we need a narrative of hope, and hope is the church’s business.
Yes, all that…..but….Jesus is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs (Paschal tropian).
Hope is the narrative that moves the Church forward, that moves life forward, that moves us forward. Let us set our hope on Christ and we shall never hope in vain.
