A Future Expected
A panel on Friday’s NPR “Morning Edition”
was discussing the roots of the current financial crisis.
After batting around a few ideas,
all the panelists agreed with one member’s summary.
He said, “We still don’t understand everything, but one thing we know for sure.
Too many people borrowed too heavily on a future that did not materialize.”1
“They borrowed too heavily on a future that did not materialize.”
It’s a sobering assessment.
Psychologists would tell us, and rightly so,
that happiness is more likely to come to us when we learn to live in the present.
But we can’t ignore the fact that most of our choices and our commitments
are clearly affected by the kind of future we envision for ourselves.
Most of us have the tendency as a fallible human beings
to envision a future for ourselves
that is nowhere near the future God envisions for us
It’s true. If we’re honest, the future we envision for ourselves is often pretty pitiful.
Compared to God’s vision for us anything we come up with
it’s like comparing vanilla pudding to a wedding cake;
or a comic book to Moby Dick.
The future we envision for ourselves usually comes nowhere near
adequately reflecting the full, rich, multi-layered, multi-textured,
all-encompassing grandeur of the gospel.
If anything it’s more likely to reflect the pop-psychology of talk show hosts
and the self-serving prognostications of financial consultants and political pundits.
Our scripture lessons today are passages written some six hundred years apart
but they are both written to people for whom the future seems is uncertain.
The passage in Isaiah is written to Jews who’d been living in exile in Babylon.
King Cyrus and the Persian army have routed the Babylonians
and the decree has come that the Jews can go home – back to Jerusalem.
Theoretically this is good news – a victory has been accomplished.
But practically what the Jews are being told
is that they should leave behind them the only life many of them have known;
a life into which they have become fully assimilated;
and return to a city – Jerusalem – that is in ruins
and live among people who may not be too excited to see them.
The opening verses of Mark’s gospel describe the first days of Jesus’ ministry
and the role of John the Baptist as his forerunner.
But what we’ve got to remember is that these words are written by Mark
some forty years after Jesus’ death -
written to a tiny Christian community, many of whom are Jews,
who have just heard about the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Neither audience – not the Jews in Babylon nor the early Christians
have any reason to envision much in the way of a future for themselves
based on current events and a realistic assessment of the present situation.
But Isaiah and Mark both write as though victory is theirs;
as though they cannot imagine a better time to be alive.
God’s hand is at work, they both proclaim,
and the future ahead of those who are called and empowered by God,
has never been brighter.
This is the second Sunday of Advent,
and even though the way we celebrate this season
mostly involves looking back 2000 years to remember Jesus’ birth,
Advent really should be more about looking forward into the future;
about mining the scripture for signs of what God has in store for us
AND choosing whether we want to be a part of that future.
The season of Advent reminds us that God calls us toward a particular future,
but we have to be deliberate in responding to that call.
It’s not automatic.
The choices we make, the priorities we set, the impulses we indulge
have a way of catapulting us onto a particular future track, like it or not,
and if we don’t make these choices consciously
we could very well end up betting heavily on a future that does not materialize.
If we forget God, if we choose the future we want to live into without scripture;
without the wisdom of 2000 years of church life together
we tend to make one of two big mistakes.
The first mistake we make is we choose a future that’s too shallow.
What I mean is that it’s all too tempting to choose a future with only one thing in mind
– our financial security.
You know what I mean.
We focus everything on building that retirement nest egg,
we give our children every advantage our money can buy,
and if, along the way our relationships suffer,
that seems at the time a small price to pay to be financially comfortable.
But it’s no secret that when Isaiah and Mark talk about God’s future
part of that future always involves a wilderness experience.
In Mark the people are explicitly called to meet John in the wilderness.
In Isaiah there is no way back to Jerusalem except through the wilderness.
We can’t buy our way out of the wilderness, no matter how much money we have.
We can only pass through it,
And the good news of the gospel is that under God’s guidance
the wilderness doesn’t destroy us.
In fact, in God’s hands, it’s the wilderness experiences we have that most often
give our lives meaning and purpose.
How can we know joy without sadness?
How can we know the satisfaction of success without first knowing struggle?
So, one mistake is thinking that comfort is our main goal
and that we can achieve it if we make enough money.
The second mistake is like the first.
The second mistake is thinking we can achieve comfort
if we select a future that doesn’t require too much of us.
If the first mistake is that we choose a future too shallow.
The second mistake is that we choose a future far too small.
Choosing a future too small has nothing to do with whether you travel the world
or never leave the town of your birth.
It has nothing to do with whether you climb Mt. Everst
or dedicate your life to caring for an ailing parent or a child with special needs.
By choosing a future too small I mean choosing a future that never asks you to change
or that never requires you to put the needs of another ahead of your own,
or that never asks you to keep a promise even if that promise proves inconvenient.
It is a mistake to choose a future
in which we try to keep ourselves untouched by anyone else’s expectations.
The future God chooses for us won’t let us get away with isolating ourselves.
God chooses for us a big future in which we are both accountable and connected.
God’s future for John the Baptist was for him to wear funny clothes
and eat strange food,
and say things to people they didn’t always want to hear.
And God’s future for those whom he called to John
was that they should repent of their sins – come clean, so to speak,
and together become a part of God’s new creation as followers of Jesus.
When you allow yourself to live into the future God has for you
just accept the fact that you will immediately stick out
as different from those who have chosen
for themselves a future too shallow or too small.
Some will shake their heads at what they consider your lack of responsibility,
as you choose to give away your money instead of hoard it,
or refuse to panic as Wall Street’s fortunes wane.
Others may admonish you for being too involved, for caring too much,
for choosing to stand by your commitments
even when others would have long since walked away.
I was reading the latest Elon University magazine this week
and I ran across an article about an alumnus, Dr. Aiah Gbakima
that seems a perfect illustration of someone who has chosen to live into God’s future.2
Dr. Gbakima battled poverty and disease as a child in Sierra Leone.
Most of the people in his hometown suffer from river blindness,
a disease carried by river-breeding flies.
He himself contracted the disease just before coming to the United States
to pursue a college degree.
Fortunately, with quick treatment he was cured of the disease
without any permanent damage to his sight.
Gbakima could have pursued a future of financial security.
He did well enough in school, earning a PhD from UNC.
He could have pursued a future of self-protection and
decided to isolate himself from poverty and disease of his childhood
that could only serve to drag him down.
But Gbakima sensed a calling, a future neither too shallow nor too small.
He earned his degree in immunoparasitology and is now vice chancellor
of the University of Sierra Leone where he continues to find better ways
to fight river blindness among his people.
He continues to go back to the wilderness of poverty and disease and civil war
because he has glimpsed the power of God’s future.
This Advent I urge you not to bet too heavily on a future
that has no chance to materialize.
But instead I urge you to consider God’ future for your life.
This is only the beginning of the good new of Jesus Christ, Son of God
Whether you are 9 or 90 God’s has plans for you.
______
1 Where Did the Money in the Housing Market Go? NPR “Morning Edition.” December 5, 2008.
2 Chapman, Julie, For Love of Country: Aiah Gbakima Fights to Save His Homeland, The Magazine of Elon,
p. 11, Fall, 2008.
was discussing the roots of the current financial crisis.
After batting around a few ideas,
all the panelists agreed with one member’s summary.
He said, “We still don’t understand everything, but one thing we know for sure.
Too many people borrowed too heavily on a future that did not materialize.”1
“They borrowed too heavily on a future that did not materialize.”
It’s a sobering assessment.
Psychologists would tell us, and rightly so,
that happiness is more likely to come to us when we learn to live in the present.
But we can’t ignore the fact that most of our choices and our commitments
are clearly affected by the kind of future we envision for ourselves.
Most of us have the tendency as a fallible human beings
to envision a future for ourselves
that is nowhere near the future God envisions for us
It’s true. If we’re honest, the future we envision for ourselves is often pretty pitiful.
Compared to God’s vision for us anything we come up with
it’s like comparing vanilla pudding to a wedding cake;
or a comic book to Moby Dick.
The future we envision for ourselves usually comes nowhere near
adequately reflecting the full, rich, multi-layered, multi-textured,
all-encompassing grandeur of the gospel.
If anything it’s more likely to reflect the pop-psychology of talk show hosts
and the self-serving prognostications of financial consultants and political pundits.
Our scripture lessons today are passages written some six hundred years apart
but they are both written to people for whom the future seems is uncertain.
The passage in Isaiah is written to Jews who’d been living in exile in Babylon.
King Cyrus and the Persian army have routed the Babylonians
and the decree has come that the Jews can go home – back to Jerusalem.
Theoretically this is good news – a victory has been accomplished.
But practically what the Jews are being told
is that they should leave behind them the only life many of them have known;
a life into which they have become fully assimilated;
and return to a city – Jerusalem – that is in ruins
and live among people who may not be too excited to see them.
The opening verses of Mark’s gospel describe the first days of Jesus’ ministry
and the role of John the Baptist as his forerunner.
But what we’ve got to remember is that these words are written by Mark
some forty years after Jesus’ death -
written to a tiny Christian community, many of whom are Jews,
who have just heard about the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Neither audience – not the Jews in Babylon nor the early Christians
have any reason to envision much in the way of a future for themselves
based on current events and a realistic assessment of the present situation.
But Isaiah and Mark both write as though victory is theirs;
as though they cannot imagine a better time to be alive.
God’s hand is at work, they both proclaim,
and the future ahead of those who are called and empowered by God,
has never been brighter.
This is the second Sunday of Advent,
and even though the way we celebrate this season
mostly involves looking back 2000 years to remember Jesus’ birth,
Advent really should be more about looking forward into the future;
about mining the scripture for signs of what God has in store for us
AND choosing whether we want to be a part of that future.
The season of Advent reminds us that God calls us toward a particular future,
but we have to be deliberate in responding to that call.
It’s not automatic.
The choices we make, the priorities we set, the impulses we indulge
have a way of catapulting us onto a particular future track, like it or not,
and if we don’t make these choices consciously
we could very well end up betting heavily on a future that does not materialize.
If we forget God, if we choose the future we want to live into without scripture;
without the wisdom of 2000 years of church life together
we tend to make one of two big mistakes.
The first mistake we make is we choose a future that’s too shallow.
What I mean is that it’s all too tempting to choose a future with only one thing in mind
– our financial security.
You know what I mean.
We focus everything on building that retirement nest egg,
we give our children every advantage our money can buy,
and if, along the way our relationships suffer,
that seems at the time a small price to pay to be financially comfortable.
But it’s no secret that when Isaiah and Mark talk about God’s future
part of that future always involves a wilderness experience.
In Mark the people are explicitly called to meet John in the wilderness.
In Isaiah there is no way back to Jerusalem except through the wilderness.
We can’t buy our way out of the wilderness, no matter how much money we have.
We can only pass through it,
And the good news of the gospel is that under God’s guidance
the wilderness doesn’t destroy us.
In fact, in God’s hands, it’s the wilderness experiences we have that most often
give our lives meaning and purpose.
How can we know joy without sadness?
How can we know the satisfaction of success without first knowing struggle?
So, one mistake is thinking that comfort is our main goal
and that we can achieve it if we make enough money.
The second mistake is like the first.
The second mistake is thinking we can achieve comfort
if we select a future that doesn’t require too much of us.
If the first mistake is that we choose a future too shallow.
The second mistake is that we choose a future far too small.
Choosing a future too small has nothing to do with whether you travel the world
or never leave the town of your birth.
It has nothing to do with whether you climb Mt. Everst
or dedicate your life to caring for an ailing parent or a child with special needs.
By choosing a future too small I mean choosing a future that never asks you to change
or that never requires you to put the needs of another ahead of your own,
or that never asks you to keep a promise even if that promise proves inconvenient.
It is a mistake to choose a future
in which we try to keep ourselves untouched by anyone else’s expectations.
The future God chooses for us won’t let us get away with isolating ourselves.
God chooses for us a big future in which we are both accountable and connected.
God’s future for John the Baptist was for him to wear funny clothes
and eat strange food,
and say things to people they didn’t always want to hear.
And God’s future for those whom he called to John
was that they should repent of their sins – come clean, so to speak,
and together become a part of God’s new creation as followers of Jesus.
When you allow yourself to live into the future God has for you
just accept the fact that you will immediately stick out
as different from those who have chosen
for themselves a future too shallow or too small.
Some will shake their heads at what they consider your lack of responsibility,
as you choose to give away your money instead of hoard it,
or refuse to panic as Wall Street’s fortunes wane.
Others may admonish you for being too involved, for caring too much,
for choosing to stand by your commitments
even when others would have long since walked away.
I was reading the latest Elon University magazine this week
and I ran across an article about an alumnus, Dr. Aiah Gbakima
that seems a perfect illustration of someone who has chosen to live into God’s future.2
Dr. Gbakima battled poverty and disease as a child in Sierra Leone.
Most of the people in his hometown suffer from river blindness,
a disease carried by river-breeding flies.
He himself contracted the disease just before coming to the United States
to pursue a college degree.
Fortunately, with quick treatment he was cured of the disease
without any permanent damage to his sight.
Gbakima could have pursued a future of financial security.
He did well enough in school, earning a PhD from UNC.
He could have pursued a future of self-protection and
decided to isolate himself from poverty and disease of his childhood
that could only serve to drag him down.
But Gbakima sensed a calling, a future neither too shallow nor too small.
He earned his degree in immunoparasitology and is now vice chancellor
of the University of Sierra Leone where he continues to find better ways
to fight river blindness among his people.
He continues to go back to the wilderness of poverty and disease and civil war
because he has glimpsed the power of God’s future.
This Advent I urge you not to bet too heavily on a future
that has no chance to materialize.
But instead I urge you to consider God’ future for your life.
This is only the beginning of the good new of Jesus Christ, Son of God
Whether you are 9 or 90 God’s has plans for you.
______
1 Where Did the Money in the Housing Market Go? NPR “Morning Edition.” December 5, 2008.
2 Chapman, Julie, For Love of Country: Aiah Gbakima Fights to Save His Homeland, The Magazine of Elon,
p. 11, Fall, 2008.
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