These days, it is more fashionable than I've heard in a long time, to be pessimistic. Uncertain world events, serious political differences on the home front, threatening national debt with a struggling economy. Sometimes we feel that our pronouncements of pessimism somehow express our insight and enlightenment about the darkness of our days. But to express this deep level of pessimism as Christians, may suggest that our Hope is not Jesus - but is actually in world events and governments. It may suggest that our faith is not so much in the God who is over all these circumstances, but in the circumstances themselves. This is not Christian, it's pessimism. This can become our god if we're not vigilant.
Indeed the unfortunate headlines printed day after day serve as continual indicators of the hurting nature of this world - the very reason for which Jesus came. He, the one victorious after injustice, patient in opposition, loving after rejection, risen after buried! That's our story, that's our headline, that's our news and it is our hope. Time to transfer your hope from world events to the resurrection of Jesus? Maybe. Maybe.
Jill Carritini writes, "The greatest physician has confronted the pains of the world with a stark diagnosis but with a most promising remedy. The resurrection means Christ has announced the arrival of a kingdom that confronts our infectious despair, calling us further up and farther into the world where God reigns, and we are ever the harbingers of this good news."
There you go.
