I have traveled up and down the east coast this summer, grateful to have a Global Positioning System in my car. I installed this handy GPS gadget last year to find my way around Boston. You just type in the address, plug into the satellite, and hope for the best. Turn right, it says, stay left, it commands. And for a little while, a box on my dashboard controls my future. It promises a destination. And that’s not all. You should hear how it handles my mistakes. When I miss a turn and panic, when I am lost and going in the wrong direction, the computer voice calls out calmly, Recalculating. The voice is so civilized, a dramatic contrast to my rising anxiety. Recalculate. I confess that sometimes I talk back and wish I could say that I am equally courteous. But I do follow that computer voice because I want to know where I am going and how to get there.
We all want to know where we are going and how we will get there. And our real questions are much bigger than a road trip. We want to know where our lives are going. Every one of us thinks about the future and our destination. How much life will we have and what will we do with it? We know that death awaits us someday and we wonder what to expect on either side. What does the future hold for us? What is driving it? Who is in charge? What are we required to do about it?
Humanity has been asking these questions about the future since the beginning of time. Where is life going and how will we get there? The major religions of the world revolve around such questions and their underlying tensions. World religions scholar Robert Ellwood writes that religion takes the chaotic complexities of human existence, and causes to emerge of this morass patterns…which help the individual to live in the midst of complexity.* In other words, religion provides a pathway, a lamp to guide our feet as we live with complexity and questions. And in our Christian tradition the path is filled with promises about the future.
Jesus taught that the future is always coming closer. He often described it as the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is not a geographical territory, with armies and protected borders. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual reality where God’s dreams for creation come true. Its borders are expansive and inclusive and all people share fully in God’s grace and bounty. Jesus says that God prepares the Kingdom for us and is pleased to so. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God has not set creation on autopilot but has a destination for us and is pleased with it.
Our future, our destination is the Kingdom of God. So Jesus taught that we should live like people who expect a big opportunity to walk through the door at any moment. Get rid of distractions; remove the clutter in your halls and doorways so that God can enter. Shed the material possessions that distract us. Jesus said that God’s future is always upon us, so be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.
But even as we imagine God’s kingdom, we still struggle with the unknown in our future. Some of us fear it, some of us obsess about it, and still others try to ignore it. None of these feed our souls but they ensnare us. Some years ago a movie came out that parodied a family’s fear of the future. In Blast from the Past, a couple and their child went into their bomb shelter during the Cold War and stayed underground for decades. Needless to say, they missed a lot. Eventually the grown up child stumbled into a modern city through a construction tunnel built above the bomb shelter. The parents were stunned to discover that that the future had gone on without them. The film is quirky, but it makes a point: we cannot deny the future.
At the other extreme, some of us focus on the future so much that we miss a lot of what’s going on now. Perhaps the present is so unsatisfying or painful that our minds are always running ahead to find refuge. Or maybe the burdens of the present distract us from truly experiencing it. When I was a young priest and a new mother, I once listened to a group of retired clergy lament the time they had missed with their children. They had been so busy building a future that they did not fully enjoy their young sons and daughters. By the time they realized it, their children were gone. As I listened to those old men talk I wanted to put my head down and weep. I have never forgotten it and as I have gotten older I have seen easily it can happen. Perhaps some of you experience similar pressure. You may be building a future but missing your own life. Don’t let your focus on the future rob you of the present.
We in the community of faith are not spared the anxieties about the future that everyone else has, but we do have insider knowledge. In fact, we have some precious information about the future that is worth as much as life itself. It is simply this: our future is in God’s hands. No matter how wonderful or how awful the future may be, and despite all of the human frailty that can impact it, ultimately our future is in God’s hands. We know this through our faith.
The Letter to the Hebrews describes faith as the lenses through which we view the future. It says Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It goes on to describe how the lives of our spiritual ancestors were guided by faith. They placed their futures in God’s hands.
Faith is the assurance of what is hoped for yet unseen. The word for assurance used in this letter is not just a form of confidence. It is much more powerful. This Greek word, hypostasis, is also used to describe how Jesus is related to God. Hypostasis describes the very essence or being of something. So this assurance carries an externally realized promise. The very essence of faith becomes part of us. Faith does not just come from inside our head somewhere. Everything we know about it we received from God. We have faith because God is faithful. God had it first and gives it to us. Some people fear losing their faith, like losing a set of car keys, but that is an unnecessary worry. Our faith comes from God before it is woven into our hearts and wills and intellects. It assures us that our future, just like our present, is in God’s hands. Sometimes we want more answers, but we are given more faith instead. It assures us that our future is tethered to God.
But don’t take my word for it. Look at your own life. You have already experienced God in your future. It has brought you here today. It has led you to this time in your life. You do not come alone. Where would you be if God were not with you every step until now? Imagine all that you would have missed. And as you look toward the week or month or year ahead, imagine God walking with you into the unknown. You may not know where you are going or how to get there, but faith in God will give you good directions.
The Letter to the Hebrews describes our spiritual forebears as strangers on the earth who were seeking a homeland. They were seekers who did not have everything figured out on the front end. We are still looking for a homeland. We are no longer nomads and tent dwellers, and we have modern navigational tools that our ancestors would envy. And yet in this modern world of strangers we still seek a spiritual homeland, a place where body and soul can live in communion with God and others. We are lifelong seekers, guided by faith. We gather as the Church to live in expectation of the Kingdom of God.
Your future is in God’s hands. This is the essence of our faith. It is a promise straight from the heart of God and hand-delivered to us by Jesus. So, look up at the stars tonight like Abraham and understand that God’s promise for your future is bigger than anything you can imagine.
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
*Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Many Peoples, Many Faiths |
