The Revolution of God 2: Wholeness

In the last post, I reflected on brokenness as a defining characteristic of humanity, and so therefore also of this revolutionary way of living that Jesus presented/presents to us when he talks about the Kingdom of God. I know that there are lots of questions I left unanswered in my extremely realist description of humanity - like what's the point of even living our livers at all if we aren't to aim for perfection? And so in discussing the other side of the coin - Wholeness - I'd like to try and kind of marry up the two and try and explore how this Godly Revolution can be characterised by both brokenness - broken people, sin, that "something's missing" feeling - and by wholeness - being whole, fulfilled, complete in Jesus.

Like a kind of strange post-modern paradox.

I think that in exploring wholeness, and where that wholeness comes from for us as Jesus followers, we need to talk about hope. For me, this sense of being whole, being complete, is about the future - abouty being fulfilled in Christ in a day and a time yet to come - but also something we can be assured of and certain of. On that day, God will reconcile all things to himself.

And so, it is this hope and the faith that sustains it which form the connection between us, here in the present - our broken, imperfect selves - and this wholeness which we are assured of. Somehow, through faith and hope, this wholeness becomes not only true for the future - but also part of our present. Hey, that sounds quite cool ;-)

In my recent first meeting with my big boss (well, under Yahweh I guess), Bishop Dominic of Monmouth he talked about hope as the "unique selling point" of the church in marketing terms. Plenty of different crazy things in this day and age can offer you purpose, can offer you acceptance, can offer you love - and plenty of them can even do a pretty good job of being genuine about it, and can give you a relatively good return on your investment. But if C.S. Lewis is right and Christianity is of infinite importance, then only following Jesus can give you real, authentic hope.

Think I went off-track a little there... So anyway, hope seems to be this strange "thing" which forms a bridge between our present brokeness and future wholeness - we can realise that wholeness now, but only by faith through hope.

So perhaps it shouldn't be wholeness that is a characteristic of the God revolution - but actually the pursuit of wholeness. We need to be striving for Christ, who is our hope of future glory, future wholeness.

Hopefully that made some sense - took me a couple of days to get round to finishing after my family arrived back from visiting relatives again and with packing and travelling back to Newport. Just arrived back this afternoon ready for a busy day tomorrow. :-)