Faith and Hope: Living Into The Invisble Future

I've said before that hope precedes faith. A faith without hope makes no sense at all. In what, then, would such a faith be? Faith is an action, faith is a physical and historical response to hope. Faith is indeed, if I had to define it, a living-into an invisible reality. It is the active pursuit of a future which is not yet visibly present. In this, faith makes present a future reality. God's Kingdom is indeed just such a reality. It is here by faith in the present but it indeed resides in the future (I believe that I owe this concept to Jurgen Moltmann... correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, as Paul said, "the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing"... Living a life of faith, a life which denies that the world as it is, is the truest reality, simply looks foolish and strange to a world which has fallen to sin and cynicism.

Thus, in this regard, inviting others into our faith is not about sharing cognitive knowledge nor proving historical facts... it's about giving account for "the reason for the hope that is in us" and, ultimately, it's about inviting others to share our hope and then to live their lives by it. And, when the rubber hits the road, that hope is not just about social justice or doctrine, it's about the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Our hope is in Christ and thus our faith is an active pursuit of Jesus Christ.

And so, with our eyes fixed on Christ and his Kingdom, we deny injustice and we deny the curse of sin. We affirm the cross and we affirm peace. We affirm the world that God created and we invite Christ to reign over our hearts, our homes, our wallets, and over our very lives.

The great theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote;
"A faith that really keeps to what is invisible and lives by it, acting as if it were already here, hopes at the same time for the time of fulfillment, of seeing and possessing...A faith that does not hope is sick. it is like a hungry child who does not want to eat or a tired person who does not want to sleep. Humankind hopes as surely as it believes. And it is not a disgrace to hope even beyond measure."(From A Testament to Freedom, page 250... I got it from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, June 9th, page 175)

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