Hope of the World | Following Hope, January 24, 2021

Jesus Christ is the Hope of the world.

Every day we place hope in one another to get through the day, live as a community, and care for one another, and yet, Jesus tells us, and we see in his ministry that to follow him means our hope rests in him and nowhere else. This may sound lofty or church of me to say, but when we proclaim Jesus Christ to be Lord, placing our whole trust in his grace, we are saying that the ways of the world, those who ask for our allegiance and fidelity must take a backseat because have been called by the One in who God chooses to redeem the world.

Jesus Christ is the Hope of the world.

In and through him God reconciled the world. When we choose the ways of this world over the ways of God the faithfulness of Christ stands. The Hope of Christ remains. When our love for one another, when our love for God fails the love of Christ stands. In Christ the Kingdom of God was at hand, inaugurated by his life, death, and resurrection. The invitation given to his first disciples is an invitation to us to be part of the kingdom-building work that began on the banks of the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee.

Jesus gave a simple instruction, “Follow me.”[4] Two words, without much explanation and yet those words have set the course for the church, for generation upon generation of Christians to do one of two things: get it right or get it wrong.

When we get it right, when we drop our nets, reorienting our lives to follow Jesus miraculous things occur. The hungry are fed. The lost are found. Healing begins as divisions are cast aside. Our focus moves towards God and away from others who ask us to follow them.

Jesus gave a simple instruction, but when the church gets that instruction wrong, the results are anything but miraculous or a sign that the Kingdom of God is at hand. What we get wrong is thinking that the Kingdom of God has anything to do with our actions. The church has proven this time and time again, that we cannot follow the simplest instruction- to follow.

To follow Jesus as he fed the hungry on the side of a hill.

To follow Jesus as he stood beside a woman at a well.

To follow Jesus as he healed the sick and invited the marginalized into his Kingdom as honored guests.

To follow Jesus’ call to put our weapons down.

To follow Jesus is to follow the Hope of the world, not storm the castle, secure our own rights, or make anything great. To follow Jesus is to live in the Kingdom of God that is present now and work alongside other disciples as we await the fulfillment of Christ's kingdom.