The Good News • January 2009

The Future

St. John's Church is all about the future because our sacred writings and sacred memories are all about the future. What about the future?

The New Testament Greek actually has two words which mean "future." The first is "futura," and it's the word that is popular in our time. It means "forecasting." Economists look at the data over the past 50 years and try to predict next year. People who study weather do the same; also the scientifically trained climatologists inform us about global warming. It's important to look at trends.

There is another word for future which is different from "forecasting" or "trends." The word is "adventus." Our word "adventure" captures its meaning.

A song from the musical West Side Story gets at this meaning:

Who knows
Could be
There is something due any day
I will know right away
Soon as it shows.
Who Knows

Many things have not been revealed. Perhaps they wait for us to catch up. There are breathtaking, miraculous "happenings" not yet seen, often not looked for. Faith looks ahead, wide-eyed.

Moses is still ushering children across the sea and out of bondage, inviting us, demanding really, that we leave bondage behind, too, especially the ubiquitous forms like greed, narcissism, and the worldliness which is consuming because our deepest hope is not engaged if not balanced with spirit. Our deepest need and hope is to be engaged with God.

Jesus is still saving us and the world. We meet him always ahead our lives. We go forth. We are sent forward. We claim our faith, refusing to shrink back, confident that some day God will be all-in-all.

Everyone has the power to doubt divine things and often they do. Christ has the power to save what is lost and to make all things new. This work goes on through us or around us. Best if it goes through us, then.

We are blessed!

John