Hope and History

This Monday morning, an excerpt of classic Moltmann theology for you:

“If one hopes for the sake of Christ in the future of God and the ultimate liberation of the world, he cannot passively wait for this future, and, like the apocalyptic believers, withdraw from the world.  Rather he must seek this future, strive for it, and already here be in correspondence to it in the active renewal of life and of the conditions of life, and therefore realize it already here according to the measure of possibilities.  Because this future is the future of one God, it is a unique and unifying future.  Because it brings eschatological liberation, it is the salvation of the whole enslaved creation.  The messianic future for which Christianity arouses hope is no special future for the church or for the soul alone.  It is an all-encompassing future.  As all-encompassing future, its power of hope is able to mediate faith to earthly needs and to lead it into real life.”

Discipleship, or the act of following Jesus so that your life can look more like his life, is the process of practicing the art of being “in correspondence” to the future of God.  Tall order, but a beautiful calling.