Christian hope is not idealistic in the sense of being unattainable desire. It doesn't make sense that any hope should be unattainable desire. In our hearts, the idea that hopeful things cannot be reached often creeps in; in cynicism we criticise ourselves and others as wanting too much and wanting impossible things. God asks us to open our mouths and He will fill them (or else it was hands, but bear with me), so why should we not be even radically hopeful? Do we believe He exists? I see Satan's influence creeping in when we are not incredibly hopeful, so hopeful that we seem insane to those weighed down and blinded by cynicism.
Still, though I said that about radical hopefulness, I believe that hope is, should be, realistic longing and yearning. The thing we hope in ought to be possible, indeed. The thing that makes it look radical is that the possibilities we as Christians believe in look fairytale-ish from our earthly standpoint.
Ultimately Christian hope looks forward, believing that 'Death is swallowed up in Victory.' In fact, the hope of the Christian is like believing it has happened, as if stepping into the Eternal Moment that C. S. Lewis talks about, seeing all things stretched out underneath, the Map of the History of Reality laid out so that the End (new Beginning) can be seen. Perhaps that is because the Spirit in us brings us up into that knowledge, into the certainty of the is-but-not-yet, this story's perfect ending.
I feel as if, because of my affluent life here, I see this vision more imperfectly. To those who really suffer greatly, the fact that there needs to be justice (that good ending) is stark. It seems that due to affluence, the Western church has largely lost needing to be radically like Christ. The church lost its zeal, and must recover it.
So I ask Christians: Do we believe in God and all of Who He is, and what that means? Do we believe in the story He tells us about Himself, us and Reality? Do we, if the answer to the first question is yes, have that hope in the trajectory? It is our fire. God, His thereness, is our great fuel.
This was a great read, very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteI think that I understand the logic of belief->hope->zeal, unless I didn't read carefully enough.
And I'm wondering that if what happened in western churches, is that the circuit was shorted by loss of belief caused by first not needing a source of explanation(scientism...) then loss of need for hope(luxury/lack of suffering). But would you agree that maybe an emerging way to repair the circuit is the need for hope reemerging/collapse in material satisfaction then resulting in a seeking after a better source of hope and openness to belief? Or rather, to help people to see the hollowness of whatever their trying to use as an ersatz source of true hope as a repair method.
(I'm so sorry I missed this for so long- Blogger was not notifying me of comment approving.)
DeleteI love that you bring this up! You have articulated something I have been feeling in the back of my mind since I was a child but knew was so out of vogue now that I hardly thought on it.
Yes- I agree that it seems that we lost our belief because of the loss of the 'need' for it. Stories from the third world, and any other desperate circumstances, highlight this. Their faith is always much, much stronger than ours because they actually have to face the Fall, and human sin in themselves and others. The stories are incredibly inspiring (as well as painful to hear, as well they should be).
The method we have when people have not been driven to the point of need is to show the hollowness. I think that there is need in our culture right now; there's a need for meaning, for a sense of beauty and joy (I like to say 'Narnian joy' because those books exemplify it well).
We have become complacent here... I have even become complacent. This blog was partly an attempt to awaken the spark in me... which is very, very hard to do without collaboration with others who feel the need similarly.