with Rev Dr Chris Walker
The Future
I have been reflecting on the future: the final future, the medium future and the immediate future. By the final future I mean the ultimate future that Christian faith holds God has in store for us. The medium future is what we anticipate or hope will happen in the coming years or decades. The immediate future is what we plan and work for now.
The final future is the fulfilled reign of God when God’s desire for reconciliation, justice and peace will be realised. Evil will be overcome and suffering will be no more. In writing about the new heaven and new earth, John pictures it as a time when God will dwell with mortals as their God and they will acknowledge God. God will wipe away every tear. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will not be experienced anymore (Revelation 21:3-4). The former things will have given way to the new fulfilled kingdom of God. It is a picture of harmony and fulfilment in which the negative aspects of life will yield to the positive ones. People will enjoy the messianic banquet with Jesus and God. While the new heaven and new earth are eschatological, it is not that these are totally different to life on earth now. It is a transformed heaven and earth rather than some entirely new dimension. This of course is beyond our limited human capacity to fully understand. We hope in faith but do not really know what it will be like. Nevertheless our imaginations can gather something of what is expressed. It provides us with hope for the final future for it is promised by Jesus and will be fulfilled by God. God’s Spirit is at work moving us towards this end.
In relation to the medium future we have projections concerning the coming years or decades. Climate change experts project into the future what it will mean later this century if we continue to have global warming. Ocean levels will rise, storms will increase in intensity and droughts will be more severe. Economic forecasters try to estimate what the coming years will hold but their projections are far less reliable even in relation to the next year. Similarly we can plan ahead in our lives but few have lives that smoothly follow the path that was intended. Churches can do mission planning and seek to move intentionally into five year plans. I have been involved in many of these sessions, though I always stressed that the plans need to be reviewed and it may well be that unanticipated developments require the church to move in a different direction or with a different emphasis. Times change rapidly and what seemed like a good idea at the time may not work out and another idea may need to take its place. This does not rule out looking to the medium future, either for our churches or for our own personal and family lives. It does require being open to adjusting our expectations even in radical ways if need be. If we are open to the Spirit then we should always know that the Spirit cannot be controlled. Rather we need to follow the Spirit’s direction. It is like being in a small sailing boat looking to where the wind is blowing in order to make best use of it.
This is what we need to do in relation to the immediate future. What is the Spirit saying to us and to the churches now? How do we discern the Spirit’s leading? Let me offer some thoughts. It is helpful to have an eye on the final future, the ultimate goal, the fulfilment of God’s purposes. If God is seeking to move us towards the final reconciliation of all things in Christ, if God’s desire is justice and peace and the end of violence and war, if God wants mourning and crying to be no more, then what we do now should be in line with this. Are we supporting reconciliation between opposing groups? Are we those who are concerned about justice? Are we peacemakers? Are we persons of compassion contributing to the alleviation of the pain and distress that people experience? The same applies to our churches. Are they communities of faith seeking to do these kinds of things in bringing the good news of Jesus in word and deed to people? In doing so, they provide help and hope to people.
The medium future I think has a couple of components to it. First, we can seek to be alert to the changes that are taking place in society and are likely to continue. Society has become more individualised and consumer oriented. People are encouraged to seek things for themselves and there is less time given to family and community. Technology has contributed to this. The ubiquity of the mobile telephone, for example, means people are frequently in their own world and relatively oblivious to those around them. The well-being of society is largely depicted in economic terms and people are encouraged to be consumers for their own sake and that of others. Society is also more secular, multi-religious and multi-cultural. This has meant a much more relativistic approach to life. Absolute truth claims are frowned upon. While this means that conversation about faith is not taboo, it does mean that a confessional approach is required in which I share out of my experience rather than assert the truth of Christ being the Son of God for example. Second, we can be responsive to the Spirit in terms of having a more humble approach and be more sensitive and respectful of those of other faiths or none.
In the immediate circumstances we can endeavour to be responsive to the Spirit’s leading. If we practice the Christian disciplines of prayer, bible reading, meditation, worship, confession, Christian conversation etc we will be in a better position to conduct ourselves in appropriate Christ-like ways. The future is not in our hands but God’s. We can however be in line with what God is doing or not. May we and our churches do what we can to be alert to the Spirit and join in God’s missional purposes.
Chris Walker
(National Consultant Christian Unity, Doctrine & Worship)