Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).
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How do you describe paradise? I asked that question on Facebook and learned paradise is:
• “Whatever golf course I happen to be on.”
• “Warm.”
• “Pain-free.”
• “Free from worry and the ‘stuff’ that drags us down.”
• “A place free from temptations; complete contentment.”
• “Family and friends…and a big ol’ BBQ/party that never ends!!!”
• “Standing alone in a mountain stream. The flowers next to the water are blooming. The trout are rising. The birds are singing. My fly line is humming. I am laughing. The trout are smiling, too.”
• “A place where [term] papers don’t exist … and red is a good color.”
• A missionary in Poland wrote, “an A1 Thick-n-Hearty Burger from Whataburger and conversations I can understand.”
• “Life in perfect harmony with God and fellow humankind lived in a perfect creation,” according to a pastor-friend. (Sounds like a pastor, doesn’t it? Who else talks like that?)
Although these descriptions of paradise are all over the map, a common thread is we’re all longing for it. We’re just not sure what “it” is. Another common thread is we know we’re not there—yet. We may not know what paradise is exactly, but we do know this isn’t it. And since this isn’t it, we find ourselves always longing for it.
In the meantime, while we wait, what are we doing with our lives?
{mosimage}As hopeful people longing for paradise, all too often what we do is put our hope in the here and now.
There are two types of people in the world—optimists and pessimists, or utopians and dystopians. Utopians hope in this world and write songs like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and believe we’re moving toward paradise on earth. Dystopians, on the other hand, have little hope and write books like 1984 and Hunger Games and think behind every joy is more oppression and depression.
In the United States, we have two kinds of utopians—Republicans and Democrats. Both are utopian because both believe we can have at least a slice of heaven here on earth. We all want our own slice of heaven, and we don’t want someone else to take it away from us. Or we don’t want to take it away from anyone else, but we don’t know how to make sure everybody gets a slice. So, we have very different ways of getting there.
During the next couple of weeks, Americans will be watching very closely to see what the Republicans and Democrats do with the approaching “fiscal cliff.” Paradise for one side is to go over the cliff in the hope of providing at least a small piece of paradise to those without it, while the other side wants to put on the breaks, fearing their retirement and their childrens’ inheritance—their piece of paradise—will plunge to its doom otherwise.
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But, in making ourselves responsible for paradise, we have lost it.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
And the Spirit says, “To the one who is victorious …”
Ah, yes, victory. But what is victory?
In October, it’s winning the World Series. In November, it’s winning the election. In February, it’s winning the Super Bowl. In the Olympics, it’s winning gold. In keeping up with the Joneses, it’s the newer car, the nicer house, etc. ad nauseum. In education, it’s getting a full ride to the right school. In shopping, it’s the best deal. In parenting, it’s—well, I don’t know, yet. In the stock market, it’s the savviest trade. In medicine, it’s a cure for cancer. In war—well, who really wins a war, anyway?
We’ve allowed the world to define victory for us in every area of life. It’s no wonder we don’t understand what victory is, for the world’s victory is fleeting. The trophy has to be won every year. The Joneses are always moving the bar. A degree is no promise of a job. Stock markets crash. Wars never seem to end, and when one cancer is beat, another crops up.
What, then, is victory?
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
To paraphrase Revelation 2:1-7, the Spirit of the Lord said to the church in Ephesus: “I commend you for your perseverance in hard times and for your deeds, but you have forgotten your love for me. Turn back, and ‘do the things you did at first.’”
What is victory? Victory is to love as Jesus Christ commanded when he told us to love God with everything we have and to love people like we love ourselves, for our actions reveal who it is we love, and Christ will recognize us by it.
“Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify (who) people (belong to) by their actions (Matthew 7:20)
• This love is expressed in the mercy we show others.
• This love is expressed in how we forgive others.
• This love is expressed in how we help the less fortunate, in how we welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned.
• This love that Christ commands of us is a lived love lived right now in the nitty-gritty of a broken world.
• This love is a seen love seen by a watching world longing for paradise while it trudges through this life.
• This love is a victorious love modeled for us by Jesus Christ who laid down his life for us and called us to do the same in this world.
• This love is a hopeful love sharing paradise here and now while we wait.
During this Advent season, as you long for paradise, give your hope away in love.
—Eric Black is pastor of First Baptist Church of Covington.
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