For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation
to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the
present age to live lives that are self-controlled upright, and godly,
while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for
us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a
people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
One of the many debates I had with professors in seminary was focused
on this passage. The question was built around how we understood God’s
redemptive acts: is salvation FOR all people or did God appear TO all
people. The question has continued with me as I never found peace with
any conclusion. Yet peace is what is found when we’re willing to live
with that ambiguity, and this scripture gets right to the point of why
that is.
“While we wait.”
“While we wait” is a term that we’ve all heard in some form: “While
we wait for permission to take off, please listen to your flight
attendants as they review the safety instructions of this aircraft,” or
maybe when we were young, “While we wait for dinner why don’t you go
wash your hands.”
Waiting is a hard thing for us in this culture. We want to get to the
point, get to a conclusion, get to a destination. A couple of days ago
we GOT there as Christians! Christ is Born! Christmas happened! WOOOO!
Okay, but now again, we wait. We wait, and we’re told to do things we
know we should do, but don’t always (I know I don’t listen to safety
instructions nor did I often wash my hands) while we wait. We wait for
“Thy Kingdom Come.” A Kingdom that Jesus always referred to in the
present tense. Well if we’re here, and it’s here, then what are we
waiting for?
We’re waiting on us. Waiting for us to do the beautiful things that
need to be done. That’s what good deeds are, they are the beautiful
things that need to be done. Beautiful things like justice, mercy, and
humbleness. Beautiful things like love. Beautiful things like peace.
Beautiful things like joy. Beautiful things like hope. Beautiful things
that make us all live into that image in which we are created.
Beautiful things were done on Christmas, beautiful things need to be done today.
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