There is a particular device used for dramatic effect in literary narrative and cinematic narrative; in Latin the phrase is in medias res. In medias res. It means roughly ‘into the midst of things,’ and is used to define or describe a story where you are immediately dropped into a scene often of immense danger, daring or drama— it could be incredible heartbreak, phenomenal loss, the chaos of conflict as bullets are flying, bombs are dropping, grenades exploding. Or maybe even the sun-drenched fields of victory. That is in medias res …and that is where most of us find ourselves not only in relation to our King and His Conflict, but in relation to the very Gospel itself! We’re not too sure how we got to where we are… and we’re not too sure if where we are is of any value to the Larger Story.
This is the point where we look for the camera to begin moving up and away from the action, for the author to begin flashing back in his protagonist’s mind, i.e., for the Story-teller to begin building piece by piece, memory by memory, a context, a setting, for the scene into which we were dropped. Here is where the apostle Paul steps onstage to show us a Gospel whose Message is cosmic in scope and epic in breadth. And to tell us, since we have such a difficult time discerning this for ourselves, that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the Creation waits in eager expectation for the Children of God to be revealed. For the Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the Children of God” {Rom. 8:18-21}.
A huge part of the problem in our post-modern perspective is the highly-individualized Gospel we’ve been given, a hyper-personal message of hyper-personal redemption requiring hyper-personal response. And there is an element of truth to this hyper-personalization…. However, as with everything we get our greedy little paws on here in America, we have turned the Story of the Redemption and Restoration of a fallen Creation into an over-individualized message about our happiness, our peace, our personal fulfillment, the power of ‘just a bit of Jesus’ applied to our financial ambitions!
Notice, however, the power and the glory Jesus has in store for His fallen Creation. It will be “brought into the glorious freedom of the Children of God.” …Yes, that’s precisely what a fallen world is waiting on, eagerly. Creation is groaning under the Curse, and all the while looking, longing, laboring toward the Day when her Rightful King will return and return her to being right! To the Day when Jesus the Hammer of God will remove every stain and stench of sin, every ounce of brokenness, when He will heal every hurt and bind every wound, scouring bitterness and betrayal from the very face of the Earth. That’s the Day which puts it all in perspective. “Behold”— yes, behold my friends, behold and believe— “I am making all things new” {Rev. 21:5a}.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
To Know and Be Known
Ever had a conversation with a family member, a friend, even someone you deeply and romantically love, only to come away with the realization that those who are supposed to know you best …really don’t know you at all? There is an incredible yearning in the human heart, a core desire driving away at us, to know and be known— our hearts full and joyous with knowledge of another, our souls complete in some way, whole in some way, because of the intimate knowledge another possesses. This, I believe, is a divine desire: an illustration of what Solomon meant when he said, “He has ...set Eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” {Eccl. 3:11b}.
I don’t think it’s a joyless resignation to say no matter how passionately we pursue this goal it will never be finally fulfilled in Time. In fact, in a fallen world full of fallen wills {Rom. 8:18-25}, it’s not even possible to have it fulfilled now. Not in the sense for which Abba intended it, not in the way in which it will be when we stand before our King, our Hero, the Savior and Lover of our souls, and He peers right through our eyes and into the very core of our being, past all the lies and hypocrisy, past all the posing and posturing, past all our jockeying for positions of prominence in His Kingdom, past the wounds, the weariness, the hurts and betrayals, past the long nights of loneliness and sunny days of short-lived bliss, past every moment we excluded Him from because ‘we had it all together’— locked down, buttoned up, retirement socked away, money in the mattress, another man or woman waiting in the wings to replace the one we’re with— past all the details and distractions which deceived us for decades on end, keeping us from laying our hearts in humility at his feet. Past all the rhetoric and straight to the reality of you …of me …of us.
Scripture paints for us this magnificent picture of a deeply relational reality to come in 1 Corinthians 13:12. The Apostle writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now [‘at this moment,’ in this day, in this Age] I know in part; then [in the Eternity to come] I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Mmmhhhhmm… that’s it. “I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” This what we’ve been searching for all our days, this is the fleeting shadow, the ever-elusive prey we’ve been trying to capture in every conversation, every fumbling attempt at friendship, every intimate encounter of our lives. This.
There is a moment in the Ages of Eternity when, “face to face” with the Lord of Glory, we will know Him as He has always known us. Try and grasp just for a moment the depth of intimacy and understanding being expressed here. A knowledge of God unlike anything you can possibly imagine in Time, and a ‘being known’ by God, by a kind and compassionate Presence, a strong and loving Other, a perfect and powerful Father. To “know fully, even as I am fully known.” And what we’ve looked for all our days, what we’ve longed for all our lives, hour after hour, hammering away at volume after volume of Scripture, theology, spirituality, ethics, the technicalities of Greek and Hebrew, devotional materials as rich as rainfall and doctrinal materials as dry as August dust, will finally be ours. A communion with our Creator beyond anything even approachable in Time: Eden come again, Paradise regained.
This is the world we were made for… this is the Life we were meant to live… this is our destiny, to be eternally surrendering ourselves to Perfection, endlessly submersing our wills in the Water of Life. This is who we’ll be and where we’ll be— forevermore.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
I don’t think it’s a joyless resignation to say no matter how passionately we pursue this goal it will never be finally fulfilled in Time. In fact, in a fallen world full of fallen wills {Rom. 8:18-25}, it’s not even possible to have it fulfilled now. Not in the sense for which Abba intended it, not in the way in which it will be when we stand before our King, our Hero, the Savior and Lover of our souls, and He peers right through our eyes and into the very core of our being, past all the lies and hypocrisy, past all the posing and posturing, past all our jockeying for positions of prominence in His Kingdom, past the wounds, the weariness, the hurts and betrayals, past the long nights of loneliness and sunny days of short-lived bliss, past every moment we excluded Him from because ‘we had it all together’— locked down, buttoned up, retirement socked away, money in the mattress, another man or woman waiting in the wings to replace the one we’re with— past all the details and distractions which deceived us for decades on end, keeping us from laying our hearts in humility at his feet. Past all the rhetoric and straight to the reality of you …of me …of us.
Scripture paints for us this magnificent picture of a deeply relational reality to come in 1 Corinthians 13:12. The Apostle writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now [‘at this moment,’ in this day, in this Age] I know in part; then [in the Eternity to come] I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Mmmhhhhmm… that’s it. “I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” This what we’ve been searching for all our days, this is the fleeting shadow, the ever-elusive prey we’ve been trying to capture in every conversation, every fumbling attempt at friendship, every intimate encounter of our lives. This.
There is a moment in the Ages of Eternity when, “face to face” with the Lord of Glory, we will know Him as He has always known us. Try and grasp just for a moment the depth of intimacy and understanding being expressed here. A knowledge of God unlike anything you can possibly imagine in Time, and a ‘being known’ by God, by a kind and compassionate Presence, a strong and loving Other, a perfect and powerful Father. To “know fully, even as I am fully known.” And what we’ve looked for all our days, what we’ve longed for all our lives, hour after hour, hammering away at volume after volume of Scripture, theology, spirituality, ethics, the technicalities of Greek and Hebrew, devotional materials as rich as rainfall and doctrinal materials as dry as August dust, will finally be ours. A communion with our Creator beyond anything even approachable in Time: Eden come again, Paradise regained.
This is the world we were made for… this is the Life we were meant to live… this is our destiny, to be eternally surrendering ourselves to Perfection, endlessly submersing our wills in the Water of Life. This is who we’ll be and where we’ll be— forevermore.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
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