Our Markers: Wholeness
August 22nd, 2013 | John Chandler
On Thursdays, we are reflecting on our Markers, which we talked through at our one of our first Cultivate gatherings. These are shared understandings that form our life together and guide what we do.
The second of these markers is Wholeness, and our description of it reads like this:
While we see the work of God in this world, we also hold a deep understanding that not everything is as it should be. God is not finished with the story. In the structures of our world and in our own lives, we see brokenness. But we hope. We long for the final redemption when God will join a new heaven and a new earth together in the ultimate act of restoration. Until then, we choose to live in the Way of Jesus because we believe that is how we will see life flourish in our souls, our homes, our community, our world and in creation.
If we are able to look backward through history to see God at work, than we look forward with expectation, with hope, that God’s work is not done. A glance in any direction, inward, outward, and all around, tells us that there is plenty more redemption, repair, and renewal to be done.
So we turn our faith forward, expecting that God’s ongoing entry into broken places is not done, but perpetual. We anticipate an end of the story where everything is set right once again. We read how the story ends with heaven and earth joining in a city filled with Life and absent of Death. And we long for this wholeness.
We also turn this forward longing toward ourselves. As we see the work God has yet to do in all of creation, we see that each of us is broken as well, in need of mending. We submit ourselves to the invitation of the Spirit to life. We enter into this work knowing that at times it will be refreshing, and at times difficult, but with an intent to be wholly human as God created us to be.
So, as a community, we live in the tension of knowing and loving one another as we are, all the while inviting and encouraging one another toward who we were meant to be. We love and welcome everyone, but also covent together to call one another toward the fullness and richness of Life as it was created to be.