Promises, Promises

Propers: The Second Sunday of Advent, A.D. 2017 B

Homily:

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

To have faith in a promise is already to possess that which has been promised.

If you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the promise will be kept, that the thing or the one promised to you will be waiting for you at the end of your journey, then you already carry it within you—because faith is not blind faith. We do not place our faith in the promise itself but in the one who does the promising. If a true and faithful friend promises something to you, then you know and trust it will be done. It has, in effect, already been taken care of. The promise is yours.

So it is with God. If God promises something to us, it is as if we already possess it. Already, but not yet. We see it, as it were, down the road, waiting for us to arrive. Think of father Abraham, a man who at 75—an age, we are told, “as good as dead”—was promised children and family and a future beyond his wildest imaginings. And he believed this promise. He believed it even as the years continued to tick by, first five, then 10, then 20. With God’s promises getting ever more outlandish and impossible, Abraham continued to believe, because he had faith in the faithfulness of God.

And so at what should have been the end of a ripe old life, it was as if he were born anew, going off on adventures, getting caught up in battles, carving out a land that would become a great nation that would be inherited by a son he had yet to see. When God said, “I will make you the father of many nations,” he already was. Even though it took another quarter century for Isaac even to be born, Abraham became the father of us all the moment that God promised him it would be so.

So it is with us. Jesus has promised us that we will rise from the dead. And not just as we are—not just to continue through this life as it is in dreadful perpetuity—but we will be raised purified and sinless, better versions of ourselves, refined as silver in the furnace, as iron in the forge. We will then be what we were always meant to be: Children of God! Deathless beings, radiant in glory, joyous in exaltation! And we will watch as the shadows melt away, and every wound will be healed, and every tear will be dried, and every tragedy somehow, impossibly, be set right at the last.

And all our sufferings, all our wickedness, all our doubts and dreads and despair, it will all be incinerated in the flames and dissipate as wisps of smoke. Then at last we shall see each other face-to-face, made one again—one humanity, one in God—yet we shall each be perfectly unique, reflecting the glory of our Creator in facets that no other aspect of Creation could replicate or replace. And we yearn for this renewal; we ache for the Resurrection, for the remaking of the world, like a woman wracked with labor pains, writhing and straining and fighting for new life.

Even so, Lord, quickly come! Come set it all right! Come repair our brokenness and burn away our sin and fulfill the promise manifest in Jesus Christ our Lord!

But the years roll by, first decades, then centuries, now millennia. The world still groans. Creation still thrashes about, torn by war, destruction, and disease. And we wonder, When will it be time? When will this all end? When will the promise be fulfilled, so that we can finally be human once again? We wait and we yearn for the promise to be kept. Nor are we the first to do so.

“Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,” writes St Peter to his flock, “that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance … Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

What words are these to the aching heart! We do not know when this will end, Peter writes—Peter, who had seen the Risen Lord in life, touched His scars and shared His Bread. It could be thousands of years from now, or it could be tomorrow. But have faith that God is not slow in keeping His promises, not as some think of slowness. He does not tarry nor delay. He is working even now! Working out plans for our salvation, plans for the salvation of all of humankind! He wants none to perish, no not one! So we must regard the patience of our Lord as salvation—not just working toward salvation but as salvation here and now!

To have faith in a promise is already to possess that which has been promised. So do not despair, Peter writes. Do not think God has forgotten. God is with you even now! Salvation is within you, even now! So live as though the Resurrection were already here! Live as though you were already standing before the Throne of God—for you are. Live as though the world were at peace—for it is. Live as though God sees you without sin or spot or blemish—for He does.

All these things have been promised unto you. Yes, you, specifically! We cannot see them as yet, not with the eyes of flesh, but they are there. The Resurrection awaits us at the end of our journey. Eternal life has already been prepared along our way. We will come home. We will be greeted by the One who loves us, who has always loved us, who made and sustains us, who forgives and renews us, who hates our sin and will burn every last trace of it out from body and soul so that we may be as perfect in the eyes of all as we already are in the eyes of God.

Do not be fooled by the appearance of things, by the appearance of the world, by the appearance of time. You have been promised everything in Creation and beyond—not just all God has, but all that God is. Promised freely, abundantly, absolutely! Promised all the way to hell and back! God does not exist inside time; time exists in Him. He invented it. For Him the future is already the eternal now. So if He promises you something, believe you me, we already have it, beyond the bounds of time and space, beyond the limits of our vision and the weakness of our flesh. God promises and it is done, it is so, period.

My brothers and my sisters: God promises you Him. All of Him. Forever.

Now let us go and live as people who know that this promise is true.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.