What does the outward and visible sign of God’s presence look like?
Ultimately Jesus is that Grace of God, made visible, made physical.
The Beatitudes are about the abiding presence Jesus, the physical visible sign of God’s presence in a world that is collapsing.
What is an outward and visible sign of the world collapsing?
Terrorism. Terrorism in all its many forms, hostages, assassinations, hijackings, bombings, the licit or illicit targeting of civilians by a nation or by a covert non-national group- it is an outward and visible sign of our fallen and falling world.
Terrorists systematically plot the achievement of their goals through violence and destruction, spreading terror, despair, anger and fear to destabilize and dishearten the morale of a population. It has been around in various forms throughout human history. It self propagates readily and rapidly.
They see their ultimate goal as something good, an end that justifies the means.
They are an exaggeration, an inflation, a magnification of the way of the world, the way of power, the way of force, the way of violence, escalation followed through to its ultimate end, the last domino in the domino effect.
We are all on that slippery slope, somewhere along that landslide of power becoming more and more violent.
Terrorists, an outward and visible sign of our inner demons let loose.
The Beatitudes and terrorism make for an interesting contrast.
The Beatitudes, properly understood, are God’s counterterrorism task force, a counterinsurgency, the countermeasure for our descent into damnation, a different way of being in the world, of being for the world.
Now this is interesting, the incarnation of God shows us that the means and the ends are inseparable, in fact the means is the end itself, Jesus is both the means and the end of Gods kingdom. The messenger is the message.
Christian morality is built on the life of Christ, not just his word, but his life. Ends based thinking is nonsensical from the Christian perspective.
The means is the message, the means determines the end. Jesus is the means, Jesus is the end.
The Beatitudes show us what this looks like. They are about a tremendous infectious hope and trust in God, it is so great that force and violence are not necessary, they are renounced.
The meek, the gentle shall inherit the earth, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.
They will win, because they are on God’s side, because they are the sign of Jesus in the world and for the world.
The opposite of terror I believe is hope.
The opposite of a terrorists is what I would call a Hopefullist, those who spread hope, who are gentle, who don’t force their way, but neither compromise their hunger for things to be right, they just keep spreading hope until it is so, persuasion by erosion.
The way of the beatitudes is the way of the Hopefullist, filled with hope in what God in Christ is bringing about, a hope that is ripe, bursting, pregnant and contagious.
The Hopefullist plots and schemes for spreading hope, not terror, building up not tearing down, gentleness not violence.
This is not about blind optimism, it is about hoping in God’s future, God’s project, so much so that we don’t have to have our way, force our way, rather we look for ways, creating opportunities to lend a hand.
Chances our you have met one of these Hopefullists, chances are you didn’t catch their name, they won’t win an award or get press coverage, in most ways they don’t really matter to how the world works, they don’t fit the latest list of hero’s, they move too lightly to make that big of a wake.
The greatest Saints are unsung and unremembered, except by God, which is fine because God is what all of this all about.
They are almost like aliens living secretly among us, spreading the seed of God’s hope wily-nily and without reserve.
A secret and subversive society plotting the delight of the world plotting with gentleness, meekness and great desire.
They will win the earth, they will be satisfied, hope will prevail.
Perhaps it is time to join God’s underground?