“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do
not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and
glorious joy, for you are receiving
the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Vss. 8-9
“Jesus, the reason for the
season”. It irritates me that we have to
go back to such basics to define Christmas.
There is desperation in this expression as Christmas gets taken up by
the popular culture.
We have not seen Jesus, we won’t
see him now, but we will love him, we will believe in him and rejoice. Such is the basic expression of our emotional
connection to Jesus. Rejoicing with
indescribable and glorious joy, that comes from someplace. We ‘are receiving’ the outcome of our faith.
We receive the full outcome of
our faith at the end of time. This is
the ‘past, present, and implicit future’ in this sentence. We have not seen Jesus, Jesus is not with us
now, but still we love, still we believe, still we rejoice, all of which is the
outcome of our faith that shall be brought upon us in the future.
Peter has just spoken of
surviving, and even thriving, in the trials that come upon us because of our
faith. The genuineness of our faith is
revealed, the precious gold, which comes in full measure “in praise and glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
There is a great
shorthand for this, the “already-not yet” of Jesus. It is already
here but it is not yet fully
realized. The joy is so powerful, we can
taste it. But, in this sinful world, we
will get pulled back into the fetid swamp of humdrum existence. Except the outcome of our faith can power us
up to overcome the current sinful world for our Lord and for our
community.
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