My husband is a diehard Cubs fan. His mom’s cousin, Doug Dascenzo, played for the Cubs. As a kid he would go to games, sit behind home plate, and hang out in the dug out. He even has a couple of bats signed by the whole team. So once we recovered from the epic Game Seven of the World Series, our whole family headed three hours over to Chicago to watch the victory parade.
We stayed with friends in the northern suburbs and took the “L” down. We got to the Magnificent Mile just as they were closing off southbound traffic and opening up the median for onlookers. We got a front row seat to what is being proclaimed as the 7th largest gathering in recorded history. We, along with 5 million other fans, rejoiced in the good news of the Cubs’ first World Series win in over a century.
It was so fun to be part of the celebration. I’ve never heard so much camaraderie on the “L” (and I took the “L” several times a week for 3.5 years when we lived there). Everywhere we looked, it was a sea of blue and smiling faces. This was a city alive with triumph.
And it got me thinking. Thinking about how desperately we can ache for right to be wronged. For triumph. For victory. And how often we forget that, as Christians, this is what we’re headed toward. Toward a celebration so much bigger and better and longer awaited than even a 108-year Cubs dry spell. When the ultimate good news brings about a new heavens and a new earth. A world where all wrongs are righted; where grace and mercy and justice reign in perfect coexistence.
And I wonder, are we looking toward it? Are we longing and aching? Do we understand what we’re headed for?
But mostly I’m wondering, are we making his kingdom known now? Are we sharing this good news of grace? Not by thumping people over the heads, or demanding our rights, but by living out the good news we have. By so looking forward to the celebration to come, that our joy can’t be accounted for. Are we throwing off fear and shame and living as people for whom death has been conquered? Are we rooting for justice and praying for grace to prevail? Are we working for justice and practicing prevailing grace?
Or are we grumpily forecasting doom and gloom as if we don’t know we have a Christ who threw off the shroud of death, who rose again, whose kingdom is coming? Or are we so inwardly focused we don’t see the need to spread his grace and mercy and justice right now?
Let’s be a people who look forward to, who long for, who hope for his kingdom come. And let’s be a people who demonstrate this kingdom, albeit very incomplete, in our daily lives for the world to see. Let’s share the good news by being so infused with grace and mercy, so concerned with justice for others, so unconcerned with our own rights, that others want to know this Jesus we follow.