Victory!

I play to win.

In some families a game of Monopoly can go on for days.  People play cautiously, holding back money lest they land on someone else’s hotel and have to pay a huge amount.  They only build houses or hotels once they are sure that they have a large enough sum to cover all contingencies.

My family can usually crank through a game in about an hour.  As soon as any of us receive enough money, we’re purchasing houses and hotels.  We are the ultimate risk takers.  If someone lands on our property we’re all set to win.   In Monopoly, playing with caution makes you miss out on opportunities.  What’s the point of owning Boardwalk if you don’t have anything built on it?    We play to win, and if that means that there is some risk involved we’re more than ready to face that fact.  Better to risk and have a chance to win than to play with caution and die a slow death.

I like to win, not only in Monopoly, but in all of life.

One of my earliest memories of faith is bathed in victory: God’s victory.  My mother passed away when I was eight years old.  Edee suffered from lupus, which meant that her body rejected her kidneys as if they were transplants.   I don’t have many memories of her.   I vaguely remember visiting her in the hospital and seeing her sick at home, but I clearly remember the scene at the cemetery on a cold March morning with daisies (her favorite flower) draping her coffin.  In that moment, I heard words of victory: a God who defeated death.  I latched onto those words with my whole being.  Edee won…because Jesus won. 

This hope has sustained my faith throughout my life.  We have a powerful God who has defeated death.  The book of Revelation isn’t one that many people read time and again.  Most get lost in the bizarre imagery and strange battles with evil.  Not me!  I gravitate again and again to the images of the heavenly throne room…and the God who conquers.  In Revelation, no matter how much pain and suffering is unleashed on the world, God remains God, gathering God’s people in praise and victory.  I’m reminded that I am on the winning team.  This isn’t because of anything that I have done (or can ever do).  God’s power tells the whole story.  God has won.  Nothing can stand in God’s way.  This God has claimed me to be on that winning team.  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

Into this story I keep hearing words of doom and gloom for God’s church.  People decry the ‘death of Christianity’ and some numbers seem to bear that out.  In America the number of people in worship on a given Sunday has dropped precipitously.  Sunday Schools no longer burst with children’s voices.  Financial support to congregations is way down, with many wondering what the future will hold.  People talk of days when churches will no longer exist.  The numbers can lead people to despair. 

Unfortunately, we’ve ‘played church’ much like many people play Monopoly: cautiously!  We’ve been afraid to take risks, leaving us willing to die a slow death rather than take a chance on something new and different.  We have been tied to models of church that worked in one era, but no longer prove effective.  We circle the wagons and try the same things, thinking that greater effort will make everything turn around.  When it doesn’t happen we feel like there is no future for God’s church. 

Nothing could be further from the truth!  The God who conquered death will not sit on the sidelines.  As long as God is at work in the world, ‘the church’ will be just fine.  God has not sustained people of faith for the past 2000 years only to quit now.  Remember, we’re on the winning team!  If God can conquer sin and death, surely God can handle some changes in American society.  As members of the winning team, the church can take risks.  We can go ‘all in’ on listening to the Holy Spirit to find new and creative ways to be God’s people in the world.  We can risk, knowing that in the end we can’t lose.  There is nothing that we can do to ‘kill’ God’s church.   True, we may find some of our risks end in spectacular failure, but at the end of the day God remains the head of the church and will sustain people of faith.  God gives is the freedom to take risks…to try new things…to envision what communities of faith can look like in the future. 

I’m not willing to be a part of a losing team.  If ‘the numbers’ are against the church, that simply means that it’s time for some risk taking, trusting that God will not abandon us.  ‘The church’ of the future may look vastly different, but if that’s what God is calling us to, I say, ‘Bring it on.’ 

We’re already on the winning team.   The end of the story has been written.  God walks with us in the midst of the pain of this world (which I know all too well).  It’s time to step out in faith.

Better to risk and win than play cautiously and slowly dwindle away to nothing. 

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. Revelation 21:5-7