When Christ came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, he inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth; in forbearing to declare the day of God’s vengeance, he put off its consummation. He established a time of mercy, with judgment held off; which means that while the patience of God is extended to sinners—which is all of us—the world continues to wait for its complete redemption, and for the fullness of the kingdom of God. Sometimes people cry out against that fact, asking with the Psalmist, “How long, O Lord? How long will the wicked prosper? How long will you let the injustice and suffering of the world go on?” We don’t have answers for those questions, because God hasn’t given us those answers; we don’t know when Christ will come again to set everything finally right, and so we don’t know why he hasn’t come back already. But what we do have, as we contemplate the child in the manger, is a response to those questions. Indeed, in a way, we are the response to those questions, or ought to be. God responded to the wickedness and injustice and suffering in this world by sending his Son Jesus Christ, and Christ left us behind to continue his work until all the world has heard the good news and the time is right for him to return; and as this world waits for that fulfillment, that wait is our opportunity to work on his behalf as his agents and representatives, as the agents and representatives of the world which is to come.What this means is, we as the church aren’t just about gathering for an hour or two on Sunday mornings. This is an important part of our life in Christ, as we come together to worship him and to be trained for the rest of our mission, it’s the beginning of everything we do, but it’s only the beginning. When Jesus returned to the Father, he left us behind to shine his light into every corner of the world—both outward, into the areas of our society and other places around the globe where his name is not known, or where people know his name but resist him, and inward, into the darkest places in our own hearts. Our mission is to follow the example of the one who sent us—the one who told the truth so clearly and unflinchingly that people finally killed him for it—so that all those who seek the light of God may find it.(Excerpted, edited, from “The Incoming Kingdom”)
