The eCrozier

In spite of himself, Enoch couldn’t get over the expectation that the new Jesus was going to do something for him in return for his services. This was the virtue of Hope, which was made up, in Enoch, of two parts suspicion and one part lust. He had only a vague idea how he wanted to be rewarded, but he was not a boy without ambition; he wanted to become something. He wanted to better his condition until it was the best. He wanted to be THE young man of the future, like the ones in the insurance ads. He wanted, some day, to see a line of people waiting to shake his hand.
—Flannery O’Connor in Wise Blood, 1952

As we begin a new year, many people will make resolutions to turn over a new leaf, that is, to become something they haven’t been or to stop being someone they have been. This may be related to their physical selves like losing weight, starting an exercise regimen, eating more healthily, etc.  Or, it may be related to their spiritual lives: showing greater compassion to others, praying more regularly, learning to forgive those who have sinned against us, etc.

Like with most of her fictional observations about human nature, Flannery O’Connor lays bare that which is non-fiction: What is often hidden deep inside the human soul. Enoch’s hope in her short story, Wise Blood, was for the purpose of his own selfish advancement, which O’Connor says is driven by two parts suspicion and one part lust. That is not the Christian Hope, of course, but my hunch is some of Enoch’s kind of hope resides in all of us. How often is our hope for the future grounded in our suspicions and lusts and not in living under God’s gracious rule?

The Christian Hope, as our catechism defines it, is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for the world.  Sometimes, however, due to our human nature (and by that I mean our sin) we confuse the hope we want for ourselves, on one hand, and, on the other, our call as disciples to hope for God’s kingdom to come “on earth as it is heaven,” which, of course, is what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. And thus comes the hardest question we must ask ourselves: how much of our life is spent working for the former rather than the latter?

I am not one given to making New Year’s Resolutions, but if I were to make one, then I would resolve to lessen my suspicions and lusts, which are usually based in pettiness for the purpose of self-promotion, and work with my utmost for the Kingdom of God. For one day, God’s kingdom will come and God’s purposes for the world will be completed. That’s when all the kingdoms of this world (our own little, personal kingdoms as wells the nations of the world) will become the Kingdom of our God. And on that day “He shall reign forever and ever” (OK, I am listening to Handel’s Messiah right now, so forgive me for going over the top). I am not qualified to be on the program committee for that glorious day, but my sure and certain hope is that I will be on welcoming committee.

+Scott