Ensuring the Future

Science fiction author, Ray Bradbury died this week at the age of 91.  He is famous for his work Faranheit 451, as well as numerous other stories of futuristic fantasy.  Today they replayed an interview that Bradbury gave to Terry Gross on the NPR program Fresh Air back in 1988.(click here to listen)  One of the interesting insights that he offers is that, even though his writing was filled with futuristic gadgetry and space exploration, he never even learned to drive a car or use a computer. In fact he suggested that because his work often dealt with the world of future that he regretted that other people might consider him too much of an idealist or an optimist.  He attempted in the interview to stress a sense of real grounded-ness, suggesting that despite his reputation as a person known for science fiction that he knew that it was “by doing things things get done.” He went onto to clarify that he did not consider himself “an optimist” but instead he referred to himself as “an optimal behaviorist.”  He said that he wasn’t interested in science fiction because it gave a flight from reality but only that it gave a picture of a possible reality. A possible reality that still required fidelity in order to bring it about. He stated very succinctly that “we ensure the future by doing it.”

His message is an appropriate one for the church.  One of the continual dangers in the church and in our personal relationships as well, is that we can spend an abnormal amount of time thinking either about the dissapointment that we have experienced in the past or the possibilities that may never be in the future.  When instead the church is called to embrace the daily tasks of faithfully living out the simple tasks of loving, serving, listening, forgiving in the present moment.

The challenge for the church is to avoid being so "heavenly minded that it is no earthly good."  John Howard Yoder said it this way, “The people of God are called to be today what the world is called to be ultimately.”  If the neighbors that we have been called to love are going to trust and hope in the future that God is calling us all towards, then they must learn to see that future emobodied in the church today. This is at the heart of the motivation of the Samaritan Project, learning to live now like God desires for everyone to live in the future.  Every time we risk loving others we confess with our lives that God's future is not fantasy but a very present reality.

(the photo was taken from here)