All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.—Hebrews 11:13–16

This week, I want to share an excerpt from a book recommended to me by my brother in Christ, Chase Mitchell. In this excerpt, Jacques Ellul draws out his interpretation of what it means for the Christian to be citizens of two cities, that distinction first outlined in great detail by St. Augustine in his work, The City of God. Ellul writes:

“… the Christian belongs to two Cities. [The Christian] is in the world, and has a social life. [The Christian] is the citizen of a nation; [the Christian] has a place in a family; [the Christian] has a situation, and must work to earn money; the setting of [the Christian’s] life is the same as that of other [people]; [the Christian] lives with them; [the Christian] shares with them the same nature and the same conditions … [the Christian] is bound up with the life of other people.… On the other hand, [the Christian] cannot wholly belong to this world. For [the Christian] this world can only be a ‘tabernacle,’ in which [he/she] is a “stranger and a pilgrim” (Heb. 11:13).…

“From another point of view … [the Christian] may also be sent out as a spy. In fact, that may be the situation of the Christian: to work in secret, at the heart of the world, for the Lord; to prepare for [the] Lord’s victory from within; to create a nucleus in this world, and to discover its secrets, in order that the Kingdom of God may break forth in splendor.… Thus [the Christian] must plunge into social and political problems in order to have an influence on the world, not in the hope of making a paradise, but simply in order to make it tolerable—not in order to diminish the [tension] between this world and the Kingdom of God, but simply in order to modify the opposition between the disorder of this world and the order of preservation that God wills for it—not in order to ‘bring in’ the Kingdom of God, but in order that the gospel may be proclaimed, that all [people] may really hear the good news of salvation, through the death and resurrection of Christ.…

“The Christian is essentially a person who lives in expectation.… Thus the one who knows that [they have] been saved by Christ is not a [person] jealously and timidly attached to a past, however glorious it may be. [The Christian] does not cling to the past of [their] church (tradition), nor even to the past life of Jesus Christ (on which, however, the certainty of [their] faith depends)—but [they are people] of the future, not of a temporal and logical future, but of the eschaton, of the coming break with this present world. Thus [the Christian] looks forward to this moment, and for [them] all facts acquire their value in the light of the coming Kingdom of God, in the light of the Judgment, and the victory of God.…

“This, then, is the revolutionary situation: to be revolutionary is to judge the world by its present state, by actual facts, in the name of a truth which does not yet exist (but which is coming)—and it is to do so because we believe this truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us. Consequently it means bringing the future into the present as an explosive force. It means believing that future events are more important and more true than present events; it means understanding the present in the light of the future, dominating it by the future, in the same way as the historian dominates the past.”—Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom, pp.33–39

To translate all that fancy theology talk, at the heart of Christian faith is a conviction that we have a future because we are resurrection people. The same Lord who surrendered himself unto death only to be raised, thus breaking its power, and reigns as judge over all, is the same Lord who underwrites our future. Therefore, we never “labor in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Instead, we labor in hope of new creation, for we are new creation in Him.

My earnest prayer for all, for our congregation, is that we will catch that vision, and become people of the future.

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

The reports from our January 23rd congregational meeting are available to read and to download. You’ll find the packet on our website here. There is also a link on our homepage.

We will continue to gather for a fellowship dinner followed by programs for adults, teens, and children on Wednesday evenings through the remainder of the program year, with the exception of Holy Week. Dinner is at 5:30, and programs follow at 6:15. Our next meeting will be February 9. Please join us!

We now lock the doors of the education wing to help keep our children safe. Parents need to sign their kids in when they drop them off and sign them out when they pick them up. There are sign-in sheets at the nursery and for Kids’ Kirk and Sunday School. Parents can gain access at any time by using one of the key cards hanging by Lilly Osborne’s office door. Parents: please do not distract students and teachers by hovering in the hallways during class time. Clear hallways also help us know that children are where they need to be when in our care.

You can watch the livestream of our worship services and other activities at FPC Bristol on YouTube. Click on the link and hit “Subscribe” to receive notifications of new videos. To connect to our various Facebook sites, go to Facebook and type in FPC Bristol. Several accounts will show up. “Like” the page or ask to join a group.

Our quarterly opportunity to serve at the downtown Sharing Christ mission is coming up Saturday, March 5. To volunteer, please email Becca Tate at [email protected] or call or text her at 404-790-1223. We will have more information for you next week.

If you have not yet made your 2022 pledge, you can do so now by picking up a pledge card at the church or downloading a copy here. You can drop off the completed card at the church office, mail it in, or email your pledge directly to our business manager, Betsy Galliher.

We encourage you to use text, mail, or our website to safely continue your faithful support of our ministries during the pandemic. You can give online by going to our website and clicking on “Give” in the upper right corner. You can send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting fpcbristol to 73256, or mail your checks directly to the church.