Hope is different from optimism – optimism being understood as the expectation that one will achieve that one endeavors for. An ambulance attendent who attempts to resuscitate a person may not expect to succeed in his effort. Yet as long as she sees some hope, she attempts. If she thinks there is no hope, she gives up and stops trying. Working for justice does not require optimism; it is hope that is required!
Whether it is God's calling of Moses from the burning bush or Zechariah's song of deliverance upon the birth of his John (the Baptist), the sub-narratives are not about hope for consummation at the end of eschaton; they are hope for deliverance in space and time. In the Scripture one can see three strands of theological anthropology – “ there is the story line of how God relates to all that is not God as creator and sustainer, there is the story line of how God relates to all that is not God as consumator, and there is the story line of how God relates to all that is not God as deliverer or redeemer.” And for Moses, God was to deliver from affliction and suffering, and for Zechariah enemies. It is, if we differently word, to be delivered from being wronged.
“What is it to be wronged? It is to fail to receive or enjoy what is due one. It is not to fail to receive or enjoy what one would like, nor to fail to receive or enjoy what would be good for one... One is wronged only when one is deprived of some good to which one has a right... Injustice occurs when someone is deprived of some good that is due him or her – that is, when a person is wronged, when that person is deprived of something to which he or she has a right. Conversely, justice is present in some community insofar as its members enjoy those goods that are due them, to which they have a right. Justice is present when no one is being wronged.”
From the biblical story line of redemption, one can distinguish “doing justice” and “seeking justice”. Doing justice will mean not wronging a person; of not violating her right, and not being responsible of a person not enjoying what is due her. Seeking justice will mean working in a situation to alter or rectify someone's situation so that it is no longer a situation of injustice. In 1 Cor 15.24, St. Pauls say that after every (corrupt and competing) rule and authority and power have been destroyed, will Christ deliver the kingdom to God. Given the Old Testament background, say Ps 72, “Paul's implicit thought must be that there are two kinds of kingship, the kind that consists in the administration of a polity in which there is no justice, and the kind that consists in struggling to overcome the injustice present in the polity. Christ's kingship is of the latter sort.” Christ will conquer injustice – seeking justice, and the Father will reign – doing justice. Followers of Jesus do hope for justice because it is Christ's cause.
Christians hope for liberating justice ( as one seeks justice) will take the form of prayer too, among other things. And this prayer must include naming injustice, and then to pray for the undoing of the injustice named. And when the named injustice is undone, Christians hope will then offer prayer of thanksgiving. This prayer of thanksgiving for undoing the injustice identifies thus the signs of Christ liberating work in history.
Christians hope is grounded in the promise that He will bring his just and holy kingdom. “But then we learn that God moves in mysterious ways, sometimes bringing our best effort to naught, sometimes wresting liberation out of appalling evil.” So does it really matter because God is going to anyhow do it in his own time and sovereign will? Well, just obey him. No matter what, obey. For He would much rather have you and I try our best than have you and I just slack off. What you and I do today matter for His work!
( This is a summary of an essay by Prof. Wolterstorff in the book The FUTURE of HOPE, Eds Miroslva Volf and William Katerberg, Eerdmans, Cambridge UK, 2004, pp 77-100. Other contributors include John Milbank, Jurgen Moltmann et al. )
nice summary of NW's chapter.
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