Eternity

It’s hard to think about eternity when as humans we were created to currently exist in time. Anything that we don’t know or understand can be scary. Theologians have discussed this and explored forever for-ever and still can’t wrap their mind around it either. I could say don’t worry about it but that’s like saying just ignore the big blue elephant with pink tennis shoes. Some things are hard to stop thinking about once we start.

It’s OK to be worried and it’s also OK to talk to someone about it, even God himself. After all He knows all of our thoughts and nothing is hidden from him.

None of us really know what the future of forever looks like. We know that Christ, the Father and the Spirit will be there. We know that we will be loved and we will respond in love back (BTY that’s what worship really is – loving God and wanting to please Him and trying to not disappoint Him.) We know that we will have tasks in the future but they won’t be difficult because God will be with us and strengthen us to do what ever is asked of us.

Perhaps it will help to understand that in the Hebrew mind the idea of eternal life starts the moment you decide to become a follower of Jesus. Eternal life is both for now and for after this life. Their concept of human existence was holistic. Their understanding of Heaven was also holistic or all encompassing when it comes to time, space, what our purpose is and will be.

Often we think about be a follower of Christ kind of like something that matters a little bit in the here and now but it really starts to mean something after we die and are present with God. Yet Jesus came to give our lives meaning now as well as after this life.

When He announced that the Kingdom was at hand, He meant it was starting right now. Our “job” is to do His bidding not just in the future but in the present, too. When you think of His kingdom realize that it is already here. We are tasked with establishing it in the here and now. When we get to heaven we will continue to do what we are commanded to do right now, obey His commands and do his will (whatever that might look like in the future)

So in a crazy sense we are currently living not only in the present but also because of the future that He has promised us.

When time no longer exists I wonder if we will miss it? I kind of thing that we won’t even notice that is gone, if that’s true forever won’t feel so forever. It will feel like living in a much larger now.

I don’t know if I adequately answered your question or not but to sum up my comments. I think while the future is unknown (at least to us), eternity is something we are currently living in while we also exist in time.

Just that one day, time will be no more!

Pastor Val

Christmas a Season of Time and Light

Time is such an important part of our human experience. We are bound by time and controlled by time. Yet God is not controlled by time since He exists outside of time. Rather time is controlled and planned by God the Father. The Bible says that “when the right time came, God sent his Son {into the world}. A woman gave birth to him, and he came under the control of God's laws. God sent him to pay for the freedom of those who were controlled by these laws so that we would be adopted as his children.” Galatians 4:4-5 (GW)

So when the time was right the light of God (or perhaps I should say God the Light) entered the world and his light became the light of men.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. … The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-5; 9-14 (NIV)

I am reminded of this ancient medieval Christmas prayer at Communion: "...through the mystery of the Incarnate Word the light of God's brightness has shone anew on the eyes of our mind so that, while we see God visibly through Jesus Christ, we may be seized by love for the invisible things of God."

(For those of you wondering where this prayer is found it was translated from the Latin in the Gregorian sacramentary as found in Jean Deshusses, Le sacramentaire grégorian, ses principales formes d’après les plus ancient manuscripts, Spicilegium Friburgense 16 (Fribourg, 1979), pp. 98-106. It's from the preface for the main mass for the morning of Christmas at St. Peter's. Thanks Lester for the reference!)

To each of you may the Light and Life of Christmas make Himself real to you in a deeper more meaningful way this Christmas Season!

Pastor Val