Yesterday, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit Nostell Priory (and many thanks to the man with the buggy who enabled me to get from the car park to the courtyard that meant I could have a gentle potter in the garden).
Just behind the house is a Lakeland Walk. Tantalizingly through the trees you can see the lake
At any point, certainly on that part of the lake, you can catch glimpses of the water. But at no point can you see it all. There are hints, suggestions, reassurance that there is a lake – but you can’t see the whole thing.
And then, just as you turn to leave, the hint that there is so much more …
More than you can see in one scene, more than you can see through the beautiful trees, so much more than could be taken in.
How this reminded me of God.
Sometimes we only catch glimpses. We can see him, but only part of him, we know he is there – though not always the full picture. There is so much more to know and discover.
So I am grateful for what I can see and know, and yet longing for how much more there is yet to see
12 Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (CEV)
27 The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus 28 and said:
Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies and has no children, his brother should marry the widow. Their first son would then be thought of as the son of the dead brother.
29 There were once seven brothers. The first one married, but died without having any children. 30 The second one married his brother’s widow, and he also died without having any children. 31 The same thing happened to the third one. Finally, all seven brothers married that woman and died without having any children. 32 At last the woman died. 33 When God raises people from death, whose wife will this woman be? All seven brothers had married her.
34 Jesus answered:
The people in this world get married. 35 But in the future world no one who is worthy to rise from death will either marry 36 or die. They will be like the angels and will be God’s children, because they have been raised to life.
37 In the story about the burning bush, Moses clearly shows that people will live again. He said, “The Lord is the God worshiped by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 38 So the Lord isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. This means that everyone is alive as far as God is concerned.
So they didn’t believe that people rise to life, yet they had a question to ask – and a clearly ridiculous question at that! If you don’t believe in a resurrected life, why would you worry about who someone would be married to in that life? This question is clearly not about anything other than trying to catch Jesus out, to get him to say something that they can “use in evidence”.
This is all tied up in the questions about Jesus’ authority. It is a power struggle. Is he going to shore up the things that the current religious powers were saying, or was he going to do and say something radical as they suspected?
Jesus wants them to know he is the God of the living not the dead. Faith is about life and now. What happens after will be nothing that we can imagine, the rules will all be different, it’s not life as we know and understand it now – how that is should not worry us now.
There will be an after life – but there is a life now as well. Is Jesus suggesting they worry about that, not their hypothetical scenarios?
It reminds me of the old Christian Aid strapline, “We believe in life before death“. I’m sure that is what Jesus would much rather we worry about…
If the shops are to be believed, it is fast approaching Christmas (sorry…!), but with that comes the cry of children (and some older), ‘Is he nearly here yet?’ ‘He’ in this sense meaning the bringer of presents, Father Christmas. There is great anticipation of how much longer it will be to wait. The same is true if you are expecting a longed for guest, or an eagerly anticipated occasion.
For the early Christian Church, they had the same eager expectation and anticipation of Jesus return to collect them. So much so, that some were claiming to know the day, or that he was already here – often claiming a “divine word” on the matter.
2 When our Lord Jesus returns, we will be gathered up to meet him. So I ask you, my friends, 2 not to be easily upset or disturbed by people who claim that the Lord has already come. They may say that they heard this directly from the Holy Spirit, or from someone else, or even that they read it in one of our letters. 3 But don’t be fooled! People will rebel against God. Then before the Lord returns, the wicked one who is doomed to be destroyed will appear. 4 He will brag and oppose everything that is holy or sacred. He will even sit in God’s temple and claim to be God. 5 Don’t you remember that I told you this while I was still with you?
Be Faithful
13 My friends, the Lord loves you, and it is only natural for us to thank God for you. God chose you to be the first ones to be saved. His Spirit made you holy, and you put your faith in the truth. 14 God used our preaching as his way of inviting you to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 My friends, that’s why you must remain faithful and follow closely what we taught you in person and by our letters.
16 God our Father loves us. He is kind and has given us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father 17 will encourage you and help you always to do and say the right thing.
The authors of this letter are telling the Thessalonians not to jump the gun. Not to read into things what aren’t there.
Because the trouble is, if you spend so much time looking to the future, hoping and dreaming about it, you miss living in the present. Yes they, and we, are to look to the future and prepare ourselves for God’s return, but we do that in the here and now. Whatever others might be speculating about, our business is living for God where we are.
The Thessalonians are promised a share of God’s glory, but that will come through their faithfulness as they live day by day while they wait. God has given them comfort and hope, but he has given them life today.
So, like them, we are called, not to wish our lives away, but to live them now – for there is much to be done.
Lord,
much as there is to look forward to
in your coming again,
may I not spend all my time
looking,
watching,
hoping,
longing,
that I miss what you are doing today –
in me,
around me
and with me
At any point, certainly on that part of the lake, you can catch glimpses of the water. But at no point can you see it all. There are hints, suggestions, reassurance that there is a lake – but you can’t see the whole thing.
More than you can see in one scene, more than you can see through the beautiful trees, so much more than could be taken in.
Pam's Perambulation 