Looking Ahead, Looking Around

Acts 11:19-30
John 8:21-32
Simon and Garfunkel’s “A Hazy Shade of Winter” begins with the words:
Time, time, time
see what’s become of me
while I looked around for my possibilities,
I was so hard to please…

The lyrics continue:

Hold on to your hopes my friend
That’s an east thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Then simply pretend that you can build them again…

There’s a great deal of pessimism in that song, a pessimism that neither Luke,––the writer of Acts, nor John would share.

According to our readings today a prophet named Agabus predicts a famine throughout the world (Acts 11:28). Jesus himself predicts his crucifixion (John 8:28). Christianity has always done a great deal of forward thinking and consideration of what the future will involve. The predictions are not always cheerful, but they always lead to and are permeated by the grace of God. The famine will allow Christians throughout the world to show generosity to the church in Jerusalem. The crucifixion, of course, will reveal Jesus to be the Son of God. So often clarity follows hardship, understanding grows out of struggle. And above it all stands our provident and loving God

But we really must not understate the difficulties or even try to rush past them. A significant aspect of God’s sovereignty is time. The minutes, hours, days, months and so forth, are of as much concern to God as the years, eras, and epochs. To hurry through—what I call wishing our lives away—risks missing out on or ignoring God’s grace at work.

I certainly don’t wish to trivialize tragedy. The flooding in Pakistan has caused devastation to millions and is not to be taken lightly. So has the earthquake in Haiti. But even disasters such as these cannot defeat God’s provident care for us. Ultimately we have the opportunity to participate in God’s work among the people who have been effected. Severe need helps us to discover our own capacity to love and care for others, to pray and to build, to look for the new things being done by God. Do we hope for disaster, death, loss? No! But as Paul beautifully attests in Romans 8, even things such as these cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We needn’t “simply pretend we can build (our hopes) again,” we need only to trust in God and to offer our lives in faithful obedience in order to see the miracles that God will perform.

Prayer: Bless us, O God, with the ability to trust the future and the great things you will bring to pass. Help us, as well, to respond to our neighbors in their times of need that we may be about your work according to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.