The Future Now

Beverly used to have a large poster on her office wall that was a particular favorite of mine.  It quoted the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who said:  “The future enters into us long before it happens.”  For years I’ve found that to be a thought-provoking statement. 

It reminds me that the seeds of what may happen to me today were planted a good while back:  A phone call this morning began with someone’s idea last month; an insight this afternoon ties in with a conversation of some weeks ago.  Newness doesn’t usually just drop out of the sky. It began with someone else, in an earlier time and place, and it connects me to those other people with wonder and gratitude. 

It also means that a seemingly insignificant conversation today may lead to something powerful in the weeks to come.  The work I do, the prayers I raise, the coincidences I notice each day are the beginning of something yet to be – “unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”  That’s why every day is precious.  It carries priceless seeds of the future. 

Easter is a prime example of this. I believe that the mystery of resurrection wasn’t an off-the-cuff reaction of God to an unanticipated crucifixion.  I have trouble thinking that God fore-knew every exact detail of Jesus’ life, but I do believe that his death and resurrection were woven into God’s dealings with us from pretty early on. 

I also see resurrection as a glimpse into our own ultimate destiny in God. What Jesus was then and is now, we too shall be someday. Jesus “comes to us,” in a sense, from God’s glorious future. The resurrection is God’s invasion of the here-and-now with the reality of the there-and-then. Our future includes a life on this earth that lies beyond death; a life that leaves buried all of our fears and infirmities; a life that is emptied of evil; a life that shows us perfected through the grace of God; a life lived in a community of joyful holiness.

Resurrection is a “sneak preview” of what God has in store for us.  Or, “The future enters into us long before it happens.” 

If true, then we can live this future now.  That’s why our current theme is The Future Now. What we embrace today shapes our future.  How we live, who we follow, what we value – all of this and more is shaped by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

     Pastor Larry