August 2011
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
I have some bad habits – of which I will name one later – and some good one, such as biking or running an average of 10 km every week day, and also, for the last 26 years, writing a daily meditation of some 400 words from Monday through Saturday and 800 on Sundays, based on texts from the lectionary, the list of pre-selected bible readings. Each fall I buy 2 copies – my wife does it too – of Journeying Through the Days for the next year, published by the Upper Room Books in Nashville. These volumes are beautifully illustrated, each page divided into two open sections, headed by a bible text, while Sundays occupy a full empty page except for the text and the lectionary readings for the ensuing week. That custom, more than anything else in my life, has influenced my thinking.
A few weeks ago my meditation was centred on Psalm 139, our wedding psalm 58 years ago, and specifically its very last words: “Lead me in the way everlasting.” I can’t remember what these words meant to me in 1953, but now I see it as a prayer to direct me on the road to the new creation, asking for insight how I, in our world today, must proceed from here to eternity. A few days prior to that, the Journal had called my attention to Romans 8, asking me to share in God’s suffering if I want to share in his glory.
I see a definite connection between suffering and the road to the new creation. We all know John 3:16 “God so loved the world,” which is the very basis of Christianity. By loving living nature we express our love for all our neighbours, be they human, plants, air, water, for the simple reason that when we pollute we harm these all.
Suppose that Rembrandt, after having sold his most famous creation, the Nachtwacht, depicting the elite of Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age, discovered that the new owner not only changed the faces but also deleted some, and deformed others, grossly mutilating the entire picture. That would have been a source of great aggravation for Rembrandt van Rijn.
Actually we daily do this to creation, causing immense suffering to Jesus. Because I love Jesus, I, on my journey to eternity – which I believe to be the New Creation – suffer with Jesus because I live in a society where I am forced to harm creation. I suffer additional pain because of the failure of the church, at least the one I attend, to recognize the pain of creation. Yet we all know that the cosmos Jesus so loves so much, is now groaning, as in pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22).
In that regard Christianity is not different from Islam. A friend sent me an article from the Jakarta Post, dealing with (Islam) preachers and the environment. Here is a quote: “However, not only do most preachers undermine life in this world — which is indeed temporary — compared to the eternal world after life, they also ridiculed science, logic and reason. On the pulpits, many preachers challenged scientific discoveries, which, according to their belief, were untenable. They then called upon the audience to return to “piety” and religious dogma. They stressed that human reasoning can never surpass religion.”
And this brings me to American politics, a nation where the word ‘God’ is (ab)used more than anywhere else in the world. I find it utterly depressing when, to name one example, Sarah Palin, riding on a motorcycle, exclaimed triumphantly that ‘she loved the emissions,” and advocates ‘drill baby, drill’. Michelle Bachmann, another presidential hopeful, is a Rushdoony disciple, and expressed agreement with him when he said that God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals. R.J. Rushdoony, a so-called Reconstructionist theologian, believes that the Mosaic laws must be implemented today, a statement resonating in the US Tea-party movement. This man also said that “Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to spiritual aristocracy.” That’s why we hear that “The state is a bankrupt institution. The only alternative to this bankrupt ‘humanistic’ system is a God-centered government.” Blame the debt crisis on this as well.
In our world today Jesus is the forgotten item. The New Testament and freedom that is in Christ is pushed away, leaving a vengeful God rather than an understanding Jesus. Whenever I see the Pope or the High Anglican clergy in their full regalia I see Aaron and the Temple, and the Old Testament rules and regulations, and I cringe.
We all, without exception, are on the way from Here to Eternity. Only when we suffer because of Climate stress, misguided politicians, people-pleasing preachers and reality denying consumers, can we be fully assured that the crown of glory awaits us (Romans 8:17).
One of Bert Hielema’s bad habits is that he preaches too much in his columns. Complaints to bert@hielema.ca