TIME ZONES, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Paul McCartney wrote about 'Yesterday,' still one of his most popular songs. In 1999 BBC acclaimed it to be greatest song of the past 100 years. I'm sure there are contenders for that title but that is not my purpose for mentioning two more songs. They are 'Today,'' words and music by Randy Sparks and made memorable by the New Christy Minstrels and by John Denver; and 'Tomorrow,' by Quvenzhané Wallis, written for the musical, "Annie." 

CHRISTIANITY

Let me tell you what it is not and then what it is.

Christian faith is not primarily about the sacrifice that believers make for Jesus in order to become Christian, but rather about the sacrifice that he made for us. Christianity is not about intensified devotion, trying even harder, doing better and being better, proving ourselves. No, no. Its essence is not doing something for Jesus but rather it is Jesus accomplishing something in us. His sacrifice once, and his ongoing work in us now. That is something that people find attractive because that is not religion. It is relationship. This is not about performance with respect to a faith system that legislates morality. A heavy-handed condemnation has resulted from that model and people have walked away from Jesus when they should have walked away from that specific model of Christian expression. Jesus' proclamation was good news. It was good news to good people and to bad people, to free people and prisoners, to healthy and diseased people, to sighted people and blind people. It was good in the first century and it is still good today because is about God's mercy to every last one of us, each of whom is naturally undeserving. Yet we are invited into relationship through faith in Jesus, Son of God, Lamb, Saviour, King, and endorsed a member of God's family.

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

We have a record of what Mary said to God, likely prayed it to God, yet it is almost poetic in nature, refined by a middle teens child, more a woman at that age than overindulged contemporary girls now. She worked, hauled water, firewood, gardened, cooked soup, gathered eggs, baked bread, washed clothes by hand. She had seen other women give birth. She knew how babies came. She was in the betrothal year of an arranged marriage when Gabriel, an angelic creature convincingly communicated with her. Her childlike faith believed his forecast that she would now bear an adult-sized responsibility. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). She was unfamiliar with those words, which were written five decades later by Paul whose life was transformed by the person to whom Gabriel announced she would give birth. She did however understand the inner peace about which Paul would write. The conception of the embryo within her without human impregnation was incomprehensible then even as it is now. Gabriel told her, "nothing is impossible with God." She told Gabriel, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." And it was.

NOAH, THE MOVIE AND THE REALITY

Noah is the subject and title of a new Hollywood movie which should not disappoint you since it is not a theological treatise based on biblical accuracy. It is entertainment. We have an abysmal understanding of holiness so let’s not quickly fault God for his ‘best interest’ response to the wickedness of humanity at that point in human history. God arranged for a global catastrophe, a flood of universal proportions. Even Christians, many of them today, struggle with God’s identity when his wrath is profiled. There was an ark of safety on which Noah and his family survived for several months, adrift on open water. All other human life died, an unmistakeable demonstration of the affect of each person paying the price for sin. When dry land emerged again and the survivors disembarked, generations of descendants eventually produced Abraham who was destined by God to become the father of a great nation, the Hebrews, Israel. To this select group, God gave His Law which prescribed holy living, at least as holy as it can be in a perverse world. Through this unpolluted people God intended to bring forth his Messiah, a deliverer, a saviour. Societal reformation was not God’s objective. Only rules and laws are required for that. Jesus was born, the image of the invisible God, the Son of God, deity himself. The supreme purpose for Messiah, was to accomplish the redemptive act which would absolve all sinners of guilt and establish relationships of trust and love for God. This is affected through personal faith in that good news from God. There is a Saviour. Look at him, because he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. This is individual transformation that ultimately results in a changed community or society.