29 November 2013 - budding interest

29 November 2013 - budding interest 


Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
There is urgency here.  There is imminence. 

Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.”
There is also timelessness.  There is the unchanging.

What holds these two ideas together?  What is the word which outlasts heaven and earth which is also present to this generation in the midst of trials and persecutions? 

This is the nature of the incarnation.  The timeless word enters our circumstances.  We are like "the fig tree and all other trees."  He frees us from our protective buds.  He bursts them open and causes the winter of our trials to give way to summer.

The Kingdom of God is near because the king does not leave us to face dire circumstances on our own.  He comes as a baby in the incarnation.  He comes at the end of time as judge.  But even in daily life he comes to strengthen us and deliver us.  He calls for perseverance but he himself gives us the strength to press on.

The circumstances we face can be quite bad, like the four beasts which Daniel sees.  Just when he thinks he has seen the worst of it in the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians, the fourth beast of Alexander's Greece rears its ugly head.  We are tempted to regard such power as ultimate.  Yet it can't compare to the true king. 

One like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.

The Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven at the end of time to finally subjugate all earthly authority to himself.  But he comes into our daily lives to give us victory over the powers of darkness which oppress us.  We need to realize how much greater this king is than the circumstances we face.  We need to watch for and be attentive to his coming.  We will not pass away until these things have taken place.  We can count on the one whose words will not pass away.

With all creation, let us render "glory and eternal praise to him!"