Fourth Sunday of Easter
Jubilate
April 17, 2016
What do you think heaven is going to be like? We
know heaven is perfect, but what will it feel like? What will you do for all
eternity? Will you get bored? Will you be aware that you are in heaven forever?
Will it seem like it’s taking a long time? Can eternity take a long time?
Heaven is what God wants for you for eternity but
it’s impossible to comprehend eternity. You can only think in terms of time.
You know when events begin and when they end. Sometimes they fly by, sometimes
they drag on. If someone tells you not to think in terms of time, you can’t do
it. You are bound by time. You cannot remove yourself from time. The closest to
it is being asleep or in a coma. But even so, when you wake up you are aware
that time has elapsed. Time continues when you are not in a conscious state.
God, however, is not bound by time. He is eternal.
He has no beginning and no end. Things don’t go slow for Him or take a long
time. He is outside of time. He created it.
But He did something remarkable, perhaps even
strange. He placed Himself into time. He bound Himself to it. He became a man,
a human being. He was born in a specific moment in time. He lived in a
particular era of history; He lived for a certain amount of years. He who is
not bound by time was now having to wait 365 days to turn a year older.
We know God did this to save us. But did He have to
save us in this way? Why would God submit Himself to what we endure in this
life? He’s God, He can do anything. What moved Him to bind Himself to time?
Jesus shows us with His words to the disciples in
the Gospel reading. He told them He would be leaving them. But then He would
return to them. They had no idea what He was talking about. They were trying to
figure it out.
He was referring to the fact that He would be going
to the cross where He would die. He would be leaving them. But then He would
come back to life and so He would be with them again. This is what He was
talking about. They didn’t get it. And they continued to not get it until He
rose from the dead.
He said they would fall into deep sorrow. They
wouldn’t come out of it until they saw Him again and they would rejoice in
seeing Him alive. They weren’t getting it when He was telling them, but
afterward they would remember that He had told them beforehand. And that was a
comfort to them.
But the apostle John was not writing this down out
of historical interest. The apostle John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to
write this down for you. What Jesus told His disciples has meaning for you. It
applies to you because what He said to the disciples shows you why God saved us
in the way He did, humbling Himself to become a human being, to be bound by
time, to suffer and die.
He is showing you how He uses time to save you.
Jesus wasn’t just telling His disciples what would happen. He was saying that
He would be leaving them in a little while. And then it would be a little while
when He would return to them.
When you are experiencing sorrow it doesn’t seem
like a little while. It seems like it won’t end. Jesus uses the example of a
woman giving birth. She’s not thinking that this is a brief moment of difficulty.
She must endure it because her baby is not coming right away.
But Jesus’ words are what determines what is. When
Jesus was gone the disciples despaired in sorrow. But in the light of eternity
it truly was a little while.
And now you experience a similar thing to the
disciples. Jesus went away from them when He died, but then He returned to them
when He rose. But then He left again, ascending into heaven. The disciples were
left without Him but then He returned. You are left without Him and it seems
anything but a little while until He returns to you.
And you know why this is? No, it’s not because two
thousand years since Jesus ascended is a really long time. You are bound by
time. You are viewing what Jesus says through your limited understanding. You
need to see time from His perspective, not yours. You need to view your life
the way He views your life, not in a way that makes sense to you. You need to
see your life not as your own but as what God has given you to live and to see
yourself not as who you are but who you are in Christ.
As a Christian you are not bound by time. You are
not waiting around for God to save you. You aren’t in a holding pattern until
God brings you to heaven. As a Christian you have eternal life. That’s life
outside of time. It’s without end. It is life with God whether you are awake or
asleep. You are not in a state of grace one moment and then apart from Christ
the next if you have an evil thought. You are either in Christ or you’re not.
If you’re in Christ you have eternal life, not salvation that will be given at
some future point.
Jesus speaks of a little while because there is no
long while with Him. Time is at His disposal. You can’t make time do what you
want. You have only so much of it and it’s the same as what everybody else has.
But Jesus? He uses time, something He is not bound by, to bring eternity to
you. Since you cannot bring yourself out of time, He comes to you, in your
life, in time, to give you eternal life. You now have life that is timeless, it
is not here and then not, not flying by or dragging on interminably. It is life
with God in Christ, forever.
Now, if you’re thinking, Okay, I have eternal life
but I’m still here, aren’t I? I still have to set an alarm clock and be at
meetings and appointments on time, don’t I? If I tell my boss that I have eternal
life and so am not bound by time, he’ll tell me that if I’m late again I’ll be
fired. Right?
Yes. You live in time and you should. God has given
this to you to do. Having eternal life doesn’t remove you from your life here;
your time, your vocations, your duties and responsibilities. The beauty of God
giving you eternal life now is that it frees you up. And what Peter says about
that in the Epistle reading is, Live as people who are free. You are a Christian,
live like one. Don’t use your being freedom to just live as everyone else does,
where they are constricted by time and cannot see beyond it.
Live, as Peter says, as one who freely gives of
your time, because you are not subjugated to it. It’s not your time. You have
eternal life! What is using your time to help someone when you’re tempted to
think that you’ll be inconvenienced. Jesus freed you up from such a
shortsighted and constricting view. You are freed up to help others. To serve
them. To give of yourself to them. Your time, your resources. What are these in
eternity? They are nothing more than as Jesus describes, a little while.
In a moment of time Jesus took in Himself the sin
if the world. In that moment there was no time, Jesus brought eternity to
earth. In Him God was reconciling the world to Himself. When you are reconciled
to God, there is no time, only eternity. Time is momentary. Eternity is
forever.
That’s why you need to stop thinking of God and
what He does for you in terms of time. In a moment of time you were Baptized
and you were no longer bound by time as you were brought into eternal life with
God, you were and are now in Christ, who is above time. When He gives you His
body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, it is in a moment of time but
there is no time. You are feasting with the angels and the archangels and the
whole company of heaven. This is the Eternal Feast, the Feast of the Lamb. It
has no ending; you are brought into this eternal Feast as you commune at this
altar.
Heaven is not a place. It does not start and go on
for a period of time. Heaven is being with God, without time, forever. He gives
you heaven, eternity, in Jesus. He gives you Jesus right here, in this place,
in this moment, at this altar. No time, no ending, just eternity. Amen.
SDG
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