I can only imagine
from Helen
When I was younger I used to go on a Christian youth camp every summer. This camp would be at Aberaeron. The camp was always a lot of fun and included a day out to Oakwood theme park. I never liked rides in the theme park but I really enjoyed walking around with my friends. One year there was a boy on the camp from France. Now, he was having a lot of fun on the camp and had made friends there. On the day we went to Oakwood he somehow got lost and left his friends. We had all got on a little train which would take us to the theme park including this boy however he disappeared. At the end of the day we discovered that he hadn’t got off the train but had spent the whole day on the train going back and forth to the park but never getting off the train. He couldn’t work out where everyone else was or where the rides were. He had seen a part of the good things in store but not all of it.
Our readings this morning have been positive they have spoken of something better, something greater that was to come. In the reading from the book of Job (19:23-27a) we heard of Job knowing that in spite of everything that he had been through His redeemer lives. Not only this but that there was a promise at the end of all time that He would see God face to face. It is an amazing reading that Job in the midst of everything, losing all he had, being comforted by friends who said it was all his fault knew that there was more there was something better.
Then in our epistle reading (2Thess. 2:1-5,13-17) we heard of the promise that yes Jesus would come again but there was no need to be taken in by people making it into a panicked event. The writer of the epistle warned the readers not to be taken in by anything apart from the truth, the foundations of faith and he even stated that they were to be comforted by the grace and good hope that only God can give.
In our gospel reading (Luke 20:27-38) we heard of people missing the point. The sadducees came to Jesus with what may have seemed a very complex question, at the end of time who will belong to who in the case of a woman who had married 7 brothers. Jesus pointed out that they were missing the point they were judging by our standards, and from our point of view it would be a conundrum worthy of countdown or a soap opera but Jesus pointed out that life would be different.
We try to understand things in our way when actually when we are looking to God and thinking of Him and His rule then we know that we really can’t understand God’s ways. If we could He wouldn’t be God. If I could understand everything about God then I would be His equal and so He wouldn’t be worshipped as God, as being greater than us.
Like the boy on the ride going around oakwood but never actually going into the theme park we have a choice. We can stay on the outside of faith, dipping our toes in as and when we feel like it or we can dive right in knowing that there is something better. There is more for us to enjoy.
The gospel reading mentions resurrection, meaning people being raised after their death. The point Jesus was making is that at the end of time there will be a new world, a new age. Jesus had brought us new life and was pointing us to heaven but when He comes again a whole new world will begin. This new world is one that we can’t understand in the same way that we can’t understand what heaven will be like all we know for sure is that it will be better.
In the gospel reading Jesus was pointing out that the fact that life would not be as we know it, but would be better. The things that seem important now will fade in the light of Christ.
The readings have started to get us ready for advent when we will be thinking of the coming of Christ as we prepare for Christmas and also as we pray for Jesus to come again. We look at the world around us and we hope for something better but in the assurance that there is something better. Job saw it, he knew his redeemer lived and he had a vision of how things might be. Jesus showed that the world would be different.
These are our hopes, life with God is better here and in the time to come.
As I was preparing this it was just after the first female Bishop in Wales had been elected, I had just come back from a funeral of a woman whose faith was seen throughout her life and it made me think of how things can change around us and also how things can be better. Some people will find it difficult that there is now a female bishop in Wales, others are rejoicing but like the woman whose funeral I had been to we have faith and hope that everything is going to be better.
I would like to finish by reading some words from a song that I really love, it talks of how things could be in eternity and these words will cause us to think of whether we are going to enter more fully into relationship with God here or just stay on the edges. God invites us in, and when you think about it, well it is obviously going to be worth it.
I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk by your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When your face is before me
I can only imagine.
Surrounded by your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus,
Or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine
I can only imagine when that day comes
And I find myself standing in the sun
I can only imagine when all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you AMEN
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