Ponderings From Your Pastor
In the year 1968, a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, titled 2001 A Space Odyssey, captured the imaginations of the American people. As a teenager I thought how distant the year 2001 seemed, so far in the future that it might never arrive. And now I stand with you, a decade beyond that year.
On the book jacket of our old and worn out copy of 2001, the summary promises the reader an adventure in time travel. The key words are “discovery,” “unknown,” “unexplored,” “searching.” The writer says of the story,
“. . . A discovery has been made that has shattered the human concept of the universe. You are journeying toward something. You do not know what it is. You only know that it has been waiting for Man to find it for three million years.”
Somehow this prophetic voice does not sound “science fiction like” in 2011. In fact, this description resonates with the world that we all know. In our lifetime we have seen tremendous changes in our world. We have been on a journey that has taken us to places unimagined and unknown. One thing is certain about our lives and our future: we can count on surprises along the way. We can rest assured that we do not know exactly what lies ahead for us each day.
For some people this uncertainty is unsettling and perhaps fraught with moments of apprehension and fear. For Christians the prospect is different, for we live with the sure and certain hope that God walks through the valleys and the shadows and that God is with us in the past and the present and the future. Jesus’ words bring comfort to us when we face the unknown: And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
An old carol has been running through my mind in the last few weeks. During the long desperate years of our country’s Civil War, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem, “Christmas Bells,” that later became the carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” The words speak of the poet’s longing for peace on earth in the midst of our nation’s darkest hours.
And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
with peace on earth good will to men.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we move into the second decade of the 21st century, may we not only trust in the Peace of Christ that indeed accompanies us in our past, our present and our future, but may we live as the people of God, seeking to bring this peace to all of God’s creation.
Shalom, Margaret