Interpreting This Present Time

We live in today with an eye for eternity.



If you’ve looked in the back yard of the parsonage, you may have noticed that I’ve got a pool there now. But you may not have heard the story behind how I got it.
It was around Mother’s Day, and the kids and I had been shopping in Adrian for a little somethin’ somethin’ for Stephanie. We got her some “mother bling” . . . a gold chain that holds little kid-shaped charms: one charm for each kid, each with the appropriate birthstone set in it. But then on the way home I glanced over into the yard of one of the houses we were passing and did a double-take.
“Is that really what that sign said?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. So I whipped the van around and headed back up the street. And sure enough, just as I had seen, was a sign: “18’ pool. With accessories. Free.”
Well! A free pool! How could I pass that up? (Now, I did think briefly of returning all the stuff we had bought for Stephanie and instead passing off this pool as a very thoughtful gift . . . but I resisted the urge to be a total cheapskate!)
So we got the pool loaded up in the van and headed home to set it up. And little did I realize how much a free pool would cost! First, you’ve got the water. Two to three thousand gallons of water has to be paid for somehow. Cha-ching! Then the chemicals. Cha-ching! Algae killer. Cha-ching! Pool vacuum broke, gotta get a new one. Cha-ching! And so on and so forth, until it starts to sound like a twisted version of the credit card commercial: Pool chemicals: 40 dollars. Pool skimmer: 25 dollars. More pool chemicals: 45 dollars. Look on pastor’s face when he realizes how much the “free” pool is costing him: priceless.
What seemed to be a good idea for today—a free pool—turned out to be a rather pricey venture just a few months down the road. I had allowed myself to get into a situation where living with an eye for today was costing me in the long-term.
It’s foolish to live only for today! Parents, you understand this. When you were raising your kids, there were times when you had in mind the person that they would become in 20 years’ time but they only had in mind what they wanted today, right now. You wanted to build some lasting character into them, and so you were willing to live with a bit of division, maybe even hostility, for today. Who they were going to become was more important than what they thought of you today. Your mission of raising good kids—really, of making raising a kid into a good adult—had you living in today, but guided your actions with an eye for the future.
Or sometimes we see this in union negotiations. There might be a contingent of union members who want huge benefits and big salaries. Their desires for today might very well bankrupt the company, but it seems like some workers don’t care as long as they get want they want today. But the negotiators realize that they’ve got to look a the big picture, and so they accept a package that will keep the company financially healthy in the long run so that the employees might continue to be able to make a living not only for today but for years to come.

Of course, the truth is that today is the only day we can live in. But there must be times when the things that we choose to do today aren’t determined by what today demands, but by what our long-term goals are. When we have a long-term plan in mind, we are able to endure sacrifice, hardship, and even some strife and division in today so that our goal for tomorrow may come about. The demands of today are deliberately ignored in order to serve the greater goal of a better tomorrow.



In Luke, chapter twelve, beginning with verse 49—the Gospel lesson for today—Jesus presents us with a pretty clear picture of how to live a life that balances the demands of today with the goals of tomorrow. He gives us a picture where we understand the context in which we live today, but our actions and choices are driven by the greater goal of what will happen in the future. Jesus shows us that we live in today with an eye for eternity.

How do we as Christians live in today? We live in today by understanding how to interpret the time in which we live. Jesus tells us that we should be able to interpret the times in the same way that we can look at the sky and know what kind of weather we’ll be having. Interpreting the times should almost be second nature to us.
When I think about understanding the times in which we live, I think of the men of Issachar. The men of Issachar lived in the time of David. David’s not yet been made king, and he’s on the run from Saul: the evil, faithless king that God was about to replace with David. It’s a critical time in Israel’s history.
And as David was on the run, men from all over Israel came and joined him, forming a mighty army. And in 1 Chronicles chapter twelve there’s this list of all the men who joined up on the side of David. Nearly everyone in that list is named as being some sort of mighty warrior. It mentions men who came with shield and spear, brave young warriors, experienced fighters with every kind of weapon. All the men who came to David were named as warriors . . . all except the men of Issachar. The men of Issachar stick out not because of their fighting strength, but because they were called men “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
All the men came ready to fight a battle, but the ones that get some special recognition are the ones who understood the times. They not only knew where the nation of Israel had been, they understood where it was going now. The men of Issachar had been carefully taking note of what was going on in the country. They realized the impact that the country’s woes would have on their own tribe. Because they were students of the times, they realized that the future of Israel was at stake. And furthermore, because they understood the times in which they lived, they had a better understanding of what God’s plan was and what their part in it would be.
In order to carry out our mission, Our Saviour Lutheran Church must become like the men of Issachar. We must become students of the time in which we live. We must become students of the community, watching and learning what’s happening among our neighbors, our city, our county, and understanding it. Not living in the past, but living in today, having our finger on the pulse of our community. We’ve got to know what challenges our neighbors are facing . . . what factors are threatening the livelihood of our community . . . what obstacles there are that will keep us from accomplishing our mission. Like the men of Issachar, we must understand today and live in it.
But Jesus does not give us the luxury of living only for today, but He also gives us a mission that is meant to create in us a sense that what we do today will have repercussions into eternity. At the beginning of the Gospel reading He says, “I have come to bring fire.” That’s end-of-the-world talk. It’s language that brings to mind the end of the age . . . it brings to mind Judgment Day.
Our mission is huge! C.S. Lewis once wrote in The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”
Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and to do so with the knowledge that every person we as a church encounter is a person that we will somehow help along their way to either Heaven or to Hell. Everything we do will in some way impact their eternal destiny, and we must understand the times in which we live in order to carry out our mission to its full effectiveness.
We live in today with an eye for eternity. The key is to properly view the former in the context of the latter. Our Saviour Lutheran Church has a greater mission at stake than just what we desire for today. It’s not about what we desire, it’s about what God would have us do in and among our community. None of our personal desires is as important as the mission.
In the 1950’s there were five men who understood their times and the mission God had called them to. And so these five men left America, took their wives and children, and banded together as missionaries to the Auca Indians in Ecuador. The Auca were a fierce tribe, feared by all their neighbors. And yet these five men took it upon themselves to meet—and minister to—this brutal tribe.
Over the period of a few months they would air drop gifts to the Aucas. They learned as much about them as they could from the other natives. And then, finally, they decided it was time to meet the Aucas face to face.
They never came back alive. All five men were speared to death. Why? It would be discovered later that the men had been killed because of the word of one young Auca girl. A girl who on a lark decided to tell the rest of the tribe that these men had come to kill them and eat them. A lie . . . a lie told as lark, a joke, and it cost five good, Christian men their lives.
No one would have denied the choice of the women to take the bodies of their dead husbands and head back home. But one woman stayed. Understanding what was at stake—both her life and the eternal lives of the Aucas—Elizabeth Elliot stayed and continued to reach out with the message of God’s love and grace given through Jesus Christ to the very people that had made her a widow.
And she did it. Within two years she had made friends and converts of the Aucas. Elizabeth Elliot answered God’s call and made a major difference in the eternal destiny of a people who, without her, would have died without Christ. She understood her times. She understood the cost. And she was willing to live her life today with an eye for God’s mission in eternity.
As Jesus came to fulfill His mission, there were certain things that He understood. He understood not everybody was going to answer the Spirit’s call to believe in Him. He understood that households and families would be divided in two over who chose to follow Him and who rejected His message. He understood that, because of Him and His message, there would be strife and division and even anger and resentment among people who had before known only peace and love. He understood all of this . . . and yet He came anyway! He came anyway, knowing the cost and willing to pay it, seeing the cross and willing to endure it, because the cost of not coming was too great for God to endure. The cost of Christ not coming was that all would die in their sin and be condemned. So He came on His mission, offering grace and eternal life to all in order that at least some might believe and be saved. This is the cost He paid for you. This is the cost He paid for me. As Christ looked upon us in love, He calculated the cost that His mission would take to get us into eternity with Him. And thank God . . . He paid it. He paid it all.

What cost is keeping you in a life that lives just for today? What cost is keeping you from carrying out God’s mission? What cost is keeping Our Saviour from being a church that lives in today with an eye for eternity? Is it a church service that runs a bit longer than what we might like? Is it that you feel you’re too old, that you’ve already done your part? Is it that you just don’t really yet understand the times in which we live? Is it that you just don’t know how we can carry out the mission we’ve been given? What’s the cost that’s keeping us from fulfilling our mission?
Is it greater than this? Is it greater than the cost of the cross? Because if it is not, then it pales in comparison to the cost Jesus was willing to pay so that you and I and everyone else in this community may come to Him and know Him and be forgiven and be redeemed.
Imagine the impact Our Saviour could have on our community if we began to live in today with an eye for eternity. Imagine the change that would occur in our community if we united together under the mission of Jesus Christ. With His grace supporting us, with His mission guiding us, setting aside our desires for today and living out lives that impacted people for all eternity . . . this community could be transformed. All through a church living in today with an eye for eternity.