Thought for Today
Proverbs 24:19 Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not envy the wicked; 20 for the evil have no future; the lamp of the wicked will go out.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
1 Corinthians 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-- all belong to you,
1 Timothy 6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
“Your Hit Parade was an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television.” "Che sarà" is an Italian song, written by Jimmy Fontana (music) and Franco Migliacci (lyrics) for the 1971 Sanremo Music Festival.” (Wikipedia)
My family regularly watched Your Hit Parade. I vividly remember hearing Che Sera Sera sung on Your Hit Parade (by Dorothy Collins?). I also remember Doris Day singing that song in the movie Please Don’t Eat the Daisies in 1960. The general translation for that song title is “Whatever will be, will be.” The refrain is, “Que será, será/Whatever will be, will be/The future's not ours to see/Que será, será/What will be, will be"
This morning, I wonder, will it? Is the song correct? Will whatever be? Is the future unknowable, inexorable, fixed? Fatalists believe that the future is fixed and unchangeable. The future is predetermined and inevitable. I believe the antonym of fatalism is optimism.
One of my favorite engineering jokes is that we engineers do not see the glass as half full or half empty. We just see the glass as twice as big as it needs to be. Maybe the opposite of fatalist and optimist is engineer?
How do you view the world when you wake up each day? Do you see the future as fixed, inexorable, inevitable? Or, do you see the future as variable, filled with possibilities and potentials?
Scripture seems to me to present aspects of both views. Proverbs and the wisdom (?) of the Prophet of Ecclesiastes imply that God has a plan. So too, do the writings of the apostle Paul. Paul, however, seems to me to inject the idea that Christians have a roll to play in the execution and development of God’s plan.
Can Christians know the future? Can we influence the future? Many Christians do try to predict the future. Bookstores are full of tomes presenting prophetic predictions of what is to come. Jesus told his disciples, “Matthew 24”6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” Virtually every verse of the book of Revelation has been parsed in an attempt to find proof of apocalyptic doom in current events. Additionally, we have suffered through Y2K and the Mayan Calendar, both presented as signs of the apocalypse. Just this past week there was an editorial in the Boston Globe once again raising the (increased) probability of nuclear conflagration.
We are still here. The future still presents wide vistas ahead of us each morning as we awaken. Since the dawn of humankind, there have always been wars and rumors of wars; there have always been storms, fires, earthquakes and other devastating elements of God’s Creation. We are still here. The future still waits ahead of us.
I do believe the ultimate future is inexorable, inflexible, predetermined and that we are in ‘the last days.’ I believe that the Incarnation of Jesus, the Christ, heralded the approach of the end. I also believe that the end will come in God’s own good time, not in mine or on the timetable of any of us. I believe that end time will occur when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. I believe that what comes after that is up to God. God knows; and I don’t have to concern myself with any thoughts about it. All I need to do is work to hasten the Kingdom of God.
I like to watch for and share what I think of as ‘Kingdom moments.” I do see the Kingdom of God breaking out all around us in the everyday lives of Christians. I see it in the volunteers at our food pantry and at other organizations battling food and housing insecurity. I see it in the lives of teachers and others nurturing and shaping young lives. I see it in the faith-filled lives of Christians all around me, in our congregation and other congregations. The future is ours to see. The future is the Kingdom of God.
Stay safe, watch for Kingdom moments, trust God,
Pastor Ray