It's the end of the world as we know it

Hey folks, and welcome to the countdown to the apocalypse.  Yes, it's true.  According to the Mayans, their calendar might possibly run out this year, in December.  This has ushered in a whole new realm of apocalyptical thinking, that we're on the road to disasters all over the place.  Yes, the Mayans, who couldn't forsee the coming of the conquistadors, are the authority now on when the world is going to end.

Of course, that's not fair.  You can see the signs all around you, can't you?  Earthquakes, rising sea levels.  Nation is rising against nation, bombs being dropped all over the world every day, it's a mess out there.  And is it just me, or does it seem to be getting worse?  Not one day goes by that we're not hearing about some new calamity or catastrophe. These may very well be the signs of the end times that Jesus was talking about in his discussion with his disciples.  He has all sorts of signs for them that the end of all things is about to happen.  Here, I'll let the man tell you in his own words:

²⁴ “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[a]

²⁶ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it^[b] is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
          
                                          Mark 13:24-31

Jesus tells you that you should take the lesson from the fig tree.  That is, when you see the buds appearing on branches, even when there's snow on the ground, you know that spring can't be too far behind.  Likewise, as Canadians, you know a more pronounced sign:  You know those hot summer days when the cool beer in the backyard tastes as good as anything, and the burgers are sizzling on the grill?  You know the days when you just have to break out the wading pool because it's a million degrees, and the summer feels like it'll last forever?  You don't even know where your extension cord is, because you'd be prepared to swear you won't need it from now until doomsday.  You know those days?  Well, as you're sitting in the backyard, all of a sudden, a single, solitary leaf falls from your backyard apple tree.  Well, that could be anything, right?  And then the next day, you wake up, and the neighbor's tree is looking a little yellow in the leaves.  Once again, it could just be a sick tree.  Nothing to get too concerned about, right?  But then, two days later, you look out at your yard, and it's hard to see the grass beneath the dried out leaf carpet.

Those trees are smarter than you.  They know that winter's on its way.  They know it, and they drop their leaves accordingly.  You and I, we try to deny it for a while, but we know, deep down, that winter's coming.  

That isn't to say that winter's here yet though . That's the thing about Regina autumns.  The leaves can be all on the ground, the trees can be completely barren, but it can still hit plus thirty.  And then summer almost always gets a death row pardon before we hit autumn proper.  But when the leaves start falling, you know one thing:  That summer isn't going to last forever.  There will be an end to it.  It's not here yet, but it will be one day.  One day you'll wake up, and the world will be blanketed in snow like it's Edward Scissorhands.

Now, back to the Bible.  If you've read through the book of Revelation, you probably have an idea that you're living in the end times.  You might very well be.  But I'd advise you to not get too interested in trying to find too many parallels between that book and the world around us.  Yes, it may very well be that this is the end of everything, and that a planet will crash into Earth killing us all.  But it may not.  You remember all the fuss that there was about that guy who predicted the rapture earlier this year.  Oh, yes, that's right, he predicted the rapture twice, and he was wrong both times.  And after doing so, he lost all his credibility, not only with the press and the public, but likely amongst his own followers, too. Yes, we all had a good laugh, as we will after December comes and goes this year, and the apocalypse doesn't happen.  And we'll get lulled back into a not entirely deserved sense of security, thinking that this apocalypse thing is just a load of old bunk.

But the picture that Jesus paints is not of a world immune from apocalypse.  Just one in which you should be aware that time is running down overall.  He flat out tells you that it's useless to try to predict when the end of everything will be. 

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[e]! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

                               Mark 13:32-37

Jesus says that you're not going to know the day or the hour.  You won't know until it's happening.  You won't know the master is coming home until he's at the gates.  You won't get the advance warning that you'd want, so you can get your house in order before he comes.  But that's not the point of this story, to predict when the end will be.  The point is, rather, that you know THAT the end will be.

It's a lot like the life of the individual human.  You're cruising along, perfectly fine for about 40, 45 years, then all of a sudden you wake up one morning, and your back seizes up completely.  No warning, nothing.  So you go to the doctor, and the doctor informs you that you have a bad back now.  That's it.  Take some aleve, and try to relax about it.  Louis CK will tell you all about it, though he has some blue language.  It's not like things were when you were younger, in which you'd throw your back out, then ice it, then be fine the next day.  No, now when you throw your back out, it's out.  When you hurt your shoulder, it never quite goes back to being fine again.  Always some slight twinges in it.  Nothing too terrible, nothing you can't live with, but it's a long way away from feeling normal.  But as these aches and pains coem up, they tell you something: You're not dying.  You're not suffering from imminent death syndrome.  But you know that you're not going to last forever. Up to a certain point, you may feel as though you're invincible; but then things start to change.

All of creation is like that too.  Is the world going to end in December of 2012?  Who knows?  Not us, certainly, and your guess is as good as mine.  But the point is not about predicting the end of the world, but it's about reading the signs that are there.  Just like you read the falling leaves in summer, and the buds on the trees in the winter, you can tell when the seasons are thinking about changing.  That season won't be here forever. So too, whenever disasters and calamities strike, when nations rise against nations, when all of creation groans, instead of thinking about this as just one more disaster to be averted then things are fine, remember that this world is winding down, and will one day stop.  When will that be?  Who cares!  Jesus tells us to be constantly ready, to be eternally vigilant.  He tells us that creation is winding down, but we will not know when that will be until it's too late, so be always on your guard.  Be constantly aware.  Know the signs, and know them for what they are.  A sign that this world will pass away, but the world of God will never pass away.  When we do finally get to the end of all things, don't worry, you won't mistake it for anything else.  

But if the world is stopping, and we're all going to die, if the sun is going to burn out one day, and there will be an eventual heat death to the whole universe, then what's the point of anything?  Is there any purpose or meaning to life?  Well, yes, there is, I'm happy to say.  According to the fight club rules of meaning: "On a long enough timeline, everyone's life expectancy drops to zero."  Yes, that's true.  However, what we Christians believe is that human beings go on.  That we don't cease to be when we die.  We believe that even though the world may end, civilizations (like the Mayans) may come and go, kingdoms may rise and fall, but people are forever.  That means that yes, the world will collapse one day, but how we treat one another is of cosmic importance.  What we do in the here and now, the small things, the little individual things that make up a day, an hour, a lifetime, all that stuff really really matters.  So, where do we find meaning in our lives?  What are we to do with a creation that is collapsing?

1 - "God blessed them, and said to them 'be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" -Genesis 1:28.  We are supposed to have and be in families, to make relationships.  We are supposed to be husbands, wives, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters, brothers and friends.  We are also supposed to take care of the world that we've been given, whether it's falling apart or not, it is ours to manage.

2 - "Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him; for it is his heritage." - Ecclesiastes 5:18.  We're told that we are supposed to work, to be busy, but to enjoy the work.  We are never supposed to be idle, but working towards something worthwhile, that we may enjoy the fruits of our labor, and hopefully the purpose of the labor itself.

3 - "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." -Galatians 6:2. We are intended to look after each other.  Though this world may be spinning towards destruction, and everyone in it is for sure going to die someday, people are eternal.  We are supposed to work with each other, support each other, and care for each other.

4 - "Follow me" - John 21:19.  In the face of everything else, follow Christ.  Worship the Lord your God, and serve him.  Then all these things will be added unto you.  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all.  

Seems like a pretty straightforward plan, doesn't it?  But you're going to botch it, just like I do.  And that's okay.  Because the big punchline at the heart of Christianity is that it's never been about you doing it all the right way.  It's about what do you believe in when you fail?  Not in being perfect, but in being made perfect.  We do what we can while creation is broken and groaning, and we believe in the one who renews, who makes all things new, who draws all of creation to himself.  It's a curious thing, that even as all of creation spins towards collapse, we have one foot in permanence.  We know all things here will end, that creation will melt away like wax, but that there is a much deeper, greater reality that we are drawn to, through the curtain of the flesh of Christ, who opened up eternity to the temporal, and who brings us the impossible.  Forever and ever.  Amen.

PJ.

Atheists. Winning since 33 AD.

On Sunday, you may have heard me talk about the many and various ways and places in which people like to point out the insanity of belief in God based on the many and various things that go wrong in the world.  And the idea is that you can take a rough sampling of some stuff that happens, and look at it and say

"Well, if God was good, then he would stop this.  But he doesn't.  So either he isn't all powerful, or he isn't good.  And if either of those things is true, then why call him God?"

WINNING!

Okay.  That argument against belief in God is old.  It's super duper old.  It goes back to a time shortly after the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus himself.  And that's just this quote!

But the problem of evil is a thorny one.  If God was all-powerful, and truly wanted there to be good in the world, then how is there still evil.  How do we live in a world today in which the Syrian government is lobbing shells at its civilians, or the Israelis and Palestinians are firing rockets at each other.  How do we live in a world in which we have people doing a whole bunch of horrible things to each other, and yet we still say God is good?  How can we?

Yes, we live in a terrible world, in which people are terrible to each other.  And we ask the question, as we are wont to do, why doesn't God just get rid of all the evil in the world.  What's he waiting for?  He's all powerful, and ostensibly a cool guy, so why all the pain and suffering?

This is a scene that I keep on going back to again and again.  Why do I keep on going back to this trailer?  Because I sincerely believe that it hits a pretty major point in the problem of evil.  Bill Maher, in this most excellent trailer for his most excellent movie 'religulous,' asks a man dressed as Jesus why God doesn't just get rid of all the evil in the world, to which the guy dressed as Jesus (apparently an authority on this) says that He will.  And Bill Maher's response is "What's he waiting for."

That's apparently the knockout punch.  That's the devastating knockout punch to religion in general, and ones that have an omnipotent God in particular.  Ones like Christianity.  We have an all-powerful God who is good.  So what's with all the suffering?  Why doesn't he just obliterate all the evil in the world?

Well, I believe that a golden opportunity was missed in this scene by the guy in the Jesus suit not answering with the very real, very heartfelt answer that is lurking at the core of each individual Christian.  It's not one we think about very often, but it's really central to what we believe, and the problem of evil in general.  Why won't God wipe out all the evil in the world?  Because I don't want him to.

As a famous singer once said, 'if everyone wanted peace like they said they want peace, we'd have peace.'  And if everyone who said they wanted God to obliterate all the evil from the world actually wanted God to obliterate all the evil from the world, then there would be no more evil.  But I don't.  Sure, I might say that I want God to eliminate the people who are committing genocide, or crushing their own people into submission, or raping or murdering or what not.  But you know what?  Short of murder, I have no way of stopping those people from doing what they're going to choose to do.  So the one person over whom I do have control, i.e. me, I'm not really keen on changing what he does.  I don't think that any of my sins are that big a deal, that God should be worried about bigger issues.  It's like how you are when a cop pulls you over for speeding, and the first question you may ask is 'don't you have any real criminals to catch?'

But imagine a cosmic cop who could watch everywhere and be everywhere at the same time.  Imagine if said supercop was able to see everything that went on, and could perfectly punish every infraction, no matter how minor, it would be worth his time.  You see, we tend to think of our actions as being very similar to those watched by the cop.  And we tend to think that the stuff we do is no big deal.  God should be concentrating on the big stuff.  The Hutus and the Tutsis, the Palestinians and the Israelis.  He shouldn't worry about the fights and neglects going on in your own home.

But, of course, he should.  And he does.  If we expect him, as Epicurus does above, to be all good, and all powerful, then he should probably care about everything.  If we expect him to strike the genocidal dictators dead for their work, then why do we feel as though He shouldn't strike us dead before we raise a hand against our wives or children, or as we click a link on the internet that takes us somewhere we shouldn't go, or before we speak spitefully to a spouse, or take money that isn't ours, any of these times, why should God not strike us dead.

In many ways, the question is not so much 'why does God allow evil to exist,' but more 'why, in his infinite wisdom, does God see any good in any of this?'  Why did he allow free will in the first place if it was going to turn out so poorly?  Well, think of who you are, and what you do.  Think of yourself when you are at your best.  Think about what you do that is phenomenal and good, when you exceed even your own expectations, when you do what you know is the right thing, when you are good and generous to someone who really doesn't deserve it, and what do they say?

"You didn't have to do that"

It's true.  You didn't.  And that's what made it good.  If you had to, it wouldn't be a good work now, would it?  Nobody compliments their pizza delivery driver by saying 'yes you had to get here because it's your job to do so.'  Nobody says to their waitstaff 'hey, my food arrived at my table.  Good work.'  We tip these people when they go above and beyond what they absolutely had to do.  It's your free will that makes you a chunk of junk sometimes.  Yes.  But it's also your free will that makes anything you do worth doing.  It's only your free will that gets you beyond your obligation, and lets you do the works that are closest to the divine.  

If there was just something that you absolutely were compelled to do, by biology, by physics, by chemistry, it wouldn't be good or bad.  It would be neutral.  But God made us with free will, with the ability to be both good and bad, and with the ability to be loving or hateful.  And in the midst of all this, he made a promise through Jesus.  He promised the impossible.  He promised life everlasting, in which all the burden of sin would be taken away.  What does that mean?  That through Christ, and the forgiveness of sins, we can be both sinners and saints.  We have the free will to botch a thousand things a day up, and yet we can still take that sin to Christ and have it forgiven.

Can God prevent evil?  Only through getting rid of us.  

Is he able but not willing?  Yes.

Then he is merciful.  

To you and to me, to Epicurus and to Ariel Sharon.

To those who can do great evil, and to those who can be simply rude to each other.

Through the cross on which Jesus Christ died, and through his death, he broke the problem of evil.

We are bad, but God forgives.  There is justice and there is mercy.  

Jesus.  Winning since 33 AD.

Mitey mites

This last Sunday was the account of the widow's mite.  You know the story.  If you don't, here's a brief refresher.

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

³⁸ As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, ³⁹ and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁰ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

⁴¹ Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Thus far the text.  As I say, you know this story by now, or at least you've probably heard it.  The widow's small copper coins are referred to as mites, little tiny things.  And that's what she tossed into the treasury.  Looked like nothing, of course, but it ended up being everything.  

Now, this is the strange thing about the Christian faith - It's all on a case by case basis.  That is, you don't get to comfort yourself in comparison to someone else.  And that's quite jarring, given how the world in general views the world in general.  Think about the entire advertising industry for a second, if you will.  The entire advertising industry is predicated on the notion that you will be comparing yourselves (usually negatively) with the PEOPLE who are in the advertising campaign.  Yes, folks, it's true.  Take a look at any ad (not that you watch ads anymore), and ask yourself a big ol' question, which is "what are they actually selling me here?"  More than likely, it's not a product, it's a lifestyle that you'll never have, but that you think you want.  And you think to yourself "If only I had this one item, then I'd be those people."  But you won't, because those people don't exist, and never will.

Back to the widow for a second.  In real world terms, she gave very little.  She gave two small copper coins, worth practically nothing.  She gave just a handful of dust, and yet Jesus singled her out for a lesson to be taught here.  And it isn't just about money.  It's about who you are and what you do.

As I say, it's on a case by case basis, and each case is different.  And you and I have, well, some problems that we need to take care of.  A bunch of problems.  Things leaking out of our pores.  Bad choices that we make every single day.  But here's the juice:  something the Christian church has failed at, and failed badly at, is in not recognizing this as a real issue.  We know that Jesus is great, yes granted, but then after that, what is to be done?  Well, most of us have an idea about who we think is great.  It usually goes a little something like this:

Jesus

Martin Luther

C F W Walther

President of LC-C

District President

Me

Local Pastor

Other plebs.

The end.  And we, in the Christian church, very very rarely acknowledge the mites that actually get dropped off at the church, or honestly anywhere else.  You see, everyone ever has their own problems, their own bugbears that they have to deal with.  And the vast majority of people that I see have a bucket of problems that they just pretend that they don't, at least for the purposes of church.  But they do know what counts as a problem, and they are quick to point it out in others, mainly because, at least for the purposes of appearance, it sure looks like you're bringing a lot more to the table.  You've got a good German last name, you've got the Lutheran pedigree going way back, and you served on the board of Elders twice. Great.  That's the large sum you bring and drop off.  Your abundance of virtue and goodness.  And it's good stuff, don't get me wrong; it certainly looks like a lot more than anyone else brings to the table.  But that's where you and I always get into trouble.  You see, we have no idea how much anyone else is bringing to the table.  Do you know why?

Because we have no idea what anyone else has.

The only person whom you know sufficiently enough to be able to say 'he or she should try harder and be better,' is you.  Nobody else, mainly because you have no idea what is in anyone else's account.  You have no idea how many riches are stored up, if any.  The only person whom you have the slightest clue is you.  You know what your account is, both materially and spiritually, you know your abundance, and you know your weaknesses.  And sometimes, and you know this, it takes absolutely everything in you to surpass one moment of temptation.  It takes everything in you to not click a link, or to walk past the liquor store, or to not call that one girl, or to say 'no thanks, I'm good' when offered something, or to put your car keys down when you're about to drive, or to bite your tongue and say nothing when your wife or husband is leveling legitimate criticisms against you, or to go to church only once in a year.  You know what it takes.  And those are the mites.  Those are the offerings that look like nothing, but in reality are absolutely everything.  You put those on the line, and it looks like two small copper coins, worth less than a penny.  

But it's worth so much more, because it's giving everything.  

As someone's bathroom wallpaper once said, you'll never succeed until you make your weaknesses into your strengths.  The abundance that you have, it's not actually worth as much as your mites.  Your strengths are worth a whole lot less than your weaknesses, and it's on a case by case, moment by moment basis.  And the only points of comparison you have are

1 - You yesterday.

2 -  Jesus Christ, who actually did give up everything, to cover those moments of pride and arrogance, those moments of judgment, and those moments when you cling on tightly to those mites, afraid anyone should see that meager offering.  But your heavenly father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.  

PJ.

Putting the fun in funeral, putting the saints in all saints day.

Did you see that ice out there on Sunday morning?  It was craaaaaaaaazy.

For those of you who are in the Regina area, there's no way you could have missed it. It was bonkers.  Cars flying around like you wouldn't believe, cops directing traffic, semi trucks parked by the side of the road because they couldn't make it up inclines, all that.  If you would have been there, you'd know.

But this is that time of the year.  A time when winter gets going, and you realize just how at the mercy of the weather you are.  Oh sure, it seems simple enough when you're cruising along in the summertime when the living is hot, and it's all windows down and shorts.  But then all of a sudden, winter crashes in, and this is the time of the year when it does.

Now, we're at the time of the year in which winter is just getting going.  And it shows no sign of stopping.  And this is the time of the year when we as people tend to lose faith in things.  We tend to lose faith in the idea that it will ever be spring again.  We tend to lose faith in the idea that we'll ever just hop in our cars and just go, where you can go 50kph when the speed limit is 50.  Heck, you might even tempt fate and go 55!

But no.  Not now, not at the beginning of November.  You are stuck in the grip of winter, and it's not going to let go for half the year.  And it's just going to get colder.  It's summer for two months.  It's winter forever.

But then comes the curious story of what we in Calgary call the chinook.  You Saskies have probably heard of it, right?  The chinook?  It means 'snow eater' in latin.  But the chinook does something pretty precious for us Albertans.  It breaks winter up.

Now, to be absolutely clear for you Saskies who have no idea what I'm talking about, in this province, once the mercury dips below minus ten, it stays there for either six months or until the end of the world, whichever comes first.  And after a while, you start to feel as though ten degrees below zero is actually a pretty nice day.  And when you pile up snow all over your yard, you realize that it doesn't go anywhere, and you start to run out of places to stack it.  Because it doesn't melt.  It just stacks up.  And as Saskies, we spend half the year shoveling snow against our houses, and then a day furiously shoveling snow away from our houses, lest the foundation spring a thousand leaks come springtime.  But until spring, the snow just sort of hangs around.

In Calgary, you get a chinook.  And the temperature warms up.  Like, really warms up.  It gets super warm for about a couple of days.  And what happens when it gets warm like that?  People who have convertibles drive with the top down and the heater on.  Folks get outside and chip away at the ice on their sidewalks without wearing jackets.  And nobody in Calgary feels as though they have actually had spring arrive on January fifteenth, or whatever.  Nobody thinks that this warm spell is going to last for the rest of the year.  Everyone knows that the mercury's going to plunge again, no doubt.  But what the chinook does is to remind you that the winter doesn't last forever.  There is an end to it, and you get a little glimpse of it for a while.

And believe it or not, that's what a funeral service is, too.  When properly considered, that is.  Most of us think of a funeral as a time and a place to go and be sad.  And that would come as no surprise.  After all, we've lost someone incredibly important to us, someone who was a big player in our lives, someone who we're going to miss.  And it's like the onset of Canadian winter, the beginning of November, where you feel as though things are never going to be free and clear and easy again.  There's a hole in your heart all the way to China, and it's never going to go away.  It's going to be frosted over windows and plugging in the car from now to eternity.  The hole in your life is so big and so great and so immense, that nothing is ever going to make it better.

But then the funeral service happens.  And yes, you're sad.  But the point of the funeral service isn't to make you sad.  On the contrary.  It's to give you hope.  Think of the funeral service when your loved one passes away, as a chinook that enters the winter of your life.  Just when you think that winter's never going to end, just when you think that it'll be ice and snow and short days forever, all of a sudden, and out of nowhere, comes a reprieve. However brief.  What you do at a funeral service is not just talk about how great the person was who passed away, and I'll tell you why.

1 - You don't need any help remembering all the good things about that person.  It's all that's on your mind.
2 - Talking about how great something is that you've lost is a sure fire way to feeling even worse.

You know that's true.  Think about Canadian winters again.  You know how when winter really sets in, and someone always says the same thing:
"Remember in the summer when we were complaining about how hot it was?"
Yes, bozo, of course we do, and we are currently regretting it. Pretty much all you can think about when it gets to be about minus 30 is how cold it is.  It's all you think about, it's all people talk about, it governs your movement and your activity, your day is based around how cold it is.  It's all you can think about, until one day, when the brief warm spell happens, then you realize that there is a brighter day coming.  It's not here yet, but it will be soon. 

Not that kind of all saints day.

This is what a funeral is for.  It's not to make you feel more sad, it's not to forget about the person who just passed away, it's not for any of that.  It's that brief chinook in the middle of winter, it's the moment when, just for a second, the snow melts, and you can see the grass underneath.  It's the moment when you were sure that winter was going to last forever, and then all of a sudden, you could see the sky, a hint of green, the roads were safer and clearer and nicer.  Maybe just for one day, there was the promise of spring.  Winter was sure to set in again, but you knew it wasn't going to last forever.

That's what funerals, and all saint's day, are all about.  Not that our loved ones are standing right there beside us, or have risen from the dead on that day, but these are the days in which, for just a second, we can see the life beneath the death, the promise beneath the grief, the love beneath the sadness.  These are the days when we have the promise, the guarantee, that even though things seem more like forever than a Canadian winter, they're not. 

16“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”


17Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ 

and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

 18They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? 

We don’t understand what he is saying.”

19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, 

so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said,

‘In a little while you will see me no more, 

and then after a little while you will see me’? 

20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.

 You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 

21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her 

time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets 

the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

 22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I

 will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one 

will take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask

 me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you 

whatever you ask in my name. 24Until now you have not asked

 for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

                                                   John 16:16-24.

And what is the little while?  Ah yes.  That is the mystery.  It certainly doesn't seem like a little while, but neither do the months between November and May.  But it is a little while.  And once in a while, we get a glimpse of spring, and the promise that winter isn't forever.

PJ