It is my hope those not fully into the sport of baseball as I am will appreciate with a good heart the analogy I propose. My experiences as a fan of baseball and following a particular team are most analogues to my experiences of God. I believe this analogy can be applied to other sports as well. Since this is my reflection, I chose baseball.

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball. But baseball has marked the time. This game; it's a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.”

The game of baseball or any sport for those who pay attention to such things can, I believe, be associated with the great spiritual gifts: faith, hope and love.

The professional baseball season occurs mostly during the church’s Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time has two parts: from after the feast of the Epiphany to the day before Ash Wednesday; then from the Monday after Pentecost to the first Sunday of Advent. This church season gives us plenty of time; time to strengthen our relationship with God and Christ Jesus, to build relationships in worship, community and service.

Baseball season has two parts; spring training and the regular season. Like Ordinary Time baseball takes its time. Spring training begins with hope and expectations that development and growth in baseball skills will result in a winning season. Maybe going “all the way.”  Play in the regular season counts in the standings until all play ends and then the World Series.

The baseball season and Ordinary Time are full of hope and expectation. Believing and doubting are at the core of religion and baseball.

Worship during ordinary time is the expectation and the hope that the mystery of Christ penetrates ever more deeply into our hearts, until we are caught up in a continuing, loving relationship with Christ.
There are times, in the Eucharist, when Jesus himself offers me His Body in the bread, His Blood in the wine; when in the Chapel praying to Our Lord that healing will happen, I have a palpable sense of presence, a mystery no words can explain. A feeling that somehow for that moment, faith is at its core, certainty dispels doubt.

As the 2004 American league championship seven game series went to a fourth game, I had an agonizing foreboding that my team would suffer a humiliating loss. They won the series at the last possible moment. That unbelievable ending, that moment, was sacred for me, an intense experience, ineffable at its core, a feeling there were higher forces at work.

Some experiences are unexplained, revealing moments of intense feeling too overwhelming to be expressed in words. These are the sacred connections between the joys of loving baseball and the joys of a spiritual life.

It seems to me we continuously search for meaning in persons, things and places capable of connecting us as believers to the sacred. Each one of us in our own time, place and context make a choice separating what is sacred for each one of us and what is not sacred.
When the sacred shows up in certain things and actions, we are lifted up to the spiritual plane. We are connected to where the sacred shines through. It becomes for us an ineffable religious experience. How can we explain this experience? There are no words that explain the sacred.

Faith is a gift from God. What we do with that gift is one of the central challenges in life. A religious tradition and love for a baseball team’s tradition, as time passes, will be doubted and tested. And the reaffirmation of that tradition comes with joy and thanksgiving, something lyrical and mysterious. The joy of confirmed faith, grace upon grace; the joy of a spiritual life; the joy of an impossible win at the last moment.

“A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap: for the measure you give will be the measure you get back”

I recently read an essay about “practicing vulnerability.”

I wondered why would anyone open themselves to becoming vulnerable? And, how do we practice vulnerability? Why would we leave our ego, our pride, open to challenge and even rejection? Why would we reveal our weaknesses, our innocence to anyone for their advantage?

An important question in our commitment to follow Christ is: did Jesus practice vulnerability? I found in Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi a text that he did in the way only Jesus could have done.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:1-3

Regard Jesus’s self-emptying himself (kenosis): Jesus, truly God and truly human, in order to live as he did in his human nature, voluntarily humbled himself. He did not use his divine personhood as the Son to avoid experiencing the realities of human pain and death, of human weakness, human needs and human vulnerabilities.

I believe he tested his human vulnerability when he risked choosing among his friends and disciples humble fishermen, sinners, society’s castaways or when he boldly expressed new interpretations of the Torah and the prophets. I believe he tested his Sonship to the Father as he went about his God appointed ministry to proclaim God’s kingdom with power and authority.

Only in error do we attribute weakness here to Jesus. The paradox is that vulnerability requires strength of character, self-confidence and firm grounding. For Jesus, his strength was his Father’s love: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” 

I began to reflect on our own humanness in relation to vulnerability. I believe in our relationships with God, with creation, with all humanity, practicing vulnerability creates a sense of belonging essential to experience a real connection. To me this is contrary to acting as the proud loner, afraid to or unable to connect, to dismiss the value of others.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better then yourselves.”

We open ourselves to be vulnerable when we look for certainty, for social acceptance, being open to questions, exploring possibilities, acting with freedom and inhibition. Vulnerability is willing to risk showing deep emotions, to provide honest expressions without fear of ridicule. Being vulnerable allows us to build trust, to love with intimacy. Being vulnerable requires feeling safe when choosing companions and friends as a sign of honesty and emotional intelligence.

Being vulnerable fosters the ability to understand and manage our own emotions in positive ways, to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Remember when James and John apart from the ten ask Jesus to grant them to sit on his right and his left in his glory. This immediately resulted in anger among the other ten disciples.

Jesus understood resentment and strife among his disciples was a danger to his and their ministry. Jesus’ answer to them was clear and unequivocal. I believe his answer is a lesson for us in humility and how to practice vulnerability. “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10: 43-45

The liturgy for the ordination of a deacon includes a promise and a prayer that still calls me even now and, I believe calls all of us to practice vulnerability, and how to live in Christ; the promise: “look for Christ in all others, being ready to help and serve those in need.”; the prayer: “Oh Lord, make me/us modest and humble, strong and constant to observe the discipline of Christ that through me/us many may come to know you and love you.”
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And the echo of his voice persists down through the ages and passes on to us: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,.”
 

​I changed the title of this reflection from “Wisdom and Mystery” to Mystery and Wisdom!"  I’m not sure why I did that. What should come first? Do we first contemplate the mystery and then apply wisdom to try see what it means to us? Or do we engage whatever wisdom gained from life’s experiences and insights, then seek what meaning there is to the mystery?

From Sirach (1: 1,5,9), all Wisdom is: “from the Lord and with him it remains forever. It is he who created her; he poured her out upon all his works, upon all the living according to his gift. Wisdom was created before all other things. The source of wisdom is God’s word and her ways are the eternal commandments.” 

Mystery is what remains unexplained or unknown; or any truth unknowable except from divine revelation. Paul in Romans 11:33; 13:12 exclaims the wonderful reality about the mystery of God: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable are his ways!  For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I am fully known.”

I don’t consider myself wise. I was always and still am curious about many things, looking for answers; lately about how life’s events, life’s twists and turns happened and continue to happen. When I consider the basic things, I believe there is still mystery of how the universe happened; how life began, along with theory and explanation. The reality is most of what we know, the sacred as well as the secular, is provisional and incomplete. Yet, I believe there are truths that are absolute about which we can neither make greater or less. I also believe it is good to have mystery in one’s life. Mystery harbors wonder and curiosity.

Our Christian faith is replete with mystery. Wisdom is God’s gift that invites us, on our faith journey, to continue to probe, in faith, the divine mystery of God. Yet there is mystery that can become known, and mystery beyond our ken. And there is mystery worthy of our faith. Such mystery I believe lies beyond the reach of faith but gives clarity to our complete trust in God’s purposes.

I believe Wisdom wants us to grow into the heart of this mystery we call God; and just contemplate with thanksgiving this wonderful gift of being fully known and fully knowing finally in our next life what we dreamed of, waited and hoped for.  “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1Corinthians 2:9

Wisdom is divinely appointed to act in the world. I believe she invites us to a way of life that is in harmony with the created order and with God's redemptive work in the world through Christ Jesus.
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A sign of wisdom is acknowledging the reality we are not God, and God is pure and ultimate Mystery. In our faith journey, in surrender, we humbly acknowledge we do not and cannot know this on our own. This surrender is at the heart of our Christian journey. Concern and anxiety about the problems we encounter in our lives shouldn’t deter us from the journey. We will find God eternally faithful and steadfast in his love for us.

“Lord, Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ”; “Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ” BOCP

How do we become “one body and one spirit” in Christ? What does it mean to be “living members” of Christ Jesus? Does this mean we continue as Christ in the world? How do we do that? We’re only human or will we be different? Will God give us grace and strength to do his work here?

When I searched the letters by St. Paul, by others in his name, I found texts about what happens and how when the Spirit (of God, of Christ) enter into us, live in us and we become members of Christ’s body.

Romans (12:4-5) “For as one body we have many members . . . . so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually we are members one of another.”

1 Corinthians (12:12,27; 15:45) for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that body, though many, are one body and so it is with Christ. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” “The Spirit of Christ, is life giving. We receive the “life giving Spirit” of Christ at baptism.”

Galatians (2:20, 3:27,29); “It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me.” “As many of you as were baptized have clothed yourselves with Christ . . . . .for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians (4: 1-16) “we must “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

Colossians 2: 6, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him . . .”

As I reflected on these texts, I realized and believe we become a different being at baptism. We are infused with Christ’s life-giving Spirit. His Spirit envelopes us as well as lives within us. At baptism, God appoints us to be Christ. We are now who he is, embodied in him and he in us.

Paul speaks of the many members of one body; though many, all are one body in Christ. To me it means we are encompassed in Christ corporately and individually: I am in Christ; we are in Christ. Paul’s reality is that God has taken all sorts of flesh and blood human bodies and knit them together into an organic whole.

I believe we now exist in a different realm: a new reality, a new life in Christ’s body, here where we are; every day, every hour, every moment in time - we are him. To me this way of being in Christ is not metaphorical. It is a reality grounded in our trust and faith in Christ Jesus.
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So, what do I, we do now? What exactly am I, are we appointed by God to do being Christ in our world?  We each have different gifts and callings. Each of us and all of us are in the body of Christ. We all are infused with the same Spirit. We all are given the same gift of faith through the same baptism. I am, we are called to use our gifts, to respond to God’s appointment as God’s herald spreading the good news of God in Christ; to be Christ individually and in community. We are called to love and serve God, actively building up the body of Christ with intention, with compassion, with love. I, we can only do this with God’s help. I ask for God’s grace to do this every day.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Timothy 3:16-17)

Paul’s reminder to Timothy plainly means to me all Scripture is written with the Holy Spirit breathing wisdom and knowledge into the minds of the writers and editors of the Gospels, as they interpret oral tradition from witnesses of actual events. In the same manner, the Jewish prophets in their writings responded to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who “spoke through the Prophets.”

Every word of Scripture is an expression of the Incarnate Word taken up and into Scripture’s human writers. Scripture, more than a reflection of history’s processes, more than a witness to the Word, lives in the very being of God. Its language is eternal.

How should we read Scripture so the plain truth embedded in the message emerges and sheds light on the meaning for us and inspires us? I think a good beginning is to clear out the noises of the day and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and patience. Reading the Bible can be daunting when our purpose is to try to comprehend and understand how the message in the text relates to our inner spiritual life and our relationship to others and to the world around us.

How do we interpret biblical texts from a personal perspective that would affect our lives? How do we internalize the meanings of the events depicted in the narratives: from Abraham forward and from witnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry?  How do what we see as imperatives from our interpretation of biblical texts operate in our daily lives?

Lectio Divina, divine reading, is a meditative way of reading the Bible. “Divine reading” can make it less daunting and will help answer those “how” questions. 

Seek out the “plain meaning” of the biblical text. Not every passage of Scripture should be interpreted literally. To find the real message in the narrative or the event depicted we may have to excavate the true meaning when the author uses allegories or metaphors or parables. Importance is not given to the actual story but to a perceived deeper meaning behind the story.

Lectio Divina is a way of arriving at a truth, a way to look for the moral aspects behind any text, to unwind the multiple layers of meanings.

We concentrate with intentional breathing in the Holy Spirit. We open ourselves, our very being, to what we perceive God is saying to us. It may be that each one of us see different meanings. We are all on our own journey.

Practice the five Steps of Lectio Divina:

​Reading. Read a passage slowly and carefully.

Meditation. Think deeply, dwell on what you see as the spiritual reality within the text.

Prayer. Pray to the Holy Spirit, immerse yourself in her presence, asking for wise discernment. Have a loving conversation with God.

Contemplation. Meditate on the meanings you perceive in the text. Reflect on how that affects your life; what real actions for you are implied in the text. Then Rest in God’s presence.

“In the beginning God began to create . . .” 
The book of Genesis begins with mythical and legendary primeval stories of how things came to exist. These narratives look back in time to the beginnings of the cosmos and of the first humans to the one true creator God intervening in creation and human history. They reflect Israel’s foundational beliefs. All Christian, Judaic and Islamic Scripture and tradition developed and written over centuries begin here.

“In the Beginning was The Big Bang.”
From telescopes in deep space, data prove Galaxies, everything in space, are moving away from each other in an expanding universe. Looking back in time from this data to about fifteen thousand million years ago, the universe began from a singular concentrated state in an explosive expansion of matter. All matter, everything that ever exists in the space/time continuum, comes from this explosive beginning called “The Big Bang.”

Faith tells me the one true God creates and sustains all things, seen and unseen, from the very beginning of space and time. From that beginning, God continually sends forth the Spirit of wisdom and love into the universe, into human history, into us and renews all things.
Science tells me the “big bang” is a valid theory that space and time begins at that singularity; the very beginning of all matter, including over eons of time evolution of all living things, leading to us.

Everything that ever exists comes from that explosive beginning.
Here are two concepts that seem opposed to each other that I believe are both true realities of how everything came to be: that God from the beginning created all things, and the scientific conclusion that it all started with the “big bang.”

We might ask why did the universe begin in this way; an explosive expansion of matter from a single concentrated point?  We might ask why did God, perfect in every way, in need of nothing outside of himself, who exists before time and space, decided to create all this and in this way?

I don’t think these are the right questions. We should ask what is the meaning to all this? First there was nothing, then there was something. And for all we know there will always be something.
Common sense tells us time moves forward. The universe and all life are on a cosmic trajectory ever forward in time and space. I think the meaning of the universe and of life is encompassed in the mystery of what is to come in the forward flow of time. I believe that mystery lies in God’s love for all creation.

God continually renews creation from the beginning not by immutable design but by allowing creation to happen and to move forward. From our beginning God gifted us free will allowing us to self-design our own lives for good or ill. We can only anticipate with patience and faith what the future will be. We can only depend on God’s wisdom and love that allows creation and us to move toward what is to come.
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And what is to come, based on Faith, trusting in God’s word through Christ Jesus, is eternal and abundant life abiding in God’s inexhaustible love with him.

“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  John 3:8

Could it be? Paul Simon, songwriter and singer, a modern psalmist? “God comes up a lot in my songs.” Paul Simon quote

The word “psalm’ comes from the Greek “psalmos,” in Hebrew “mizmor,” a song recited to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. Psalms are sung poetic songs, extended musical compositions. Many of Simon’s lyrics to me meet that definition. Most of the songs sung by Simon and Garfunkel are accompanied by guitars.

Most likely it wasn’t the powerful wind of Pentecost that opened his mind to the Spirit as he wrote his songs. Did the Spirit come to him as a soft, quiet breeze, an inspirational presence, a gift, a mysterious, intentional act of God? The Spirit “blows where it chooses,” and we do not know when or where or how.

Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest hit, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970), to me meets the definition of a psalm. You can hear in their combined voice as they soar and sweep in this great panegyric of hope and sacrifice, a hymn, a psalm, to be sung and read aloud.
Could it be, these verses from The Book of Psalms prefigure these lyrics: “Sing to him a new song: play skillfully on strings; with loud shouts”  Psalm 33:3; or “I will sing to the Lord for he has dealt bountifully with me.”?  Psalm 13: 6

“When you’re weary feeling small. When tears are in your eyes. I will dry them all. I’m on your side. When times get rough. And friends just can’t be found.  Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
When you’re down and out. When you’re on the street. When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you.  I’ll take your part.
When darkness comes, and pain is all around.  Like a bridge over troubled water.  I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water. I will lay me down.
Sail on, silvergirl. Sail on by.  Your time has come to shine.  All your dreams are on their way.  See how they shine. If you need a friend, I’m sailing right behind. Like a bridge over troubled water. I will ease your mind. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind.”

Every time I hear this song, I know Jesus, the one who died for me, the one God raised up for me, is speaking to me: “I will lay me down;" “I will comfort you;” “I am right behind you;” “I will dry your tears;” “I’m on your side;" “I will take your part;” “I will ease your mind;” “I will lay me down.”

In today’s world, on our faith journey we sail through troubled water. But we sail on, and with prayerful discernment, we look in unfamiliar places, listen to unfamiliar voices. Voices that we find somehow in mystery and wonder speak to us of God’s grace and of God’s gift of uncompromising love in Christ Jesus.

Post Script:
“And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson. Jesus loves you more than you will know, God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson. Heaven holds a place for those who pray,” 

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard!  Luke 17: 1-2

Jesus tells us, in no uncertain terms, in life there will be occasions for stumbling. This is not a comforting message Jesus gives us. But he is one of us and knows us better than we know ourselves.

Sin is part of our human experience. We all need forgiveness. This is echoed in Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each who is in debt to us.”  

And we have a prayer, simple in its clarity, a clear cry to Jesus to forgive us: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”  

Jesus gives this somber warning to his disciples, and to us: “Be on your guard.”  As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to a life of faith and grace. Living up to that calling, with all our human frailties, it seems to me is a struggle, especially to forgive and be forgiven.

Jesus expands the ancient Hebrew tradition that one is obliged to forgive only three times. He tells his disciples to what extent they must forgive: “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, if there is repentance, you must forgive. If that same person sins against you seven times and seven times says I repent, you must forgive.”

In Matthew’s gospel, when Peter asks Jesus how often should we forgive, “As many as seven times seven?” Jesus replies, “Not seven times, but I tell you seventy-seven times.” Jesus’ answer reveals how important the act of forgiving is to our spiritual life.

As sinners, with faith, we can confidently trust in God’s mercy. When we confess our sins against God and our neighbor, we ask God to forgive us.  With trust, conviction, and repentance I believe God will forgive again and again and again. That’s the message I see in Jesus’ answer to Peter. This is a comfort to us in our human weaknesses when we fail to live up to commitments and promises made.

I know from my own experience having been forgiven for hurtful words and acts toward ones whom I love and care for deeply. Their forgiveness healed the wounds in my soul and restored my distressed spirit.

The disciples in the face of their sense of inadequacy to live up to Jesus’ expectations ask Jesus to increase their faith. We know with our own inadequacies we cannot live up to Jesus’ expectations without prayer and reflection, without the help of God’s Spirit abiding within us.

 In Luke’s gospel Jesus sees the faith of those who brought the paralytic, lowering him through the roof.  Because of their faith, he forgives the man’s sins. Jesus connects faith with forgiveness, a restoration of spiritual health. 

We too ask Jesus to increase our faith for the grace to follow his command to forgive others, and ourselves. Jesus affirms forgiving deepens our faith and leads to a healthier spiritual life.

Growth in our spiritual life won’t result from anxious and driven behavior. It will come in the quiet moments, in the many small acts of love and service. It will come in acts of faith and forgiveness. 

Only with faith and trust in God’s Word can we access the mystery of God’s mercy and justice, God’s transcendence and presence. In Jesus’ life and ministry, he presents to us a loving, forgiving, compassionate God who initiates and sustains our relationship with him.

Most of all our spiritual health will come from what we give in love and forgiveness.  And the mystery is that all this weaves a pattern of life that becomes the true expression of our life in Christ.
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It makes us what we want to be: imitators of Christ.  

There are biological signs of life held in common for all living things such as cell patterns, reproduction, growth, energy use, adaptability to their environment. These are needed to sustain life on earth, including human life. There is also an aspect of interdependence in human society. We all need food, water and shelter. The sources of these needs are not infinite and must be sustained by human effort.
There are other equally important signs of human life. Signs that are gifts from God, received through Jesus Christ, and made active in our lives through the Holy Spirit. I believe these are the signs of life received at Baptism:  Light, Water, Food, Shelter, Community.

Signs that are sacramental, freely given and eternal; signs of a new spiritual relationship with Christ Jesus. Signs that in Baptism we become newly born members of the body of Christ, of the household of God.

Jesus proclaims, “I am the light of the world.”  to all who hear his words. Yet they do not believe. He accuses them of living in darkness like those who are blind. They do not yet see following Jesus’ way will do away with the darkness of disbelief and enflame the light of faith. At Baptism, we came out of darkness into His light.

We cannot see the things of God in the darkness of our doubts, despair, and of the stresses of life. We need help. We need to live in His light. And in that light, we see visions of God’s kingdom.

Jesus asks a Samaritan woman drawing water at Jacob’s well for a drink. Jesus tells her if you ask me for a drink, I would give you living water. That water will become a spring gushing up to eternal life.
Think of the sign of water in baptism. The ritual of poured water is a sign of being cleansed and entering into new life. From then on everything was different. We were changed. We now share in His life and in his Resurrection into everlasting life.

God provided life nourishing food as manna to the Israelites in the wilderness. Now, for us, Jesus himself is the bread of life; the living bread from heaven given to nourish our spiritual lives. At the Last Supper, Jesus says the bread broken at the table is His body. The cup of wine they drink is the new covenant in His blood shed for us.
When we share this bread and this wine together, it is a sign that binds us to him and him to us; a sign of that relationship and of our belief in who he is.

There is in the psalms this wonderful metaphorical imagery of God providing shelter. The psalmist sees God as a protector. “Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”  “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer”.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sadly extends this imagery to his own people because they do not accept him as the Messiah, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.“

In Baptism we became members of the household of God. In community, we gather in worship. At the common table we partake together the spiritual food of Jesus’ body and blood. We pray together and proclaim the Apostles’ teaching just like the first communities of followers of the Way.

There is a sense of community and home in these images.
Home is where everything is familiar, where everything has a history, where we can be quiet in meditation. Where I believe God abides there with us. In community is how and where we worship. Our gathering is in a sacred space. God is there with us. It is where everything is familiar, where everything has a history, where we can be quiet in prayer. It is where with our brothers and sisters in Christ we worship together in common unity.

What greater reality can there be than the Source of all our love, the Source of all we desire, the Source of all our gifts, the Source of everything we are blessed with is in our presence all the time?

What of the end times? What will be our personal eschatology?

It is certain that the end of the universe will not happen for tens of billions of years. It is also certain our own death will happen on a time scale of tens of years.

I believe there is a true and lasting hope of an afterlife and it can only rest in the eternal being of God himself. 

When our bodies cast off our spirit, God does not just cast us off as discarded and broken, thrown on to the rubbish heap of the universe. Our belief in a destiny beyond our death rests in the loving faithfulness of the eternal God.

So. what happens? Who and what are we when we die?

Well let’s look at what we are now. We know that mind and body are intimately connected with each other. We are embodied beings.

Consider the real me, the real you, the ever-changing atoms, the material of our bodies, that are organized for each of us. Let’s call this “the unique pattern” of each of us.

It seems to me that God will remember this pattern of matter, unique for each of us. And in God’s great act of our resurrection, God will recreate that pattern, glorified, in a new environment, a new world.

Scripture speaks of the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth where death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former have passed away”
God cares for all his creation. So, God must have a destiny for the universe beyond its death just as there is a destiny for us beyond ours. What would that look like for each of us?

There are clues in the Gospels of Jesus’ appearances. Jesus’ body before his resurrection becomes transformed and glorified after his resurrection. I believe we will be like him after our resurrection.
These accounts in the Gospels tell us how Jesus looked, spoke and what he did after his resurrection.

Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. In the garden outside the tomb, Jesus is standing there. Thinking he was the gardener, Mary says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus replies, “Mary.” She turns and starts to embrace him. Jesus tells her, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.’”

Jesus appears to his disciples: “When the disciples are together, with the doors locked, Jesus comes and stands among them. He shows them his hands and side.”

Jesus appears to Cleopas and his companion as they are going from Jerusalem to a village named Emmaus. Jesus himself walks along with them. As they come to the village, Jesus continues on. They urge him to stay with them for the night. When he is at table with them, “Jesus takes bread and blesses and breaks it and gives it to them. And their eyes are opened, and they recognize him.”

Jesus appears to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus tells them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. Come and have breakfast.” Jesus takes bread and gives it to them, and so with the fish.

Later, his disciples are gathered, and Thomas is with them. Although the doors are locked, Jesus comes among them, “Peace be with you.” Then he says to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side.”

He presents himself alive to them, appearing to them during forty days and speaks about the kingdom of God. The eleven disciples go to Galilee, to the mountain. When they see him glorified and they worship him.

Jesus appears to Paul. As Paul approaches Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashes around him. He falls to the ground and hears a voice, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asks. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,".

So, Jesus’ glorified, full of God’s Spirit, tells Mary Magdalene not to touch him, appears through closed doors, breaks bread with his disciples, prepares breakfast, eats with his disciples, tells Thomas to put his hands into his wounds, appears to Paul as a blinding light and a voice heard.

Jesus is glorified, alive and active in Spirit and Body as he was then, is now and will be forever. Just as we will be. Our destiny is everlasting life. God creates life as a process in the way love works; as it is now and as it will be true beyond death.

Heaven will not be boring. Life will be the exciting and an inexhaustible exploration of the riches of life in God’s presence. The wounds of this life healed. Unfinished business completed. The dark side of our natures purged away.

Jesus promises us abundant life; life in its abounding fullness of joy and strength for mind, a body and soul glorified; a life that is our final destiny as part of God’s kingdom and as beloved children of God.
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 "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."