Got Eternity?

-or- What the World Needs Now...

"What the age needs in the deepest sense can be said fully and completely with one single word: it needs...eternity."  -Soren Kierkegaard

The temporal and the eternal are absolutely different.  Eternity is not simply slices of time (say, days for instance) that are added in succession forever.  Rather, eternity is atemporal--totally without time.  Temporality can be sliced up and measured.  Eternity cannot be measured in the same way.

In the person of Jesus Christ, eternity breaks into the world.  God, whose existence is in eternity first and foremost--who IS eternity--takes on temporality.  Of a sudden, in an absolute paradox, the chasm between eternity and temporality is bridged--time and timelessness are unified.

As we follow Jesus Christ, as we become disciples--true human beings, the purpose is to combine within our own lives time and eternity.  Our goal is to allow the Eternal Spirit become one with our temporal self.  In this way, we become truly human, washed in the image of God.

This is what Soren Kierkegaard, existentialist theologian and philosopher, argued.  But how much sense does it really make?  What does it mean, practically, for us to be--in our being--both temporal and eternal beings?  What does it look like?

Let us go to the Bible for an example.  On Sunday, June 16th, 2013, we will share the story of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with her hair.  This story comes from the Gospel according to Luke 7:36--8:3 (please pause and read it now).

The woman, a sinner, displays all the signs of having become a pure and absolute mixture of both time and eternity, of both the profane and the sacred, the mundane and divine.  Notice, it is not the disciples who exist in this way (at least not in this story), nor the Pharisees, or any of the other religious or "good" people present.  It is this woman, "a woman from the city, who was a sinner" who lays hold of the perfect being and selfhood attainable only through faith.

First of all, we must note that such a phenomenon can only occur in the presence of Jesus Christ.  For this reason we say in worship: "May Jesus Christ be with you always.  And also with you."  For this reason, we receive the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, as often as possible.  For this reason, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be his presence with us after he ascended to be with the Father.

Second, we must note the moment when eternity touches the temporal within the woman.  Eternity can only present itself momentarily--that is, in the moment.  Time always marches on, and eternity must become present anew in each moment, lest it become time or lest it overwhelms time and destroys it.

The most stunning moment of faith occurs in the moment the woman washes Jesus feet.  What produces this work of love?  Lutheran theology argues that the woman did not come to wash her Savior's feet in order to earn forgiveness.  Rather, it is gratitude to God for God's grace that produces in us works of love.  Therefore, the woman came to wash Jesus' feet precisely because she was forgiven.

The moment, then, (that is, the moment when eternity touches temporality) is when our inner self and our outer deeds come perfectly into line.  The woman willed but one thing: to give thanks to her Savior.  And in that moment when she knelt down at his feet, her will and her actions were perfectly harmonious.  Gratitude coincided perfectly with the work of love.  The woman did not think of other considerations: what the others would think; that her hair would get dirty; that Jesus' feet stank; that washing Jesus feet was the action of a slave.  The woman didn't even stop to think how Jesus would react, but instead, in perfect faith, her will and desire was to combine her inner gratitude to its external expression.  Not for payment--for salvation--but simply because.

Ah, but here we have ascertained the role of time, but not of eternity!  For an action is only temporary, it has a beginning and an end.  And even our human will and desire, in all its fickleness, is purely temporal.  Wherein, then, lies the eternal?  In the eternal will and action of God that meets the will and action of the woman in such a way that you cannot distinguish the two.  We can discern it, though, by looking at forgiveness in time.

As I said, when Lutherans read this story, they must say that the woman came to wash Jesus' feet because of gratitude to her Savior.  Gratitude for what?  The woman, who was a sinner, must have been thankful for Jesus' grace.  This means that already, before she entered the room, she believed that God had forgiven her (past tense).  The woman acted by grace through faith.

Then, after she dried his feet with her hair, Jesus said, "Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, are being forgiven [this is actually present tense--the NRSV fudges the translation slightly]" and again he says to her directly, "Your sins are forgiven" (present tense).

Lastly, Jesus tells her to "Go in peace."  In other words, when the woman leaves, she must and will be able to continue to trust in God's grace.  Going from there, she has the faith that her subsequent sins will be forgiven (future tense).

Here we have hit on eternity!  The one moment in time, in which the woman washes Jesus feet, is but one instance of the forgiveness that comes from eternity and comes eternally.  It is the one moment when the woman's knowledge of forgiveness and her response are commensurate.  God and the woman are one--on the same page--in that moment.  But that moment is soon over and divided by time.  However, and here is the blessed joy that is ours, God repeats his act of grace in the next moment, and the next, ad infinitum.  Eternity, again and again, breaks into time.  To us, in time, this appears as simple repetition, however, for God it is one continuous, eternal movement.  In other words, when God acts he always and eternally acts to save.  For this reason, God's repetition of salvation unites these different temporary occurrences, making them one eternal action:
          Saving Noah and his family from the Flood
          Leading his people through the Red Sea
          Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan
          Our baptism into Christ Jesus
          Providing the river of the Water of Life flowing in the city (from Revelation)
Over the course of history, water turns from a bringer of death to the Water of life.  And in each event, life is attained or reclaimed by going through the chaotic waters and being raised up to new life.  Each of these are singular events in the march of salvation history, and yet each action is, in and of itself, wholly and completely salvific.  In other words, God's one repeated action unites these various temporal events in eternity.  When recollected, each event inspires gratitude which propels us, by faith, to Jesus Christ, for the divine action to be repeated again.  In this way, time and eternity meet in unity in the moment.

Let me break down why all of this matters.
I pray that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will--this moment--remember God's love and grace given to you.  And in that recollection, eternity will touch you in time and transform you, so that your will and action will become absolutely one.  Let each moment in your life become so focussed that you do not lose sight of Christ Jesus, but always turn your face toward eternity, transcending time within the moment.  In each moment, let the Spirit make you grateful...and let the Spirit help you act out of love.

For such is what happens when eternity breaks into temporality.  We call it faith...we call it freedom...we call it love.  Amen.