A Modest View on the Nature of Ultimate Reality
and a Vision of the Future
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we
drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows
that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:31-34
"A Hundred Years Hence" by Fannie Gage (Frances Dana Gage).
This song was first presented on July 4, 1875.
A Hundred Years Hence
One hundred years hence, what a change will be made,
In politics, morals, religion and trade.
In statemen who wrangle or ride on the fence,
Those things will be altered a hundred years hence.
Our laws then will be uncompulsory rules,
Our prisons converted to national schools,
The pleasure of sinning 'tis all a pretense,
And so we will find it, a hundred years hence.
Lying, cheating and fraud will be laid on the shelf,
Men will neither get drunk, nor be buond up in self,
But all live together, good neighbors and friends,
Just as Christian folks ought to, a hundred years hence.
Oppression and war will be heard of no more
Nor the blood of a slave leave his print on our shore,
Conventions will then be a useless expense,
For we'll all go free suffrage, a hundred years hence.
Instead of speech-making to satisfy wrong,
All will join the glad chorus to sing Freedom's song;
And if the Millenium is not a pretense,
We'll all be good brothers, — a hundred years hence.
The twentieth century opened with great optimism. It was a time when science
and industry seemed to offer a solution to all ills, not the least of which,
our social ills. But of course not all was well under the surface. Anarchist
movements along with Bolshevism would challenge the privileged class. WWI
was on the horizon, and even the greatest ship ever built was not invulnerable
to God’s arctic ice.
But remember magazines like Popular Mechanics in the late 195’s and early
1960’s. Remember their vision of the world of 1980. We all would live like
the jetsons zooming around in personal helicopters. Cities were an incredible
vision of the future.
The 1980’s movie, Back to the Future, pictured the world of 2000 in similar
ways. Our cars would also fly and skateboards would be hover crafts. They
were not entirely wrong. The technology is there, but the costs are enormous.
And who would have predicted Global Warming back then?
Now you read futuristic visions and they as often as not are like negatives.
Literally. The lights are now shadows. Economists in the US primarily are
predicting national catastrophe once we baby boomers start to retire. I recall
hearing Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton say that
when baby boomers begin retiring there will hardly be enough money in all
the social security budget to cover the deficite. He says it will suck all
the money out of the economy. Not everyone agrees, but you hear more predictions
of doom and gloom these days than the unbounded optimism of a hundred years
ago.
And of course the book of Revelation predicts that a third of all the fish
in the sea will die and a third of all the inhabitants of earth will die when
the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are unleashed upon the earth. And a lot
more as well. H5N1, bird flu virus is of course predicted to cut a huge swath
of destruction if it ever gets loose upon humanity.
Which is it? Are we to believe the world is getting better or we are all
on our way to hell in a handbasket? Its hard to have unbridled optimism, but
are the doomsday scenarios on either? Good question. And what does the
gospel have to say about it all?
I am glad you asked. Let’s hear Jesus words about it all:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and
the body more
important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not
sow or reap or store
away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much
more
valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to
his life ?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field
grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God
clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown
into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’
or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day
has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34
I think I might have preferred that last sentence to be written a bit differently:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Besides, tomorrow will be fine. Just you wait and see.
But no, Jesus says, “each day has trouble enough of its own.”
But we know that. We also know that most of the time, the days troubles
are limited to the day. Not many of our worries really do become catastrophies
that go on and on. They all have an ending, most of the time.
And in the meantime, Jesus says live in faith and I think the point here
is live in hope.
Who knows what the future will bring? In the short term, none of us do.
In the long term it ultimately brings the fulfillment of God’s grace and
love.
Jesus says, “quit worrying about tomorrow. God knows what you need and is
on the job. Look after the important issues that God commands and let God
look after making the sun come up and the rain fall.”
Well not literally, but something like that.
Let God run the universe.
Its hard enough to look after running our own lives day to day.
But the good news is we don’t even need to do that alone.
As the old hymn says:
It is no secret what God can do.
What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you.
Let God be God. Honor God and enjoy your life.
That’s an order from above.
Preached May 25, 2008
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
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