“Eternal realities”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Sunday, June 9, 2024

2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1 (Forward, p. 42) CEV p. 1208

Lots of spiritual hymns and songs make much of our eternal glory, our eternal destination. For instance, many African American spirituals speaking of ‘glory land’ and of ‘crossing the Jordan’, and that old chestnut, “I’ve Got a Mansion Just Over the Hilltop”, shares the author’s dream of a new, eternal dwelling place.

It is therefore interesting, given that background, that today’s passage speaks, not of a place, but of a new kind of existence and a new body. We will be raised to a new life where our bodies are no longer subject to death or decay, and where we will eternally be with God. We have a myriad of troubles right now, but they won’t last. Indeed, these ‘little troubles’ are getting us ready for an eternal glory and are, in fact, making us stronger. And once we are together with the Lord our present worries and troubles will seem like nothing. And so, we focus not on these temporary, temporal things that can be seen, but won’t last, but on the unseen, eternal things that last forever. And we trust in these eternal realities, and in the One who will make all this come to pass. Thanks be to God.

Forward notes: “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence” (verse 14).

“When Grandma got out flour and her mixing bowls, I knew what was to come. On one such day, Grandma called my friend, Stevie, and me in from the snowy cold into her kitchen’s warmth, the glorious smell of freshly baked bread, the sight of bread slices dribbling with butter at places already set for us. It was heaven for two 7-year-olds.

“Later in the day, four friends mysteriously appeared at our back door. Grandma didn’t hesitate to set their places at the table, offering her grace to more.

“I love Paul’s certitude. Although not seen, he knows what is to come. With his outer self in decline, Paul’s focus is on the inner, spiritual self, renewed each day. Paul’s grace extends to others, encouraging them to take heart, for God has set an eternal place for them alongside Jesus.

“Grandma’s kitchen breathed an air of loving certitude that fortified me then and still does—a certitude where I know, when called, that eternal grace is to come.”

Moving Forward: “Do you share Paul’s certitude? If so, how?”