Yesterday Diane put up the Christmas tree. Yippee! We’re the first in the neighborhood. Most people are plodding along with pumpkins, maybe thinking toward Thanksgiving, but we’re in a different time zone.
Here’s the story. Every year the Seminary sends out thousands of Christmas cards from the president and his wife, and the card often has a photo Diane has taken. Diane brought out a small, artificial tree to be the background for the photo on this year’s card. Why bother putting it away now?
Pastors know the feeling of living in different time zones. Soon after Christmas they’re projecting ahead to Lenten services. Snow on the ground, Christmas gifts still new, they put their minds into Lenten simulation, somber, slower music, Jesus suffering, Jesus dying. Maybe your work has projects that require you to think beyond here-and-now “real time.”
Followers of Jesus know that “real time” is relative. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” says Paul. He doesn’t say Baptism reminds us of Jesus death and burial. No, we actually were buried with Him, mysteriously put into a different time. And more awe: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” That hasn’t happened yet. It’s a promise about your future that should fill “real time” with hope.
How sad that many people don’t see the relevance of the Christian message. Buried with Christ and promised that you’ll rise gives you a different perspective on whatever you’ll face in “real time” today. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4-5). Back to the future. It’s moving your “clock,” your attitude constantly back and springing forward as you live in the present.
So the Christmas tree is up in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving. How soon before we think about Easter? Think about it today! “My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15).
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