Ours is a dark time. We strive after everything and attain nothing. The God-shaped void in the heart of every human remains unfilled. The danger comes, as G.K. Chesterton said, not when men believe in nothing, but when they believe in ANYTHING.
Our fields are white with harvest. The bread-baskets and cornucopias have never been so bountiful. Hunger and want are a minute problem to the first-world countries. We throw away more food in a month that most countries will produce in a year. And yet the heart of humanity remains hungry. Bulimia and anorexia are everywhere in a culture that hungers after so much more than sustenance. Our stomachs are full, our people are fat, and our souls are lean and starving.
Never before in the history of Humanity have we been so globally connected. A businessman in Chicago can call his colleagues in China, Japan, and England simultaneously. Online dating services, online role-playing games, avatars, gamer culture, Comic-Con, texting, iPhones, iPads, iPods, chat-rooms…everywhere they connect people across the globe. They are used by eight-year-olds and eighty-year-olds, both kindergartner and senior citizen. Children today, in fact, have the technological capabilities that thirty or forty years ago were the debate topics of PhD holders. Yet never before have people been so emotionally and spiritually isolated. The great lie of “individualism” has left us lonely and afraid, huddled in the dark, wondering if, when all electronics are off and all the systems are down, anyone really cares whether we live or die.
Global businesses have never been as successful as they are now. The concept of “billionaire” was the subject of science fiction only a few decades ago. Stocks, bonds, investments, business mergers, and stock options are the topics of all kind of discussion, around coffee tables, water coolers, and coke machines. Coffee shops and burger joints can be found literally on every corner and at every turn. The income of businesses exceeds that of most nations. Private businessmen wield more influence and political clout than the politicians and lobbyists nowadays. But never before have we been so poor. There is always one more dollar to earn one more thing to covet. We build our emerald castles and surround ourselves with beautiful things all in a vain attempt to forget that we all must die and all will turn to ashes and dust.
Our culture surrounds itself with neon lights and bright banners of entertainment and capitalism. Our movies and films are filled with images of pleasure and debauchery, creating a fantasy world that we may escape to for an hour at a time. With our TV, our cable, and our internet, we can prolong that escape indefinitely, to almost a constant state. But when the credits roll and the commercials break, we are suddenly filled with the horrible truth: that all the lights, the glamor, the fame, and the glory are fleeting and temporary. And again we are plunged back into the dark and harsh reality that we try so desperately to avoid.
Modern medicine has expanded the lifetime of the human being far beyond what anyone could have thought possible one hundred years ago, though means no one could have imagined even a decade ago. Antibiotics, bio-engineering, chemotherapy, nanotechnology, wet-ware neurology, and other ground breaking procedures stagger the mind and beggar the imagination. And yet, even the most healthy, the most fit, the most prime example of human vitality and virility lives in the constant and looming shadow of old age and the grave. All these marvelous procedures and wondrous knowledge, become vain attempts to outrun the Reaper, the beat the Boatman, to dodge the Devil, and escape the Grave.
With all of our food we are still hungry.
With all of our connections we are alone.
With all of our money we are poor.
With all of our entertainment we still weep.
And with all of our doctors we still die…
But do not despair. Do not mourn, do not weep, and do not lose heart. For we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We are a people with the Promise of Hope to a world of slavery and death. Alone in dark void that threatens to swallow up all in its path, we hold forth a glorious Light. For we serve a God Who Is there and He is not silent. Our God is a speaking god, and not a mute thing of stone and wood, or a vain reflection of ourselves. He is the salt to a world that is rotting, decaying at the core of its existence. We may look out unique amongst the people, and know that this world is not our home, and we have a great and glorious inheritance beyond the grave. Our birthright transcends time, space, and death. We stand, not only as the Church united, and the Church universal, but as the Church victorious. Our God is a God of War, and the LORD is His Name. Through His blood, our foes are already defeated. We have a Hope, a Cause, and a Purpose through Him.
His Word will satisfy the hunger of your soul.
His Spirit will never leave you nor forsake you.
His Promise is sure and more eternal than any riches.
His Presence calms all fears and dries all tears.
His Life is forever.
His Love is eternal.
Amen.
Our fields are white with harvest. The bread-baskets and cornucopias have never been so bountiful. Hunger and want are a minute problem to the first-world countries. We throw away more food in a month that most countries will produce in a year. And yet the heart of humanity remains hungry. Bulimia and anorexia are everywhere in a culture that hungers after so much more than sustenance. Our stomachs are full, our people are fat, and our souls are lean and starving.
Never before in the history of Humanity have we been so globally connected. A businessman in Chicago can call his colleagues in China, Japan, and England simultaneously. Online dating services, online role-playing games, avatars, gamer culture, Comic-Con, texting, iPhones, iPads, iPods, chat-rooms…everywhere they connect people across the globe. They are used by eight-year-olds and eighty-year-olds, both kindergartner and senior citizen. Children today, in fact, have the technological capabilities that thirty or forty years ago were the debate topics of PhD holders. Yet never before have people been so emotionally and spiritually isolated. The great lie of “individualism” has left us lonely and afraid, huddled in the dark, wondering if, when all electronics are off and all the systems are down, anyone really cares whether we live or die.
Global businesses have never been as successful as they are now. The concept of “billionaire” was the subject of science fiction only a few decades ago. Stocks, bonds, investments, business mergers, and stock options are the topics of all kind of discussion, around coffee tables, water coolers, and coke machines. Coffee shops and burger joints can be found literally on every corner and at every turn. The income of businesses exceeds that of most nations. Private businessmen wield more influence and political clout than the politicians and lobbyists nowadays. But never before have we been so poor. There is always one more dollar to earn one more thing to covet. We build our emerald castles and surround ourselves with beautiful things all in a vain attempt to forget that we all must die and all will turn to ashes and dust.
Our culture surrounds itself with neon lights and bright banners of entertainment and capitalism. Our movies and films are filled with images of pleasure and debauchery, creating a fantasy world that we may escape to for an hour at a time. With our TV, our cable, and our internet, we can prolong that escape indefinitely, to almost a constant state. But when the credits roll and the commercials break, we are suddenly filled with the horrible truth: that all the lights, the glamor, the fame, and the glory are fleeting and temporary. And again we are plunged back into the dark and harsh reality that we try so desperately to avoid.
Modern medicine has expanded the lifetime of the human being far beyond what anyone could have thought possible one hundred years ago, though means no one could have imagined even a decade ago. Antibiotics, bio-engineering, chemotherapy, nanotechnology, wet-ware neurology, and other ground breaking procedures stagger the mind and beggar the imagination. And yet, even the most healthy, the most fit, the most prime example of human vitality and virility lives in the constant and looming shadow of old age and the grave. All these marvelous procedures and wondrous knowledge, become vain attempts to outrun the Reaper, the beat the Boatman, to dodge the Devil, and escape the Grave.
With all of our food we are still hungry.
With all of our connections we are alone.
With all of our money we are poor.
With all of our entertainment we still weep.
And with all of our doctors we still die…
But do not despair. Do not mourn, do not weep, and do not lose heart. For we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We are a people with the Promise of Hope to a world of slavery and death. Alone in dark void that threatens to swallow up all in its path, we hold forth a glorious Light. For we serve a God Who Is there and He is not silent. Our God is a speaking god, and not a mute thing of stone and wood, or a vain reflection of ourselves. He is the salt to a world that is rotting, decaying at the core of its existence. We may look out unique amongst the people, and know that this world is not our home, and we have a great and glorious inheritance beyond the grave. Our birthright transcends time, space, and death. We stand, not only as the Church united, and the Church universal, but as the Church victorious. Our God is a God of War, and the LORD is His Name. Through His blood, our foes are already defeated. We have a Hope, a Cause, and a Purpose through Him.
His Word will satisfy the hunger of your soul.
His Spirit will never leave you nor forsake you.
His Promise is sure and more eternal than any riches.
His Presence calms all fears and dries all tears.
His Life is forever.
His Love is eternal.
Amen.
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