I don’t think much about what in our tradition we call "the end times". Some people I know like the Left Behind series of books that tells of the final days of humanity’s time on Earth. I don’t tend to see the world or the Holy in the way these books do.

But lately I’ve been thinking about those early Christians who had known Jesus or known about him. Their  expectations of what might happen after his death, "the end times", became a driving force in the creation of the early church and in how they lived their daily lives. I’ve been thinking about those folks more because I have been creating an online Bible reflection opportunity based on the Book of Acts. It will be called Acting Class and you are all invited to participate…..how’s that for shameless promotion? Watch the website for upcoming information.

Wayne Muller writes about these early Christians and their sense of time. They clearly believed  Jesus was returning to Earth in their lifetime and it caused them to live in a certain way, often with a certain sense of desperation.  We can take on that same kind of desperation in our living but we call it progress.…that time when all the lists will be accomplished, peak efficiency will be realized, and we will finally have time to sit back, rest, and do, what?.The pursuit of progress can lead us to over work and a path that is so focused on the future that we forget we are in the present.

"But we must ask this question:What if we are not going anywhere? What if we are simply living and growing within an ever-deepening cycle of rhythms, perhaps getting wiser, perhaps learning to be kind, and hopefully passing whatever we have learned to our children? What if our life, rough-hewn from the stuff of creation, orbits around a God who never ceases to create new beginnings? What if our life is simply a time when we are blessed with both sadness and joy, health and disease, courge and fear…and all the while we work,pray,and love, knowing that the promised land we seek is already present in the very gift of life itself, the inestimable privilege of a human birth? What if this single human life is itself the jewel in the lotus, the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price? What if all the way to heaven is heaven?"

Muller believes Sabbath challenges the theology of progress by reminding us that we are already and always on sacred ground. His words help me to breathe deeply, pay attention and savor the grace held in the beauty of this day…………………….