Ageing

My daughter was really excited about the middle of October because it marked exactly seven and a half years since she was born. Quarters and halves of years are very important to a child. They are excited by the transition from one age to the next. Each day and month along the way is significant, marking the changes, growth, and developments of that year.

When her eighth birthday finally does come around she will not be the same girl that entered into her seventh year. She will have learned and grown and changed in so many ways through all the things she has experienced in those 365 days between Age seven and Age eight.

The tiny daily changes are so gradual and imperceptible to her parents who see her everyday. It’s only when a relative who hasn’t seen her for a long time, remarks on how much she’s grown, or we find she is outgrowing her clothes and shoes very frequently that we look again and notice her transitioning from one age to the next.

Our Gospel passage and Old Testament reading remind us of the many differences and changes that can separate one age from the next.

In the Gospel, Jesus divides humanity’s history into two ages. This Age, and that Age, and he describes some of the major differences between the two.

The Sadducees – students of a particular Jewish school of learning - did not believe in a resurrection. They believed that once you were dead, that was it. So, the question they asked Jesus was really a riddle to mock the idea that someone could rise from the dead. If a woman married multiple husbands because each one she married tragically died shortly after the wedding, and then she eventually dies herself, whose wife will she be in the afterlife? Would she be a bigamist?

Jesus isn’t phased by their question. He tells them that the Resurrection Age, the Age that will follow this one, is completely different. In the Age that is to come there will be a new humanity. Humans that are reborn with a sin-free nature, humans that are children of God.

In this Fallen Age – there is heartache and death. In the Resurrection Age – there is eternal life and no tragedy. Jesus tells them that resurrection from the dead isn’t just simply coming back to your life as it was before, it is being reborn into a new body, in a new creation, in a new world that runs by different rules to this one. The Resurrection Age will be inhabited by a new sanctified humanity living in perfect relationship with God – in a new world untainted by sin and decay.

Paul tells the church that God has chosen us to be His Children, filled with His Holy Spirit. We are called to be the first of the new humanity who will live in the Resurrection Age.

But the difficult thing is that we are called to be that new humanity now. Right in the middle of the old humanity. We are called to live as humans of the Age to come while we are still in this age. We are called to live a little bit like my daughter, balanced somewhere in the middle of one age and another.

Living in this in-between space can feel very uncomfortable at times. We witness and experience injustice that makes us cry out like the writer of the Psalm when we are assaulted by the tragedies of life. We look at the suffering in the world around us and in our own lives. We see the evil ideologies and hatred that spurred on the terrorists behind the Manchester bombing and the recent attack on an asylum facility in Kent. We see the poor political and economic decisions made by our leaders that cause misery to many in our society. We are living through hard times in an Age where there is tragedy and death. And yet, we are called to live as though we are already in the Resurrection Age; as Children of God. How is this possible?

We can be encouraged by Job’s response to living in this in-between space. Job had lost everything: his money, his children, his health. Yet in the middle of the personal tragedy he was suffering, his love and knowledge of God gave him the ability to see beyond his situation, and beyond the age he lived in.

Job was able to see the future salvation that is available to all. He knew that God had chosen redemption for humanity and would not sit silently forever when it came to the injustices, tragedies and physical ailments we suffer in this Age. God would send a redeemer, Jesus Christ, who would show us what new humanity looks like living in this Age. Jesus, God in Man, showed us how to love our enemies when he prayed for forgiveness for those who were crucifying him. Jesus showed us how to live empowered by the Holy Spirit and in obedience to God the Father. And, in his death and resurrection, he gave us hope beyond the grave and a glimpse of the age to come.

So, today, as God’s chosen people, new creations being prepared for the Age to come but still in the middle of this age: how can we be encouraged?

We can be encouraged that, as uncomfortable as it can be living in this in-between space, God has chosen us to be His Children and has placed His Holy Spirit in us to empower us to live as His Children of the Resurrection Age while we are still in the here and now.

Just as I can’t see the tiny daily changes and growth taking place inside my daughter as she ages from seven to eight, it can be hard for us to remember that – despite our imperfections and daily failings – the Holy Spirit is renewing our inner selves day by day. God is transforming us into Children who will resemble Him more and more in the way we live our lives and the way we treat people around us.

God calls us to allow the Holy Spirit to carry out His sanctifying work in us. He wants to show us the areas of rebellion we are harbouring. The parts of us that are clinging to the ways of this age. He wants to draw our attention to the behaviours we need to grow out of. Will we allow God’s Holy Spirit to rebuke us, to lead us to repent of our rebellion and lawlessness? Will we stop opposing what He says; stop placing our will above God’s?

Are there broken relationships that we are too stubborn to mend? Are there people in our lives that we are struggling to love and forgive? In this current cost of living crisis, are we allowing our personal struggles and fears to harden our hearts to the needs and struggles of our neighbours?

Yes, we are still in this Age. But between now and then, can we remind ourselves to live as my daughter does? Ever conscious of the age that is to come. Daily allowing God to grow and change us.

Can we, like Job, keep looking beyond our present age, and see the truth of what God is calling us to? God is calling us to live as new humanity today in this Age. To live as His children, who follow his teachings.

God the Father loves us and wants to comfort our hearts and strengthen us in every good work. So, despite the struggles we face in this age, let us pray that God will continue to empower us to love and live like Him; to do good to those who hurt us and share the Good News of the Kingdom with everyone who hasn’t heard it. So that we can live faithfully as His Children in this Age and the Age to come.