Hello, Cherished Friends,
A century ago, when Billy Sunday was at the height of his fame as a traveling evangelist, someone asked him if he thought there was a literal hell. The evangelist reflected for a moment and then said, “If there isn’t, I’d give a hundred dollars to start one, because some people I know deserve to go there.” Now, I have trouble with some of Billy Sunday’s theology, but I’m not totally unsympathetic with his observation. The injustices of this world are difficult at best. Without a world beyond, they are impossible.
Are you familiar with Murphy’s Law? You will remember that Murphy’s Law states that if things can go wrong, they will. Well, I learned there’s such a thing as “Haskin’s Law,” which says, “When you take a mouthful of hot soup, whatever you do next is wrong.” Another is the Law of Peanut Butter and Jelly: If you drop a piece of peanut-butter-and-jelly-bread, it will always land jelly-side-down. Now, I don’t know if these are mathematically accurate, but they do point out the fact that, in this world, God does not always seem to be in charge nor is everything always right in His world.
Years ago, I visited Washington, D.C., and went to Ford’s Theater. I surveyed the interior of that building until my eyes came upon that vacant chair when Abraham Lincoln sat on that fateful April evening in 1865. This lawyer from Illinois had come to the White House in the darkest days of this Republic. Upon his shoulders rested the fate of the Union. But this quiet man, as God gave him the light, had led in the abolition of slavery and in the preservation of the United States. Then, when his victory was almost complete, Lincoln’s reward was an assassin’s bullet. How do you make sense of that if this world is all there is?
Whatever other things I am thankful for during this season, I am grateful that the resurrection is a testament to the faithfulness of God. The thing that bewildered the disciples about the death of Jesus was that he didn’t deserve to die. Even those who tried and convicted him admitted that he was blameless. Yet he died anyway. No wonder on that cloudless morning of the first Easter, there was a shout of victory in Jerusalem: God had delivered on His promise! One world was not enough, for those who deserved more.
There has to be a place where the uneven places will be made smooth, and God redresses the injustices of time. There is still a world to come!
Until we behold Christ face to face,
Bruce Jones, Pastor Imagine Church
