Alfred Shrophire
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Paul has been speaking of his reason for Joy in his Sufferings. He had just said that the greater the Suffering in this present world, the greater will be the Glory in Eternity. Paul's mind is on the future. He now says with certainty that when our life here on earth is ended (our tabernacle is dissolved), God will have a house in Heaven for believers to live in; a house made by God himself that will last forever.
*All through American history, there have been many attempts to create "ideal" communities. The Shaker attempted to live simple and peaceful lies. The Mormons moved west in order to find a place where they could structure their community as they pleased. In the nineteenth century, the transcendentalists formed the Brook Farm community to see if their ideas could shape their life together. All of these experiments had Utopian impulses. None of these succeeded on their original terms.
*When we speak of the Christian community, we are talking about another Utopian model. Here we mean the body of Christ. And that makes all the difference. As members of the "Body of Christ" community, we can have our differences with one another, yet remained fixed on Christ as the source and content of our hope, and our hope in Christ as the basis of Christian unity here on earth.
On that basis, we can join with Paul in knowing that there is a community waiting for us in Heaven when our tabernacle on earth dissolves.
*Prayer. God our Father, to know you is perfect joy, and to serve you is perfect freedom. But, sometimes we struggle with this, because we think that if things are hard or lead us to struggle, they must not be related to love or joy. Help us to realize that even if we suffer and service is hard, you love us more than we can imagine. Amen
The Present Word Summer 2006
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