A Glimpse of Tomorrow

Englewood UMC
137th anniversary
November 14, 2010
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 21:5-19
Year C
25th Sunday after Pentecost
A Glimpse of Heaven

Celebrations
Times in our lives, in the world where everything was perfect, and we took to the streets to celebrate as a nation,
The most memorable national celebration – the end of world war II - picture of a sailor and a girl kissing

Modern day – we celebrate when Chicago teams win. Last year, black people who never thought of hockey were buying black hawk shirt, huge event televised

Today we have a big celebration, gift of being in mission and ministry to God.

A lot has changed over time, but the one constant in our lives has been god

The building has changed, the people have changed, but the spirit of Englewood umc has not.

That is the point of the gospel lesson – nothing last forever
Not our situations, our lives, everything changes.

For the past year, we have been following Jesus to Jerusalem, hearing his conversations and teachings along the way, seeing lives change. Completed his journey

Ending for us – the end of the church year. No longer study Luke, but Matthew. Mathew and John

Jesus ends his journey at the temple, for him the important thing is the stories of the faithful people, what are people giving, what are people praying about. His disciples the building.
This is like Englewood a new building, not the original one. Yet still beuitiful. The stones were tons, huge, unmovable in the minds of the disciples. A sign of everything in our lives that is permanent.

There is nothing in our lives that is permanent. But the spirit of god. those stones were destroyed, and moved. Jesus was right, even though there was no way of telling at the time.

The people where the treasure of God, the stories, the relationships with God that mattered.

Disciples asked our question – if things have to end, when, how will we know.

Jesus says that is not what is important – not when, but what does that mean for me and my faith.

With God, things don’t end, they begin again, they are renewed.


God is not in the past – god in the present and the future.

What will the future look like, who will be worshipping here next year, ten years from now, 20 years from now. What is in store for this ministry?

God knows. Not for us to know

Jesus tells us that all that we can do to bring in the future is testify and witness to what God has done for us.

That is the purpose of the past – to give us a chance to witness
And meet God on the otherside.

Funny thing about celebrations, they don’t last very long. They come and they go. We are there for the moment, and tomorrow it is over.

Isaiah 65 is a time of celebration. When the people will be with God and will be happy. But it is only a glimpse of what heaven will be like. A celebration – we can see for a moment, and then things change and we have to move on.

Isaiah is something to hope for , to wirk for to be in mission for, and to trust in god for.

It is essential to distinguish between hoping and wishing, they are not the same thing. Wishing is something all of us do, it projects what we want or think we need into the future. Just because we wish for something good or holy we think that is hope. It is not. Wishing extends our egos into the fure, hope grown out of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what god is doing, wishing orients us to what we are doing. Wishing has to do with wha ti want from god, hoping is for what god wants from me. Hope means being surposed, because we don’t know what it best for us or how our lives are going to be completed. To cultiviate hope is to put side our wishes. To refuse to fantasize our what we want, to live in anticipation of what god is going to do next?

Wishing is the absence of God, hope is the presence of God

What will be the future of our church? We can only hope and witness, but can never truly know. Whatever it is, gid will be there.

We can hope for the future, we can hope for a better world in our testimony of who God is for us.

If we were to look for god, cant find him, seek god will only reval in time. If were to picture god, it will change in time.

God not in our celebrations, not in our wishes, not in our pride of what we have.

God is on our testimony and our hope.

What we start today – god will finish tomorrow.