Or so Einstein thought. He believed it flowed; sped up and slowed down. Some contemporaries theorized that time might have banks like a river, and that the past was back there, just out of sight around a bend.
They believed that if we could find the right mechanism, we could travel back the way the "river" had come, back around the bend, so to speak, to the past.
That's the premise of TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney. The "mechanism" proposed is that commercial artist Simon ("Si") Morley could think his way to the past. Oh, it involves immersing one's self is an environment as identical as possible to the period one wishes to visit, and one has to be able to perform some self-hypnosis. There's more to it than that, of course, but those are the big pieces.
The key, and essential, part of Si successfully visiting the past is this: he must really want to go. He must have a great desire to go backwards, to "return" to a place and time to which he may never have even been before; likely a place/time only his ancestors had known.
Would you like to travel to the past?
As strange as it may sound, this is the theme tying together several of this week's Old Testament scriptures. Oh, not time-travel, per se, but the overwhelming desire to return to the past. This is particularly true of Psalm 137 where the Psalmist captures the laments of the Israelites, enslaved by Babylon and exiled far from home (Don't read this one to young children; the ending is very harsh). It is also reflected in the first passage from Lamentations. To fully appreciate the overwhelming sadness of their situation, the longing to return, listen to this song ("Babylon") from the TV show, Mad Men: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n1B7xBQMAJA [You may need to copy and paste. I can't seem to make links active on this blog site.]
The real problem, of course, is not the years, and it's not the miles, but rather the distance one has traveled from God. The Israelites mourned for Israel, not fully grasping that Israel was nothing without its relationship to God. That's why they were in exile in the first place: they had drifted away from God and needed time and circumstance to teach them that lesson.
Do you sometimes feel that almost overwhelming sense of melancholy for a time and place in the past? Could it be that you really desire a closer relationship with God? The selections from Lamentations 3, Habakkuk, and Psalm 37 provide us some relief and point us toward some true solutions to our longing.
As believers, we have a different situation than did those exiled Israelites. As we find underscored in the Second Timothy passage, we have the Holy Spirit flowing within us, connecting us to God in ways we cannot even fully understand. Like a river, it brings life and nourishment to us. And when we feel ourselves drifting from God, we can pray in that Spirit for whatever is needed to fully reconnect us.
No time-travel needed.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 22 (27) (October 2, 2016)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/
First reading and Psalm
Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137
Alternate First reading and Psalm
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
Second reading
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel
Luke 17:5-10
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Join us if you can, Friday morning, at Lectionary Breakfast. We still gather at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start at 8:00 and wrap things up about an hour later. The food is good, but the scripture, discussion, fellowship, and laughter are better.
Enjoy the week!
Steve
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