Friday, March 18, 2011

ICFL

Possibly one of the greatest aspects of maintaining contacts with Virginia Theological Seminary is that I am never too far removed from a place of learning.  I don't just mean a physical place, but also a mental state.  What a shame it would be if my theological education ended in May of 2009, when I graduated from VTS.

I follow a number of blogs, many of which are either directly tied to VTS or are written by people I know from my time there.  These blogs are very enriching, and I may eventually post a blog that is simply links to other blogs I find helpful.  Today, however, I want to highlight one blog in particular.  Well, today's post from that blog, anyway.

It seems that more and more it is impossible to escape from thoughts of human mortality.  The earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the Pacific, last year's earthquake in Haiti, wars, etc., etc.  Our world just cannot get away from it all.  In today's Institute for Christian Formation and Leadership (ICFL) commentary, Carol Jubinski writes:
It reminds me of Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” While these words speak about the coming of the Son of Man, they also are about our own death. We do not know when death will come, only that it will come in God’s time, not ours.
While it can be easy to start focusing on our own mortality when we are confronted with death on seemingly every side, we should make sure that we do not become fixated on it. Yes, we are in the season of Lent, wherein we are intentional about reflecting on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross, but what a shame it would be if we allowed the story to end when Jesus was placed in the grave.  Instead, remember that, while Jesus did die on the cross, he also rose again.  We do not know when we will die.  All we can do is be prepared.  The best way to do that is to live in the hope of the resurrection.

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