LifeDate

Author: By Pastor Michael Salemink
Originally printed in Lutherans for Life magazine, LifeDate.

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther 4:14b

Frodo: “I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

Gandalf: “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Are we living in the bad times or the good times? Have we come to the best of times or to the worst of times?

Perhaps both. Human selfishness has wrought considerable wickedness in our world. Sins such as our own have brought great evil upon us. Death threatens to run rampant over our land, and our people have made treaties with its demons in order to have a hand in their own demise. Its grip has grown already too great for any of us – or even all of us together – to arrest. By abortion and assisted suicide, the Ancient Enemy nibbles and gnaws at either end of our race’s lifespans. It convinces us to constrict both our own worth and our neighbor’s to comparisons of popularity, to competitions of property, and to contests of potency. And we have nothing more than words with which to mount any kind of resistance to this intangible adversary.

But the words we have are not our own. They exert an authority that does not come from us. These words of Almighty God’s truth impart an answer that commands the hearts of humankind. These words of Incarnate Christ’s love apply an antidote that transforms the very times themselves. Even in the hearts of mortals they constitute life-saving words that implement repentance and reliance. Even on the lips of sinners they amount to life-giving words that enact reconciliation and resurrection. Gospel words of forgiveness, faith, and fellowship forge the former times into the fullness of time from this time forth and forevermore.

So let us rejoice, and let us exclaim. For the words of eternal life pertain to us, and they prevail in our time.

When the worst of times witness the Heavenly Father’s victory, they become the best of times. Blessed are we to behold it, and to have a hand – that is, a voice to be heard – in such a time as this!