Time is the Fire in which we Burn

“We’re all going to die sometime. It’s just a question of how and when… Aren’t you beginning to feel time gaining on you? It’s like a predator. It’s stalking you. Oh, you can try to outrun it with doctors and medicines, new technologies and remedies but in the end, time is going to hunt you down and make the kill.” (Dr. Tolian Soran, Star trek Generations, Paramount Pictures, 1994)  

British Summer Time has come again to an untimely end, to what was a very pleasant autumn of temperatures at 21ºCelsius and beautiful sunshine. However, the last Saturday in October meant that time reversed by 1 hour to create more light in the morning. However, I am at a loss as to why we still use this left over strategy of World War 1 today. I get up at 6.00am and it is usually dark. By 7.15am, as I get in my car, you can see the light of dawn lifting the darkness and by 8.00am we have the full mornings light available to us for this time of year. In the evening, by 5.00pm, dusk has begun to descend on us and by 5.30pm, it is night. 


Overnight, this pattern is disrupted by ‘daylight saving’, which does the opposite of what its name suggests; robbing us of an hour of daylight in the evening when we are going about our business, and adding it to the morning while most of us sleep . With night now arriving at 4.15pm instead of 5.30pm, late afternoon turns into night and our evenings become none existent. We begin the seemingly endless eternal darkness, which those of you who work the hours that I do, particularly if you work in a building where you see very little natural light of the day, seems to last forever. Or until spring at least.

Sure, some of the far reaches of Scotland may be on a similar latitude to Alaska and as such, be subjected to the extremes of sunlight witnessed in the summer but at this time of the year, with only 9hrs of daylight, why place the light in the early hours? It’s not as though we will all end up like Al Pacino in the film Insomnia… Changing the pattern of Daylight Saving would also have economic benefits and transport safety improvements too. 

By adopting European Central time, there is evidence to suggest that we will also feel safer; both physically, psychologically and also emotionally. Time is of course, a man-made concept. There is however, no concept of time to some regions of the world because for them, particularly in the summer, there is no night. Scientific study has proven that when we adjust our body clock to the rhythm of daylight, that we have better quality sleep and feel more attuned to our emotional health.

Time is only important within social structures, where we are dependent on each other for goods and services. The Romans divided the day into two halves so that they could command the legions of soldiers who kept watch over their territories. Indeed, it wasn't really until the development of the railways, that we governed our day in accurately measured segments of time… but why 24 hours? Was time derived from some sense of geometry? Dividing the circle into 12 equal segments by ruling a line trough its centre could have given rise to many different combinations, so why 12? Or was it a reflection of the ebb and flow of the sunrise and the sunset and the arrival of the seasons?

Sundials are the earliest known device for measuring time, except for geological formations used to track the sun’s movement. Using the shadow created by the movement of the sun on a dial, told you how much light remained in a day, rather than how long the day was. Obviously, the sun dial didn't work at night! Perhaps it was the seasons which determined the amount of light and the length of days but I am not sure that this led to the development of time that we know today. 






We are told that the Babylonians developed the 60 second minute and the 60 second hour but it wasn't until the development of a device called a 'foliot' (pictured), which helped to govern the time indicated on a dial, that time was made available for use by the masses. These mechanisms were placed into towers and monasteries around the 14^th century due to their size, to indicate the times that those called to prayers should attend the Priory…

The Greeks and the Romans have helped to shape the months that we have on our calendar but days can be attributed to the creation story in Genesis. The seven days were time periods in which God created the world and everything in it and on the 7^th day, he rested. Since we attempted to wrest control of our destiny from God’s control, we have continued to go our own way, shaping our world with our ingenuity and technological advancement, to reach a point where we feel in command of everything, including time itself.

But what happens when this isn't so? I am at home on holiday from work, sat in a T-shirt in my back garden bathed in glorious sunshine, with temperatures still at 19ºC, which is balmy for Oct 31^st. If anything, the weather should be anything but this type of unseasonal temperature; cold, grey, miserable and wet. The variety and unpredictability of the weather also reflects how the world is. I can be sat here in relative peace and quiet, drinking tea in my garden, when those going to the temple mount in Jerusalem today, will feel the uneasy tension of its re-opening in light of the recent wounding of a Jewish activist and the death of his alleged Palestinian attacker.

Ebola is still rife in West Africa, IS, Ukraine and many other places of conflict, are still attacking each other with the resultant loss of life that ensues. Those who have been marginalised, still experience injustice, starvation, and persecution.

Humanity seems to be at war with itself, while here I sit, sipping my tea and moaning about Daylight Saving while reflecting on some unseasonal weather. Life, in all of its forms of expression, is impressively complex and yet can be refreshingly simple.

Jesus tells us to live our lives by ‘doing to others, what you would like them do to you’ (Luke 6:31, NLT) and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31, NLT). This quotation from Jesus’ teaching, is the second part to the response he made to the religious leaders, who asked him which of the commandments of God was the greatest? Jesus first replied, ‘you must love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:30, NLT)

When we use the words of Jesus as our lens for looking at the world, we are able to see how great our need is of God’s grace. Using this as a barometer for our current attitudes towards each other, we can interact as human beings with tolerance and respect for one another. As soon as we ignore this Golden Rule, we become intolerant and lack compassion. It is also true that each of the worlds major religions, contain elements of this Golden Rule:

“...and you should forgive and overlook: Do you not like God to forgive you? And Allah is The Merciful Forgiving.” (Qur’an - Surah 24, The Light, v.22)

The phrase Jesus uses in his confrontation with the Pharisees, is taken from Mosaic Law found In Leviticus 19:18, written millennia before Jesus uses them in reminding the Pharisees in this Gospel account, of the law given to Moses by God. As the Son of God, Jesus uses those same words to give validity to the claims he makes through his teaching that all people must be born again...

‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.’ (NIV)

If we are to live true to Jesus' teaching, this last command is very hard for us to do alone. We need God's Holy Spirit alive in us, to have any hope of measuring up to this ideal. I have read that elements of the Golden Rule is applied to trader dealing in the stock exchange as well as to the fundamentals of capitalist idealism. It is used in order to promote fairness and provide a moral framework with which they can do business. Indeed, articles within the Bill of Human Rights, also encapsulate what is inferred to in the Golden Rule. The Leviticus text also has the following charge…

‘The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God.’

(Leviticus 19:34, NLT)

There are many who would argue that within the stories of the Old Testament, the God we read of there, is different to the God of the New Testament. However, nothing could be further than the truth, when you read these ancient scriptures. God’s mission has always been one of peace; to draw people to himself. When humanity dishonoured God in the days before Noah, it was to his great remorse that humanity was wiped clean from the earth. And yet, even in God's anger at humanities sinful nature, he was still looking for anyone who would still honour him. God reached out to Noah with the instruction to build the Ark, in order to save humanity from what was to come.

Noah wasn’t perfect; in fact it was probably his self-awareness of his need of God that helped him to stand out from his peers. This made Noah, the only person in whom God knew he could reset humanities social structures with. Noah displayed obedience in the face of his contemporaries and was ridiculed because he believed in the wisdom of God far more than he trusted in the indiscretion of man.

Abraham was another patriarch from history, who was considered by God to honour him. Yet in his own nature, Abraham was not perfect. At times, he trusted in his own solutions to the problems he faced, rather than rely on God's help, in order to protect himself from the world that he existed in. Abraham had to learn about his own nature, particularly in the light of what he knew of God, so that his heart and mind could be transformed by what he saw God doing. The big change that occurs with how God the creator interacted with humanity through Abraham, compared to Noah, is that God had found in Abraham, someone whose descendants would continue to acquiesce to the nature of God; they honoured God with how they chose to live. Abraham's grandson Jacob, became the father of 12 sons, one of whom was Joseph and his coat of many colours, who would be used to realise Gods promise to the Hebrews.

Jacob wasn't considered to be born with the most endearing of personal qualities, being deceptive and manipulative in nature, he fought with God in the desert, just as he fought with his brother Esau in the womb, ultimately stealing his brothers birth right. Jacob also experienced tremendous toil and entrapment at the hands of Laban his uncle over his wives and had to learn to endure through hardship. Whilst toiling in the physical sense, tending to the sheep and goats in his care, Jacob learned to trust in God’s mercy and grace.

As Jacob was a descendant of Abraham, blessed by his father Isaac, God honoured the covenant he made to bless Abraham’s descendants, while Jacob learned a life lesson the hard way… The deception he experienced at the hand of his uncle Laban, led him to firstly recognise his own nature, through the deception that he experienced where he was minded to act; his toil as a shepherd taught him to endure the sands of time, dependent on God’s mercy; yet when the true test of his character came, he put it all together to prove to God, that he was worthy of blessing. For this change of character, God renames him Jacob, meaning the ‘supplanter’, which was an unflattering reference to his quarrel with his brother Esau in the womb, to Israel, which some believe to mean ‘God rules’.

From this beginning, a nation was born out of the slavery the Hebrews suffered, at the hand of the Egyptian Pharaohs… a people who benefited from Jacobs son Joseph's God-given ability to interpret dreams. Joseph’s wisdom protected the Egyptians from famine while being a representative of the people of God to whom the Hebrews could flee to for protection from the same famine. However, the passage of time meant that Joseph’s accomplishments were forgotten by the Pharaohs, who subjugated the Hebrew immigrants into slavery.

Moses rose up as a hybrid of the Egyptian ruling elite and the Hebrew ethnicity he descended from. He was saved from the Nile River by Pharaoh’s daughter and brought up as an Egyptian prince, while being attended to by his natural birth mother, who was employed as a handmaiden to look after him. Moses was provided with the best of both cultures however, he didn't start well. Murdering an Egyptian who was beating a fellow Hebrew slave, Moses flee's to the desert.

His self-righteous anger revealed a passion in him that he probably hadn’t known before because it was the first time that he had had to confront the dualism in his identity. After a period of time in the wilderness, God calls Moses into active service. Despite his initial protestations, Moses becomes an effective leader, demonstrating the power of God, whose authority he operated under.

When the Hebrews left Egypt, taking with them any who were desperate to escape captivity, they were fashioned into a people group for the first time by Moses, eventually finding their identity as the people of God as they took-up their position in the Promised Land under Joshua. Their role as a nation was to demonstrate to the whole world, God’s mercy and grace to those whom they encountered. As the Leviticus 19 verse states, the Israelis should show love to the stranger or the alien among them, demonstrating hospitality and equality within the confines of Mosaic Law. Loving all people as they would want to be loved themselves, the Golden Rule.

Where Adam represented the unity of mankind through the life of one man, the nation state of Israel demonstrated the relationship that Yahweh wanted to have with all of humanity, as a vassal King, in exchange for complying with Mosaic Law; to have no other Gods but the one true God. While maintaining the law through our observance of the 10 commandments, God promises to protect the nation through all the different facets of human interaction. The Genesis story shows the origin of humanity through the life of one man, Adam, to teach us that anyone who destroys a single man, in this case the scheming of Satan, destroys the future of the whole world and yet, the opposite is also true in that anyone who saves just one man, saves the whole world.

We see God actively involved in the affairs of humanity through honouring the commitment he made to Moses to rescue his people and to set them free. We find that the antidote to Satan’s deception is through God entering into covenant agreements first with Adam and Noah and then with Abraham. We find God setting out the consequences of man’s sin in relation to the fallen world by revealing what would eventually happen, when God redeems mankind. Secondly with Abraham, God rewards his faith in him by promising him descendants that would be as numerous as the stars. This is pretty amazing considering Abraham was 75 years of age and childless, when the covenant was first commissioned.

The covenant that God makes with Abraham is unconditional in that it is up to God alone to honour the agreement. The covenant that God makes with Moses is a conditional covenant, designed to set in motion a mechanism for which God could redeem all of humanity through his observance of God’s commandments. There were obligations that the Israelis had to meet, in order for them to bring honour to God’s Holy law. Their obedience would be rewarded, but there would also be consequences for the Hebrews if they did not honour Gods commands. God could not protect the people, if their actions led them into sinful behaviours that he couldn’t condone. In breaking their side of the covenant, God is released from his responsibilities as Vassal King.

God never interrupts our free will to know our own mind and to choose our own way. It has to be this way with humanity so that as independent human beings, we can be free to choose whether we want to recognise that we are children of God, in need of his companionship, his protection and above all, his enduring grace or whether we choose to reject him. God doesn't make this easy, as the Holy Spirit is also at work in our lives, drawing our attention to himself, in order that we might believe.

If we choose to work it out by ourselves, the consequences for our rebellious nature, is that we may never find peace while trying to honour the Golden Rule because our human nature lives in contradiction of it. The Israelites repeatedly turned away from God and returned to the Pagan gods they saw other nations worshipping and in whose land they now lived.

The Israelites too easily forgot that God had won for them, all that they had. The praises and adoration of the people, should have been given to Yahweh as worship but instead, they chose to pray to motionless idols and golden statues, perhaps comforted by the knowledge that they wouldn’t answer back! It was these behaviours that led to the Israelites becoming vulnerable to persecution and attack from their enemies whom surrounded their borders. The land that God acquired for Israel, was rich in its bounty, being fertile for farming, irrigation and trade. Their land was the envy of those who were marginalised onto the higher ground surrounding Israel’s borders, who were desperately waiting for an opportunity to plunder its riches.

Even though the Israelites chose to worship false gods and idols, as was demonstrated with Noah, God is always seeking out men and women who will continue to honour him, despite their inherent weaknesses and through whom he could reveal his true nature. It wasn’t long  before the Israelites wanted to replace God as Vassal King, in favour of a lesser, human king, which they had observed the other nations as having. Again, God intercedes through the prophet Samuel, a man who held onto what his ancestors had passed on to the Israelites in the Mosaic Law, the worship in the tabernacle and the tradition of honouring the many festivals that celebrated God’s victories over their shared enemy, particularly when taking possession of the Promised Land.

Samuel knew that choosing a human king was a foolish mistake and questioned the people’s motivation for making such a retrograde request. Ultimately however, as Gods people desired this arrangement, even though all of the pitfalls associated with a King were pointed out to them, such as taxation and calling their children to arms, the Israelites still demand it. God concedes to their plea by working through his prophet Samuel, to help the people choose the one who would be king instead of him.

Again, this solution did not last long. King Saul, full of his own self-importance, began to operate under his own mandate rather than God’s, leaving him and the people he served, vulnerable to attack. As with Jacob, God is always looking for just one person who believes in his saving grace enough to endure. God is impressed with the heart of a young shepherd boy, full of faith in Gods ability to bring all who stand before him to justice. Through his own understanding of God’s sovereignty, this shepherd boy, filled with righteous indignation at the audacity of the enemies of Israel to taunt God’s army, he offers to fight. King Saul, the protector of a nation, chooses to place his nation’s sovereignty into the hands of a shepherd boy called David, who appears to have more faith in Gods’ protection, than the whole Israeli army put together.

David did not simply possess a blind faith, nor did he believe he was particularly equipped to battle Goliath. It was his faith and trust in God to vanquish an enemy, built upon his knowledge of what God had done through his people Israel, which gave him the audacity to stand before Goliath. David knew implicitly that God saves. Again like Jacob, David’s youthfulness gives way to the familiar traits of adulthood; to lust over things that we have not got. 



In David’s case, when he should have been in battle protecting the kingdom, he was at home where his idleness caught him out. Standing on the roof of the palace, his lust for a woman he saw bathing was aroused, leading him to forget his senses and miss-use his royal authority. By illicitly requesting an audience with Bathsheba, knowing her husband was away fighting the battle that David himself should have been leading, he dishonours Bathsheba, his nation, and his God. I wonder if he foresaw the irony of his actions before giving into his desire.

Hollywood would probably make this story out to be a romantic encounter of forbidden love, but as with all types of sinfulness, there is often more than one wrong we are prepared to live with, in order to get what we want. David, lied, deceived, cheated and committed murder in order to cover up his infidelity. He had dishonoured Bathsheba’s dignity both as a woman and as a wife, dishonours his loyal friend, whom David instigates an untimely death and ultimately, David dishonours God. This mighty man of God was brought down by the same question which Satan placed into Adam and Eve’s head in the garden... 

‘Did God really say… you shouldn’t covet another man’s wife? Did God really say… You shouldn’t commit adultery? Did God really say… You shouldn’t commit murder?’

I want to rewind a little before coming into land. When Abraham was promised descendants as numerous as the stars, his wife Sarah laughed. It seemed impossible that Abraham was to leave everything he knew, ancestral land, family ties and the prosperity he had grown accustomed to through his associated trade connections, to follow a whim, albeit a pretty large whim, as it was God who was encouraging Abraham to move to Canaan. 


To paraphrase Gods promise, he tells Abraham to ‘honour me by following my instruction, and you will have your own family to cherish.’ It started well but then it all goes a bit awry. Sarah, trying to make the promise happen by herself, after 10 years of living in Canaan, offers Abraham Hagar, her servant, as a concubine. Hagar gives birth to a child whom God encourages to name Ishmael, meaning ‘God hears’.

When God met Hagar in the desert, after running from Sarah's wrath at becoming pregnant. He promises that Abraham’s illegitimate heir, Ishmael, will have the same promises bestowed on him as Abraham’s maternal heir. The same God that spoke to Abraham, also spoke with Hagar. When God made his covenant with Abraham, he changed his name from Abram so that when translated into English, we derive the meaning: 'Father of nations…' note the plural. 


The land in which Abraham now lived, Canaan, would also become his inheritance to pass onto his children. This is the same Promised Land to which the Israelites finally come to rest in after their exodus from Egypt; a resting place after their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, aimed at finally purging their sinful nature from the culture they had adopted while in slavery; to be finally led through the River Jordan, into the land of Canaan, with a new generation of Hebrews, who had been born in the desert.

For Ishmael, he remained Abraham’s first born and heir until Isaac was born. As a half-brother, born illegitimately to a servant girl, Ishmael loses his birth right and with it, his inheritance. Today, we can see how trying to do things our own way instead of Gods, has led to two distinct cultures who virtually oppose one another and yet, both came about through the same blessing that was given to Abraham. With the family ancestry carried on through Isaac, Ishmael’s blessing is somewhat soured by the favour that was bestowed upon Isaac.

It is interesting too, how Ishmael’s descendants figure again in the Hebrew story, when Jacobs’s son Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, to their half-cousins, the Ishmaelite traders that were passing by, who inadvertently became part of God’s plan to protect Abraham and his descendants. Today, the Arabic nations of the Middle East are descended from these Ishmaelite traders, sharing a common ancestry through Abraham with their Hebrew, Jewish, Israeli, half-cousins.

What this does reveal, is that no nationality, race or class, may claim an ancestry that is somehow more privileged than the other, saying, 'Our father was born first.’ Similarly, this story gives testimony to the greatness of God’s plan, because it is he who created the diversity between our cultures. Instead of growing animosity towards our divergent cultures, we should choose to draw alongside each other, particularly as the Arabs and Israeli’s share the same patriarchal ancestry. Perhaps it was Muhammad, writing in the Qur’an, which finally drove a wedge between their shared ancestry. The Qur’an gave expression to the diversity between each culture and their spiritual direction, pitting one against the other.

It is hard not to be sceptical about a book written by one man, albeit one that was allegedly recited to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel, whom we read about in the Gospel Stories when he appears to Jesus' mother, Mary. Muhammad memorises what he has been told and is then able to perfectly recite the account back to his band of followers, who acted as scribes. In contrast, the Bible is a collection of 66 books covering millennia, having multiple authors and written in a variety of contexts, yet having a clear narrative of the kingdom of God at work, in order to redeem mankind. Yet the Qur’an has just one source.

The apostle Paul’s letters were being circulated in the 1st Century and a full scriptural canon, including Old and New Testaments, were being circulated by AD170. All 27 books of the New Testament were added to the original 39 Hebrew books of the Old Testament, creating a holistic account of God at work within the narrative of humanity. This adds to the authenticity of the word of God contained within its pages because the narrative of the Kingdom of God flows through the whole book as a coherent message. Although their are many authors, they are each inspired by the one Holy Spirit, who compels them to write down their account of what they had seen God do.

The Qur’an does not add to the scriptures held by the Hebrew Jews, or the gentile followers of Jesus, who believed in his teaching, or the work of Jesus’ apostles, who were charged with spreading the Gospel message. What I have read in the Qur’an seems to regurgitate biblical phrases in a paraphrase style, when compared to the original Hebrew text. The rhetoric it uses and the veiled dismissal of Christian and Jewish teaching, suited what Muhammad wanted to achieve as a religious leader to the Arabic world. Indeed, Muhammad would have had access to all the material of the Bible and other associated writing not canonised into the scriptures, by the time ascribed to the writing of the Qur’an in AD630 by Muhammad’s group of scribes.

Of what I have read in the Qur’an, it seems to be a bizarre, unorganized, self-aggrandising piece of literature, mixing their shared ancestry, with the random sayings of Muhammad. More concerning is the suggestion that anyone who is not Muslim, has got it wrong regarding how our civilisation should worship God. Only those who worship Allah will be rewarded. What credibility does a text have, if the narrator/author tells you that his word is the only true source of scripture, particularly when only one man has a hand in writing it? How can it be that one person can vouch for the Qur’an’s integrity, without other witnesses to corroborate the account that Muhammad gives for what happened?

Jesus had twelve disciples to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The original 12 tribes were made up from the ancestral sons of Jacob, the grandson of Isaac, Abraham's son. It was the disciples who wrote the Gospel accounts and contributed to the validation of what they saw Jesus teach and do. Alongside these twelve men, there were women such as Mary and Martha with their brother Lazarus, whom was raised from the dead, who attend to the domestic needs of Jesus and the disciples. This family were instrumental in waking the disciples from their spiritual stupor in the upper room, after Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden where the tomb that held Jesus' body was. 

Thousands followed Jesus as he went about healing the sick, making the blind see, making the lame walk, the deaf hear and in driving demons out. All of these people became eyewitnesses to what was happening and could vouch for what they saw Jesus do. It was these people who could corroborate the stories being told and validate what people were writing, straight after the events that unfolded at Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

Later, the writings of the apostle Paul, whom we are initially introduced to as a Pharisee who zealously murdered Christians for their beliefs in Jesus, testifies in his many letters that what Jesus’ was teaching and the miracles he performed were all true. Paul does this from a position where he believed that Jesus, was a blasphemous imposter. Rather than Jesus himself telling others to write down what he was saying, it is left to those who heard it and who were convinced by the truth of his teaching, to record it for others to read and believe. For me, this adds weight to the authenticity of the Bible, Jesus’ teaching, his death on the cross, and his resurrection, because the decision to accept this truth for ourselves, is actually ours.

Faith isn’t blind, nor do you have to suspend reason to accept what the Bible says of God and his son Jesus. As mentioned at the beginning, Jesus himself tells us to ‘love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ It is with our whole self that we are to approach our understanding of who God is and who we are in relation to him. This relationship goes beyond our ancestry, race, culture or ethnicity, or even if we happen to live or worship God in a geographical location deemed to be holy. 


Faith or belief in God, first focuses on our own willingness to respond to God’s call on our lives, before commissioning us into a course of action. You do not need to be born Jewish or be born into Islam to find God’s signature on the world. You can either believe that the universe we exist in is simply ‘pot-luck’; that there is no plan or purpose to anything except the certainty that we will die. Or you can engage with the discussion over the existence of God and what he may require of his creation. Or you may sit on the fence.

When Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, sin corrupted everything. When Abraham was promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, both he and Sarah grew impatient with the time they had waited, trying to resolve God’s apparent inaction by taking things into their own hands. Sin was at work. Sarah should not have coerced Hagar as her servant, forcing her to enter into the surrogacy agreement which resulted in the birth of Ishmael, whom as a child, was also wronged when his world was ultimately pulled from under his feet, at the birth of Isaac. However, as we have already seen, God interceded in the situation, to protect both children, and to encourage them both to prosper within their own situations.

Yet, the way that history has developed over the possession of land and the religious connections made concerning specific geographical areas described in the Bible texts, can skew the meaning and purpose of the covenant God was making with people. We have seen too, that these covenants were conditional in that in order for God to honour the covenant he made with the Israelites, they had to observe the laws that God set for them to honour. Failing to honour God, led to the Israelites being dispossessed from the land and like Sarah, they seem intent on claiming it back from the Palestinians in their own strength, rather than anything that God has sanctioned.

So to come into land... I am going to use the analogy of the Matrix movie… Keanu Reeves character Nero, has a skill set and level of interest in computer programming where he has developed an inquisitive sense that there is something more going on in his life. He is searching for something beyond himself to which Morpheus, one of the principle characters, is best placed to answer. So in this relationship there is a seeker and one who is being sought.

This is how we all are in the world. We try to determine a sense of purpose or a reason for why things are as they are. Through our sense of duty to ourselves, our families, our communities and our nation, we interact with our culture, we are educated, and we seek out employment in meaningful occupations. Somehow in all of this, we derive a sense of purpose through our internal motivation, which gathers momentum and keep us ticking along, even when difficulties arise. Nero is at the point where his momentum has stalled and he is looking for something else in life. Morpheus is in a position to respond to his inquiry and offer an alternative direction to his life.

However, the Nero character has a further dimension to his personality. Morpheus has identified that Nero has a set of skills that would enable him to rescue others from their own nightmares. At first, after Nero’s first meeting with the oracle, which is the films interpretation of a prophet, it is not certain whether Nero really believes he is whom they all thought he should be. Despite Nero’s doubts, Morpheus has faith in Nero’s faltering ability, while those around him, who are also aware of Nero’s calling and their own sense of purpose within the prophecy, wait to see what might happen.

What happens next for Nero, is that once he had stopped trying to be something everyone else thought he ought to be and started to be his own person, he was able to find within himself, the answers to the questions that they were all asking: Is he the one? What we then observe in the movie, is that his natural skill as a computer programmer allowed him to see the Matrix in computer code, particularly in the third movie, where he loses his sight in a fight with Mr. Smith, yet can still see. 



This ability puts Nero directly at the centre of the fight for their survival and we find out that freedom is guaranteed for all who actively seek a way out of the Matrix.

There is so much God stuff here, I may struggle to cover it all but here goes. Morpheus’ character is like a messenger of God, a prophet who guides the people along the right path on the journey into life. This is like the patriarchs we find in the Bible and referred to in the Qur’an, such as Abraham and Moses, who guided the people in the ways of God, in upholding the covenant that humanity agreed to abide by. Morpheus gives Nero a choice, just as we each have a choice to make regarding faith in God.

Nero is a Christ like character who as a human, understands the nature of man, but as a computer programmer, understood the machine world that held humanity captive. Jesus too was born as a man, being parented in Nazareth and schooled by his family, his local community and his Jewish culture. We find in Luke's Gospel story of the one account of Jesus’ childhood, that he goes missing on their return home from a pilgrimage to Jersualem, only to be found in the temple, sharing his thoughts with and listening to the rabbi’s. When questioned about his conduct due to his parents anxiety at losing him, the young Jesus answers... 

“But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he meant.” (Luke 2:49-50, NLT)

Jesus began to understand who he was and grew in his awareness of his divinity and his humanity, through his reading of the scriptures and in his understanding of his purpose. Like the Nero character, Jesus' faith in his Father and his ability to endure under much suffering and testing of his character, prepares him for his purpose, fully aware of his mission and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Both characters end their journey's by becoming a sacrifice for the cause to which they were compelled, namely to save the lost, the broken hearted, the sick and those enslaved by sin.

Such is the impact of Jesus' teaching and sacrifice, like Nero, Jesus resets time with his actions. His death offers hope to everyone. This hope is not found in the geographical location of land, sacred buildings, ancestry, race or tradition but in the faith of each person who places their trust in God as redeemer and King of our lives. Only when we finally accept that going it alone and doing our own thing, in our own way, has only caused more heartache, will we be in a position to accept that God does have the answers that make sense.

Time can be a great healer giving humanity and human beings, the space to reflect on life as the seasons come and go and we age with grace. However, we don’t want to accept that we are not ultimately in control of our lives. When we leave this earth, we can take nothing with us and our accomplishments are soon forgotten. We can pass on our wealth and give our families a sense of hereditary. Perhaps too in this social media age, our life which we have recorded through our mobiles, tablets and digital cameras, could live on indefinitely on some great server.

On reflection, have we kept to the golden rule? “To do to others, what you would like them do to you and to love your neighbour as yourself.’ Only when we become self-less will we actually find fulfillment in this life. Only in Jesus can we find peace because only he has the power to forgive sin. No matter how well we might keep Torah or the Qur’an, neither of these can bring life. We cannot earn a place in heaven, neither can we buy our way into heaven. There are no prayers we can say or incantations we can make that can secure a place for our souls in the heavenly realm. Only our submission to God's love can do that. When we finally let go of the battles we endure while living out our lives; letting go of our fear of losing control, will we find rest in the arms of Jesus, who loves us more than we will ever know.

Solomon, the son of King David, who established the Kingdom of God for the Israelites in the Promised Land, reached the end of his life believing that everything under the sun was meaningless:

“I observed the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power and the victims are helpless.” 

(Ecclesiastes 4:1, NLT)

Here was a mighty King whose greatness was renowned throughout the ancient near east. He had wealth beyond his wildest expectations, he was under the protection of God through his continuing presence in the temple courts in Jerusalem, and he had no equal. And yet, this scripture appears to show that he felt powerless to stop the corruption he speaks of. Solomon understands that people are not nice to each other and we cannot be certain of their intentions. We often encounter phoney relationships, where people wear masks to cover up their true feelings and we see people taking advantage of others less fortunate than themselves, abusing the trust that we place in each other to do good.

When we became disconnected from God in the Garden of Eden, due to our sinful disobedience, we were given the ability to understand the difference between good and evil. It was also the time when we became disconnected from each other. Even within prehistoric families like Isaac and Ishmael, where we read about God intervening to help bring harmony to the estranged half-brothers, we still find disunity within these ancestral families today. That is why God’s plan moves our search for faith beyond material possessions and territory, towards an eternal inheritance that God gifts to those who choose to believe, through the presence of the Holy Spirit alive in us.

The King of the Universe aligns himself with every human heart that is willing to offer him a home. Jesus offers us a new covenant which he has ordained through his sacrifice on the cross. His blood has bought humanity the greatest gift, redemption and hope. In doing so, the passage of time is no longer a predator, rather, time becomes a companion. God walks with us on our journey into the Promised Land; a heavenly home prepared for us by God himself. Time may be described as ‘the fire in which we burn’, but I prefer to believe that time is a companion given to us by God so that we might make sense of who we are and in finding ourselves, we also find God. When we find God's signature on our hearts, we will also know our name is recorded in the book of life, we can find peace with our soul and know the assurance that the way we choose to live our lives is as important as what we do with it.

(‘Time is the fire in which we burn.’ by Delmore Schwartz, is a line taken from “Calmly we walked through this Aprils Day” a poem  from ‘Summer knowledge and selected poems.)