Time&Eternity

52 chapter 1
At the beginning of time, God’s Spirit lay over the night of chaos. 322 The
Spirit’s presence at that time is the reason and the occasion for also requesting
its work in the present. The Spirit is eternal and powerful, 323 it emanates
eternally from the Father and the Son, 324 and it is one in an eternal bond of
love with the Father and the Son. 325 In time, the Spirit acts to cleanse, to
heal, and to give life. 326 It provides comfort, 327 brings near that which is becoming,
that which is, and that which was; 328 and it connects times and human
beings in a never-ending fellowship. 329 At last, the Spirit’s works are directed
toward eternity in the distant future: The Spirit awakens on the Day
of Judgment 330 and helps us to inherit “des ewgen Lebens Haus” (the house
of eternal life). 331
“sie eilt dahin, wir halten nichts in Händen” 332
—Human Beings and Time
The basic human experience of time is its flowing away. In all three languages,
the image of the stream occurs.
.l.l. Wie ein Strom beginnt zu rinnen
und mit Laufen nicht hält innen,
so fährt unsre Zeit von hinnen. 333
Transitoriness is the basic theme of human existence, for: “Hin geht die
Zeit, her kommt der Tod” (Time flows away, and death approaches); 334 and
the human day in time is but a fleeting dream. 335 This experience causes a
trace of resignation to resonate in some of the hymns; it even elicits terror.
336 Faith processes the experience of life as an existence predetermined to
die in three ways. It finds security in that which is constant within the
changes of time, it longs for time to be superseded by eternity, 337 or it approaches
the ethical challenges of this age in the conscious realization that
all time is always God’s time. 338 In addition to Godself, the Church can also
be constant. 339 The longing for eternity is primarily a solution provided by
older hymns, whereas twentieth-century hymns instead tend to draw ethical
conclusions.
One of the main problems of time for the modern person is the lack of
time. A contemporary who feels hurried and stressed asks for time for the
essentials of life. 340 For his or her ancestors, the big problem was, primarily,
evil, dangerous, aimless, and faithless times. They did not ask for more
time, but rather for shorter times of testing, protection from epidemics, and
from periods with high costs of living. 341 For this reason, devout submissiveness
is depicted as the ideal image of previous ages; one submits to the
fate of the times and entrusts time to God. 342
Hymns of various periods tell of the change from bad to good times.