Time&Eternity

54 chapter 1
It is a matter of hope for life, hope for the time that is and will come, 357
for “Gott hat uns diese Erde gegeben, dass wir auf ihr die Zeit bestehen”
(God gave us this earth on which to stand the test of time), 358 and “[w]enn
wir heute mutig wagen, auf Jesu Weg zu gehn, werden wir in unsern Tagen
den kommenden Frieden sehn” (if today we courageously dare to follow the
path of Jesus, we will see the coming peace in our days). 359 Here, however,
one must act in faith, since feelings allow us to enjoy for only brief moments
that which, in reality, we possess all the time. 360 Contrary to appearances,
the future is already now real:
Redan är du
den du en gång skall bli:
dömd och benådad,
död och uppstånden .l.l. 361
For “[d]er Himmel, der kommt, grüßt schon die Erde, die ist, wenn die
Liebe das Leben verändert” (the heaven to come already greets the earth
that exists, when love transforms life). 362
When their sojourn in the habitat of time is finally over, then people
“går ur tiden” (they will leave time) 363 —as the Swedish language expresses it
in a synonym for “dying.” Until that time, however, the shaping of a lifetime
is, to a great degree, the responsibility of human beings; and this also
entails special risks. Human self-assertion leads, namely, to an attack on
God’s sovereignty. A hymn from the 1960s speaks of this dilemma:
Wir wollen leben und uns selbst behaupten.
Doch deine Freiheit setzen wir aufs Spiel.
Nach unserm Willen soll die Welt sich ordnen.
Wir bauen selbstgerecht den Turm der Zeit. 364
As a consequence of such Babylonian tower-building, we are dependent
upon God’s grace again and again:
.l.l. Laß deine Gnade, Herr, vor Recht ergehen;
von gestern und morgen sprich uns los. 365
Thus, a person set free from the past and the future could then finally
live in the now of the present, which in turn, according to Augustine, 366
would be tantamount to a life in eternity.