Out Our Way: Eight seconds isn't forever, but ... - Isaiah 26:1-4

Out our way, rodeo is a major sport. I have never ridden a bucking horse - although I have had horses buck - nor done any bull riding, but I have been able to attend a number of events to watch folks who do. I know from the when the gate opens and the buzzer goes off it is "only"  eight seconds - but I suspect that is an eternity to those folks making the ride.

I believe Einstein's theory of relativity may speak to this, for the speed with which time passes is relative. Eight seconds go by a lot faster in the stands than it does in the arena on the back of a pitching animal.

I have noticed the same thing holds true in every day events. My 30-minute lunch hour goes by in about five minutes - while the last half hour of hauling carts at the end of my shift lasts a good hour or more. And even more pronounced are those long days and nights when sorrow reigns versus those times of joy and contentment. It seems that there were more of the latter in my childhood and youth and certainly more of the former as I age.

There will come a time when we are on the other side of time, when the clock and calendar will have no purpose. Then we will understand that phrase In the light of eternity, how important was it?" But we aren't there yet, are we? In the "Light of eternity," it is only an eight-second ride, but when you are being tossed and twisted and bashed about, "eight seconds" seems to go on forever. But eight seconds is still eight seconds, and it will end. For the secularist, agnostic, atheist etc, their hope is that there is nothing after the buzzer goes off. That there is only blackness and nothing. I recall a story I heard of some folks going by the grave of an extremely wicked person who had committed many horrible crimes. "He said he was an atheist and there is no afterlife," said one. The other replied, "I imagine he now wishes that were true."    

It takes real faith to reject God because belief in a Supreme Being and an after life is an instinct common to all humanity. It is not taught - we are born with it. Hence, every culture from the earliest times have known God in some way or other. Even graves of earliest humans show signs of belief in a Supreme Being and an afterlife. You have to really struggle to suffocate that instinct - although some have done so, or at least claim they have.  

But assuming you have not managed to kill your instincts, there is something you should know about the eight-second ride. It is not forever, and when the buzzer goes off and the ride ends, you do not. This is the message of Scripture but also of human history. Even those who refuse to open a Bible may be encouraged to open a world history book - for the same Promise is there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. As I'm a preacher, I will take my example from both world history and the Bible.

Consider Israel. From Abraham and Sarah came Isaac, and then generation after generation to become Israel. The story of Jospeh sold into slavery and his eight seconds - ending with him rising to grand vizier and rescuing his brothers and their families from starvation in Canaan to prosper for generations in Egypt. Then years later, slavery and suffering. The 2 tribes endured their eight seconds - and then God sent Moses. Eventually the people entered the Promised Land and although attacked on all sides, still survived. Another eight-second ride came when 10 0f the 12 tribes deserted the faith and were absorbed into the pagans - yet the faith did not die nor the dream. Other "bad rides" came - the invasion by Babylon (modern day Iraq) and 70 years in captivity. Those eight seconds were hard but they also ended and the people returned. Years later the same disaster came again as the nation was destroyed and the people scattered through the Roman Empire - not for 70 years - but nearly 2000. Those eight seconds really felt like forever - but still a faithful few never lost their belief the buzzer would eventually sound, the ride would end - but they would not. God proved to be faithful and, as He had promised, Israel was and is restored.  

Then there is the church itself. Christ deserted by all - betrayed and denied by those who were closest to Him. Nailed to a cross and put to death. The buzzer sounded, the very dead corpse - carefully examined by the soldiers who would forfeit their own lives if He was not - laid in the grave, and the end of the story. Yet it wasn't. Three days later, He rose from the dead according to the eye witnesses who suddenly found it was their turn to ride. Came Pentecost and the remaining few shouted "Let her buck!" as the Holy Spirit opened the gate. They put their lives on the line declaring the Risen Christ and all - with the possible exception of John who was exiled - were tortured and executed for their refusal to change their testimony. The Apostle Paul, who was one of those who persecuted the church, was turned around in the Damascus Road and became an Apostle until he, too, was arrested and put to death.

So all the original disciples and Paul were dead The buzzer had sounded and the ride was over. End of story, right? Nope. Even more believers than before - and their numbers kept climbing. 300 years of persecution and death in the arenas - as more and more came to believe and take their own eight-second rides. As one early church historian noted, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The Saduccees, the Pharisees, and Herod could not kill Christ nor the church - neither could Caesar and the Roman Empire - it just kept growing. Today it still is. Hitler and Stalin both used the media, the universities, and the courts to try to control, stifle or kill the church in their day. Hitler's concentration camps and Stalin's gulags were filled with Christians as well as political prisoners undesirables, Jews in Germany, Ukranians in Russia. Yet in the end, as that Russian priest noted, "Marx is dead, Lenin is dead, Stalin is dead, but the Church is still here!"

Hitler's and the Nazi's favorite philosopher, Neitzche, famously wrote "God is dead." You can go online and buy T-shirts now that bear that phrase. And as loudly as Herod, Caesar, Marx, Hitler, Stalin and a thousand others have sought to convince themselves and the world that is true - world history as well as the continued survival and growth of the faith continue to demonstrate it is not. The "eight seconds" endured by Israel and the church - and is still being endured in many places - is historical fact. That the end of the ride in each generation did not end that generation is also historical fact.

Every one of us faces our own eight-second ride - many of us are in the midst of it right now. It may be extremely personal and go unnoticed by anyone else, but when you are the one being shaken, tossed and hammered - you don't care about such things. You simply hang on and pray the buzzer will sound. Right now those eight seconds feel like eternity - but take comfort in the testimony of those who rode their eight-second before you - the buzzer will sound - and when the ride is finished - you will not be. God is not done and neither are you.

Blessings!

John Bruington