The Christian Past and Future
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Past, present, future. They’re all there – all true – all part of the Christian life.
In 2007, on my first trip to Durham Cathedral in the north of England, I thought a lot about the depth of history. The cathedral itself is almost a thousand years old, and a small community of Christians worshiped on the site before the cathedral construction began, so as I knelt in prayer there, I was aware that I was part of a millennium of continual worship of Our Lord at that very spot. Ten centuries of people lifting up praise and thanks, prayers and petitions to God, aware that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Two great figures from medieval Christianity are buried at Durham Cathedral: the Venerable Bede and St. Cuthbert. Could they have imagined the twenty-first century, with its technology and gadgets, its world wars and its radical philosophies? I bet they’d see right through the post-modern fog, cut through all our excuses for why we don’t follow through on what Christ calls us to do, and challenge us to look for the one truth who is Christ. God called Cuthbert, a shepherd, to be a bishop; he called Bede to be a scholar, historian, and monk. He calls each of us to do His work – today just as much as in the seventh century when Cuthbert and Bede were alive, or in the time of Jesus Himself.
Durham Cathedral isn’t just full of old stone and medieval art – the “Millennium Window” is a modern stained glass piece, the banners for St. Cuthbert’s tomb are modern, and there are several modern-art sculptures of Christ. Some of the modern art I liked, and some I didn’t. But regardless of my aesthetic preference, I felt that the modern work there sent an important message: that this is a place of living faith, where Christians come to worship God in 2007 and beyond, not just to look back at history. The depth of Christian tradition is immeasurably valuable… but pairing it with modern work helps us understand why it’s so important: not just for its own sake, but because tradition is essential in helping us become and remain true disciples of Christ now and in the future.
Past, present, future. He has died; He is risen; He will come again. We must hold all three in our awareness. Past: the tradition that has been handed on faithfully for us to learn from. Present: where we must act out what we have learned. Future: that day, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in another millennium, in which Christ, who is already King of the world, will return in glory.
Related posts:
Dr Holly Ordway came to Christ through reason, in the pursuit of truth. "In your hearts honor Christ as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 15).
She writes about her journey from atheism to orthodox Christian faith in her book "Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith" (Moody Publishers).
