I loved learning about Julius Caesar through the work of William Shakespeare; I think it was in the 7th grade (a long, long time ago!). What fun it was to learn history through literature and storytelling instead of history textbooks! I later learned, in college, how much we can also learn about history and culture through a study of art. Again, much more interesting than history books.
History provides us with the clues for understanding our present time and preparing for the future.
While not part of the Shakespearean text, I remember our teacher telling us that Julius Caesar was reported in another historical document to have answered the soothsayer’s warning with “The Ides of March has come” and the soothsayer’s reply that “the day is not over.”
The Bible is full of stories that inform us of the history of the God’s chosen people, the Israelites. Many prophets warn the Israelites of the times when God will judge them and then again how He loves them. As in, “Beware, the Ides of March is coming.”
The New Testament expands the story of God’s love and offers Jesus as the sacrifice and blood price for our redemption and the cementing of our relationship with God. “The Ides of March is here.”
But we also learn in the New Testament that God will come again. “The day is not over.”
One day, we will all stand in judgment before God. Whether that day is a cataclysmic collapse of all that we know as a civilization, or as one sole life standing before His creator, we do not know. We are living in the time between the Resurrection of Christ and His Coming again. Just because Jesus has paid the price for the forgiveness of our sins, we cannot forget to reach out to those around us with love, forgiveness and compassion.
The Resurrection is not our “get out of jail free” card. We are obliged to love as God has loved us; to forgive as we have been forgiven.
There are people who will say that the destructive forces of nature and the devastating disasters, wars and uprisings that have filled our newspapers for the last few years are signs of the apocalypse. The recent news reports from Japan certainly can stoke those fears.
Yet we do not know when that time will be. "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed; keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.” Mark 13:32-33 Caesar would have done well to stay alert. The Bible has warned us as well. We are to be alert, but we are not to be afraid. God is there; "He is near, right at the door." Mark 13:29 "...My words will not pass away." Mark 31
“It ain’t over till it’s over.” - Yogi Berra
We've got a lot to do today. There are people all around us in need of the gifts and talents and love God has called us to share. Get out and do it.
What has God called you to do in your life? Are you working toward that goal? Will you be caught with your task unfinished? Or worse, not yet begun?
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