Preparing For God’s Future #3

It's time to Celebrate!
"This day belongs to the Lord! Let's Celebrate and be glad today." (Psalm 118:24)

It's time to Celebrate!
"The Lord is our God, and he has given us light! Start the Celebration!" (Psalm 118:27)

It's time to Celebrate!
"Sound the trumpets and horns and Celebrate with joyful songs for our Lord and King!" (Psalm 98:6)

I was asked to write the liturgy to end the celebrations of the millennium for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I've called it "The Covenant Box", and it's full of promises. We take special symbolic mementoes of our past and we consecrate them and pass them on to the future. That's the significance of the Covenant Box.

The covenant is that unique relationship of promise we have with our God. God promises to be God for us yesterday, today and forever. We promise to be a people of faith in a world of fear. We promise to be the people of Jesus Christ, and we know that the promises are for us and for our children. Our FLAMES initiative encourages us this year to be very intentional about our faith sharing with children, especially those "special" children who are part of our lives and part of our families of faith. We prepare to send a message into the future, their future — and the message is that God is God of the future and the future is in the hands of the God we can trust. We were asked to prepare for God's future by setting aside a special bulletin, a picture, a report, even lightning-blasted wood and bits of shingle and anything else that expressed our faith journey. We send all this and more into the future to tell generations yet unborn of the wonder and majesty and beauty of our God.

Here's how we prepare for God's future:

Psalm 148:13 – Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. (NRSV)

Like a child outgrowing childhood, setting childhood things away,
we will learn to live in freedom, in the life of God's new day.
Now we see as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face,
understand how love's compassion blossoms through amazing Grace.
(from
Let us hope when hope seems hopeless by David Beebe)

Prayer: Help us, source of salvation, to prepare for the future you have for us, by remembering those wonderful moments in our journey of faith and taking them with us into the future of your choosing through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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