FW
Vern,
I liked the illustration of time as a line and eternity as a rolling drum (or something like that).
Then, when the saying of ends justifying the means popped up I began thinking along Pauline lines of JOY being the point where suffering and eternity meet -- "count it all joy my bretheren when..." -- so the end of godliness justifies the means of trials.
But what really, really got my noggen thinking is the memory of the first Divine Liturgy that I payed close attention to: Time ane eternity were revealed in their true natures and orders.,
What God gave in time in the manger and on the cross he also gives to us as eternity. The gifts from nature and our own hands (the bread and wine) remain what they are BUT also join with us (who also remain what we are) in becoming his Body.
With the theif we ask to be remembered in His Kingdom -- and He does remember us, in his eternal kingdom.
We offer God perishable gifts, and then are given gack, by the Spirit, eternal Gift.
We participate, once again, in the one unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ who is the offerer and the offering.
And the drum of eternity rolls along on the line of time.
THANKS FOR LEADING THIS, VERN!
Bruce Johnson