Two small boys saw their grandmother walking up and down reading her prayer book. One boy said to the other, “What’s Grandma doing?” The other boy replied, “She’s revising for her finals.”
Today I invite you to consider with me “How to face life’s challenges in the light of eternity.” This is the last of the current series, but not the least important, for unless we get our lives into the right perspective we are bound to get things wrong. God made us and gave us life here on earth primarily in order that we might grow into a relationship of love with him, and develop relationships of love with other people. Let’s hear the prophet Bible:Micah+6:6-8''', as he teaches about how to please God. The chief purpose of life, is to “walk humbly with God” and to “act justly & love mercy”. Jesus expressed this by saying that life is about loving God and loving our neighbour. We have a limited number of years in which to do this, before we die. People frequently comment on the brevity of that life we have, that in the perspective of history it is a tiny dot, and in the light of eternity almost nothing, and that’s something we do well to remember. But, alleluia, we were made for eternity, for a life beyond death, for which we need now to prepare. And we do so precisely by learning to love, for it is relationships which alone will survive death, whilst everything else will be left behind. Jesus, by his death and resurrection has given us the proof that there is life beyond death, so we need to ensure we live life in the light of that truth. That is part of the emphasis of today’s reading from Bible:Luke+21:5-31, to which we listen next.
Note that Jesus is replying to 2 questions, as Matthew makes clear in his version of this discourse - “when will the temple be destroyed?”, Luke’s emphasis, and “what will be the sign of his return & the end of the age”. Unfortunately for our tidy minds the answers to these two questions are mixed together, so it’s unclear which parts of the chapter apply to which parts of the question. Indeed there are parallels between the two events and talk of the one spills over into the other. However the clear message throughout is that we should be prepared for the challenges of life, and put our hope & confidence only in God. There may be suffering now, but there will be joy beyond in eternity for all who love God and live for others. So how can the knowledge of eternity make a helpful difference to daily life?

1. Eternity sees now as opportunity. One of the recurrent themes of scripture is to view life’s challenges as a test, an opportunity for character building. The ways we react to what life throws at us shape the person we are becoming. React to hurt with anger or resentment and your character develops negatively. Respond with forgiveness and love and you grow positively. What sort of person would you like to be for eternity? Then respond to life’s challenges positively. That’s beyond our human resources, but the Holy Spirit can grow the character of Jesus within us, so we are set free to the be all we were meant to be. The person we are becoming will set the tone for how we spend eternity.
C.S.Lewis' children's book “The last battle” offers one of the best explanations of eternity - “For us this is the end of all the stories.... But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world... Had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before.” We are preparing for that great eternity, and what we write as the title of the book of our eternal life is vital, for it will to a degree determine the story.

2. Eternity should change the way we view others. The people we meet day by day are also being shaped for eternity. The ways in which we interact with them contribute to the person they are becoming. We must remember that each day is an opportunity to help the people we bump into become the best they can be for ever. In his wonderful sermon “The weight of glory” (of which copies are in the folder on the table by the door in our Church), C.S.Lewis reminds us that, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. That does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in the almost same way, for in him the Christ - the glorifier and the gloried, Glory Himself - is truly hidden.“ Learn, with the help of God & in the light of eternity, to see everyone as the immortal glory they can become, and we will be helped to love others as we ought, and to treat them with the respect God desires. We will love our neighbour as ourselves, as Jesus asks.

3. Eternity should help us prioritise. One of life’s challenges is that we have so many things we could do with our time & so many demands to juggle. The perspective of eternity invites us to choose in the light of what will last, what truly matters. Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (John 6:27) That means concentrate your best energies on eternal things - relationships, not material things - on building character, not getting wealth. We can be set free from being driven by materialism, guilt, fear, resentment, by the need for human approval. Realising we are made for eternity with God & others, sets us free to live aright. Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious... Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness...” (Matthew 6v33)
This is a practical tool. When faced with choices ask, “what difference will my doing or not doing this make to eternity?” Use the answer to guide your choices. Look at your schedule and plans, at the way you use your time. Reconsider, looking to give emphasis to what is eternal, to what will prepare you and others for the vast span of eternity which puts this life into the right perspective. That’s what Jesus did. He invested himself in people and in God - so should we.

4. An eternal perspective sets us free. Today is Remembrance Sunday, so let me end with the words of a poem, found in the bible of Major Malcolm Boyle, killed in action after the landing on ‘D’ day, 1944. They remind us that if our trust is in the God of eternity, we will be set free to give our very lives for him and for others.

If I should never see the moon again
Rising red gold above the harvest field,
Or feel the stinging of soft April rain,
As the brown earth her hidden treasures yield.

If I should never taste the salt sea spray
As the ship beats her course against the breeze,
Or smell the dog-rose and the new mown hay,
Or moss and primrose beneath the tree.

If I should never hear the thrushes wake
Long before the sunrise in the glimmering dawn
Or watch the huge Atlantic rollers break
Against the rugged cliffs in baffling scorn.

If I have said goodbye to stream and wood,
To the wide ocean and the green clad hill,
I know that He who made the world so good
Has somewhere made a heaven better still.

This I bear witness with my latest breath,
Knowing the love of God, I fear not death.