On The Line

The Rev. Joseph Winston

May 23, 2010

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.1
Draw a line. Label one end the start of it all and make the other one the end
of everything. In small print, after all on this one line you will need to place the
history of everything, mark the time when the Earth can support life. In tinier
writing still, label all the great empires of the world: Persia, Babylon, Greece, and
Rome. Then come the marks of tremendous change as large parts of the world
enter the Dark Ages and then find new life in the Renaissance. Columbus and
the other explorers find the new world. Put that down on your line. The Colonies
revolt. This deserves annotation on your timeline because you live here. In the
grand scheme of thing, it is only a little while longer until you are born. Make this
the smallest mark of all since you will be here only for a short while. Sooner or
later, all governments fall. This is a fact of life. Show the end of this great country
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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a little bit farther down the line. After that mark, things get murky. Powers will
come and go. You can put down whatever you want here. Finally, you run out of
room on your line. It is all over.
Look carefully over your handy work. From one end of the line to the other,
notice that nothing from outside of this world influences this time line at all. The
matter needed for this universe is just here. Great empires come and go all by
themselves. People live and die. Nothing really matters at all since no one holds
anyone accountable for what they do.
This is one possible way to tell the story of everything. In this world of our
own doing, there is no rhyme or reason to what happens here. Everyone makes
their own way in the world. Through the law of the jungle where might makes
right, someone crawls for a short while to the top of the hill. There above it all,
they rule. Old age finally takes it toil and they fall down, only to be replaced by the
next one. Groups follow the same pattern. People join together into communities
out of fear. They fight common enemies, sometimes they win, and at other times,
they loose. Then it is all over. There is nothing to show for all of this blood, sweat,
and tears. Life simply exists to feed other lives.
There is a second way to describe the world you live in. It is cleaner if you start
all over with a brand new line. On one end of the timeline, carefully write creation
and on the other one way over there put down the word completion. Somewhere
near the beginning of the line, you decide how close it needs to be, mark the time
when God brought Adam and Eve into existence. In close succession, write down
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Continue with Moses and Joshua. Add in Samuel,

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Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and all the
other prophets. Aaron and his sons, the priests of Israel, need marks on the line
also. Place Saul, David, and the other kings in their proper places. Referring back
to your original line, once again write down all the great powers of the world.
Jesus deserves a place in this version. After all, He is a prophet, priest, and king.
Until you run out of time, put down all the famous people you know. Feel free to
decide who will be important in the future and write that down too. Put down your
pencil. You are all done.
Examine that what you have made is markedly different from the first version.
This time around, God is involved. It all starts at the beginning. The universe
comes into existence because that is what God wants. Throughout time, God keeps
everything running and He gives His people prophets, priests, and kings. At the
right moment in history, He sends Jesus. Finally, when everything is finished, the
story comes to a close.
Something rather important is missing in this revision of history. Look closely
from one end of the timeline to the other. Nowhere on the line is your name. There
is a very good reason for this. God does not come to you because you are not a
prophet, priest, or a king. If you happen to be an adult male, there is an ever so
slight chance that your fortunes might change. It is conceivable that, God might
place on you the mantle of prophecy or you could be destined to rule a country.
Do not hold your breath on either of these chances coming true since the odds in
your favor are running slim to none. Women have even a worse chance making
it on this list. Priests are always male descendants of Aaron. (No women there.)

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Kings by the nature are male also. (Not a single female in this list either.) There is
one place that God can come to women. They can be prophets. Miriam (Exodus
15:20) and Deborah (Judges 4:4) occur on the very short list of female prophets.2
It looks like your odds here are about as good as winning the lottery. A boy’s
chance of meeting God is even lower. It seems as if God only comes to those boys
destined to be prophets like Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4) or kings like David (1 Samuel
16:13). An ice cube on a sidewalk has a better chance of making it through a hot
Texas summer than God calling an ordinary boy. At the absolute bottom of the list
are little girls. God just does not make time for these members of our families.
There is yet another way to tell the story of everything and all it requires is
one small change to your last timeline. Carefully add about seven billion marks
fifty days after the death of Jesus, one for each person that has lived since the first
Pentecost. Raise your hand when you are done and sit quietly until everyone else
finishes.
The world that lies before you on the last timeline you made is not the same
as the earlier ones, far from it. For the first time in history, you along with every
other human now are an important person. So much so, that God, the creator
and sustainer of the Universe, comes directly to you. All by itself, this news is
almost too much to bear. Remember what the presence of the L ORD does to the
strongest things in creation. When the L ORD just looks on the earth, it shakes
(Psalm 104:32). The slightest touch of God causes the mightiest mountains to
catch on fire (Psalm 104:32). His normal voice splits the huge cedar trees (Psalm
2
Others specifically named include Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14 and Noadiah in Nehemiah 6:14.

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29:5). Yet, Peter says, the Spirit of the God fills you but you are not hurt in any
way, shape, or form (Acts 2:17).
This is the gift of Pentecost. God gives His Holy Spirit to everyone (Acts
2:17). There are no exceptions to this rule. The men here have God’s Spirit in
them. The women here have God’s Spirit in them. All the children, both the boys
and the girls, also have God’s Spirit in them. Look outside these walls and you
will see the exact same thing. God places His Holy Spirit in every member of the
human race. Consider what this actually means. The people who do not worship
with us, they all have God’s Spirit. The individuals in the community that do not
look like us all have God’s Spirit. The people sitting behind bars all have God’s
Spirit. The children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all have God’s Spirit. Even all
of our enemies, they all have God’s Spirit.
According to Peter, there is a reason for this gift. You are to bring Jesus to
others. Everyone has their own specific role in this world. Boys and girls will
speak up and will tell people they meet the truth about God (Acts 2:17a). Young
men will see what can change and they will inform anyone who will listen to them
about God’s vision for the world (Acts 2:17b). Men with a few years under their
belts will dream of a better life for their families (Acts 2:17c). Their message of
hope and joy only happens when God’s Spirit is given freely to everyone. Even all
the people that are weighed down by the drudgery of everyday life participate in
spreading the news about Jesus in all that they do (Acts 2:18).
It is not a stretch of the imagination to say that the primary purpose of life here
on earth is simply telling others about the God who loves us so much that He sent

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His only Son to free us from our inhumanity. If this is what we are to do, then
certainly we need help because it is very difficult for us to separate out who we
are from what we should be.
The Holy Spirit provides you with the proper perspective on how to live your
life. Go back to all those timelines that you drew and find the places that you
marked as your place in the world. When you are standing down there on the line
that is all of history, you cannot see what happened in the past and you do not have
any idea at all what is coming in the future. All you know is what is right before
your face.
The Holy Spirit lifts you up from your place in time and gives you a broader
vision than you normally have. With God’s help, you now can see a bit more
than before. Looking a few years back, you realize God’s continuous involvement
in your community. God healed your loved one. God brought happiness to your
family. God remained with you during those difficult times. Because you see that
God is faithful in the past, you dare to look ahead and catch a glimpse of the
future. God is there too doing what God does best: helping those people who need
help.
Every once and a while, the Spirit brings you up so high that you can gaze out
on the entire world. At this elevation, patterns of God’s activity in life become so
clear. As far as you can see, the Spirit brings together people into communities.
There they live and love. They worship the One who makes this all possible. They
weep and bury their dead. They go on for another day, not because they have it in
themselves to push forward into a brave new tomorrow, but because God’s Spirit

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quietly walks beside them into the future.
You are here today because of this gift poured out on the entire world. The
Holy Spirit whispered your name into your parent’s ears and you now live. But
that one act of love is never enough. Go back to the last timeline and look at
all your family that came before you. In every case, starting with your parents
and stretching back to the beginning of time itself, the Holy Spirit called out your
name. Your grandparents heard your name and your parents were born. Your great-
grandparents listened to the same voice speaking your name and your grandpar-
ents were given to them. This continues all the way back to God who formed the
first man and women so you could be here today.
Take a big step back from the last timeline you drew so you can see all of
history with a single glance. The once clean line that stretched from creation to
completion now is covered with marks. Every one of the more than seven billion
lines that you drew shows how much God loves the word.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”3

3
Philippians 4:7.