The Weight of Glory (1) Clock-Time
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” 2 Corinthians 4:17
Momentary – The invisible reality of it all. That’s the real problem, isn’t it? Our present experience just seems so permanent. We see heartache, persecution, disaster, despair and death and it just seems so permanent. Hurricanes that tear lives to pieces in a day. Wars that seem to never end. Poverty perpetrated from generation to generation. How in God’s name can Paul even suggest that this is light, momentary affliction? It doesn’t seem momentary to me. All I have is seventy some years to deal with it and it feels very permanent. Listen to me, God. I just can’t hold my breath for seventy years and pretend that it will all be better in heaven. Paul might have been able to keep his eyes fixed on the invisible reality behind the trauma of life, but I’m not so sure I can.
If we think that Paul was a stoic, blocking out the death and destruction of his world by staring toward the pearly gates, we are sorely mistaken. Paul knew the hideous side of life far better than most of us. How could he have such a different perspective when he rotted in prisons, was beaten black and blue, starved, tortured, insulted and ridiculed?
He chooses the word parautika. Usually an adverb meaning, “immediately, at this precise instant or what is happening right now.” But here Paul gets creative. Paul is a master linguist. When he needs to express something that he just can’t find in the present vocabulary, he makes up his own words. Here (and only here) he adds the definite article. Literally – “the immediate, the present instant, the happening moment”. Paul focuses our attention entirely on the second hand of the clock. The world in the existing instant. That’s where affliction resides. In the next second of the clock.
All of my life resides in the next second of the clock! That’s really all I have. One second at a time. Paul shines his linguistic light on this inescapable truth in order to demonstrate how temporary it all is. We never think of life as just one more second. We focus our attention on much longer time spans. My seventy years to make a mark. My legacy. My history. It’s never just about one second. Except for the logical truth that life is compressed into just one more second. So, says Paul, throw that tiny, insignificant reality up against God’s everlasting eternity and then see what really counts.
Even in the worst of times, I can count seconds. And no matter how many I count, they are miniscule compared to eternity. “Just give me a second, Lord. I’ll be right there”. Yes, you will.
