Eschatology and All Saints' Day

I enjoyed the sermon at church this morning. It was about eschatological expectations and how there are non-Christians who believe that the Christian belief that Jesus will come back and set things right promotes apathy about solving problems in the here and now. But the pastor said that this doesn’t have to be the case, for the vision of the future paradise can influence us to promote justice right now, and to be saints who help others. (Today is All Saints’ Day.) This makes sense to me, since Jesus in Matthew 25 judges people according to whether they practice Kingdom values—-helping the poor, etc.

I’ll stop here because writing is difficult for me at the moment. I want to note, though, that I do appreciate when pastors acknowledge the merits of other points of view and try to address them, as my pastor did this morning. This morning’s service also reminded me of the saints in my life—-the people who have helped me out. I’ve heard that I do not have to “thank” family members for the good things that they’ve done for me, since that’s their responsibility, but I do thank them.