for the uninitiated, eschatos = the end, telos = the end. eschatos being the point in time, telos being the goal, the aim, the purpose.
as i have previously considered here, it may well be that the end of man (telos) is indeed the end (finish) of man. a look at the world today, especially at the doomsday clock can but confirm this.
thankfully, however, this is not my task.
i am still trying to figure out how to make sense of the seeming futility of today, with nothing new under the sun, and all that we do is simply trying to grasp the wind; whilst knowing that there is indeed purpose in our lives, there is a goal, that being to seek God and his glory.
yet, despite all this, we are still hopelessly impotent in our striving, as byron's blog so well states, that all is new only in the son. but, whilst being in the son, we still are under the sun.
i believe that is what peter is trying to make clear as he holds up the two truths of being subject to the emperor, whilst retaining their true identity as the very building blocks of Christ's church, the oikos.
one of the problems i see is this pedestal some climb upon, maintaining their particular work, under the sun, has some kind of überwert, super-spiritualising their own work in and of itself. that includes summing up ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26 as "work done using worldly wisdom bad, Godly good." rather than the way the author sums up, that all work is vanity and a striving after wind.
we are headed for the same goal. the reality of the eschaton means all our sun-work is vain.
- 2Peter3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
that is to say, even our sun-work will be exposed for what it is. and it will be in no way different to the sun-work of those not under the son.
in conclusion, sun-work is not our goal. bearing in mind peter's correction, we need to remember why we are to keep-on keeping on.
for those now thorougly depressed, this is not to say there is no work of worth, that is simply not current focus.
2 comments:
No apologies necessary. Though do you think that the image of exposure in 2 Peter 3 necessarily means that all human works will be exposed as equally vain? Esp in the light of 1 Cor 15.58, where in the Lord, our labour is not in vain?
Byron - 1Cor15 is quite interesting acutally, especially in relation to the glory attributed to various things, depending on their fleshliness or otherwise (see your blog for more on this! I seem to remember a discussion around psychikon over against pneuma?)
I do not think any of this (ecclesiastes included) is saying there is NO glory in that which is done under the sun. rather, that it is of a certain kind. The labour commended in v58 seems to be that worthy of another (ie not fleshly) glory.
The chapter in edward fudges book, the fire that consumes, on 'how long is aionios?' gives a good framework through which to think about the glory and the lasting worth it maintains. Briefly, in proportion to it's age, or aion. The labour we do is aionic in its glory. But we move into area reserved for a future post.
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