Some years ago in a course on culture and its impact, a discussion ensued. The class was talking of the feeling of isolation and disconnectedness that seems so common. The example of the digital watch was cited, illustrating that we live only for the moment-disconnected from previous time. The digital watch shows only now-nothing of the last hour, or the coming hour-much less of the previous a.m. or p.m. The point made was how difficult it is for someone in this age to feel any connection to a previous age when all we ever see is the minute or even the second we are living at the time.

To speak of salvation history meaningfully in such an age is a real challenge. Yet that is an important dimension of our faith, of our life with God. We are indeed descendants of Abraham, our ancestor in faith. We are indeed sharers in the covenant of Jesus that is rooted in the Hebrew covenant between God and the chosen people. The way God works in our times today is not disconnected from the way God worked in the lives of Moses and David and all the people of Israel. Their struggles and their triumphs were not all that different from ours. Both they and we struggle when we separate ourselves from the love of God, and both they and we triumph when we follow and remain united with God.

The digital watch also says nothing of even the next second, much less of tomorrow and beyond. Yet in salvation history there is both a past and a future. God's work in and among us continues from the beginning through the present and into the future. As people of faith, our destiny is with God in the fullness of his kingdom. Yet, so much in our world-symbolized by the digital clock-confines us to the present moment. As people of faith, however, we have a history with God. As people of faith, we also have a future with God. And these two times must impact and define our present with God.

© Harcourt Religion Publishers/BROWN-ROA