In St. Paul’s first missionary sermon he gives a brief summary of salvation history, concentrating on the delivery of Israel out of its long slavery in Egypt. Finally, after the events of the Exodus, God gave them their land as an inheritance at the end of about four hundred and fifty years. Paul then fast forwards to King David and then skips right to John the Baptist — gaps of 250 years and 1000 years! The message: God is constantly at work but it is according to the divine timetable, not ours. As Dr. King reminds it, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” Let us have confidence that God’s will for the world continues to unfold, if more slowly than we would like.
