The advent of writing was an important step in human development as it triggered the ability for us to communicate an an asynchronous fashion. That means that I’m typing this message to you maybe hours, maybe days before you read it, but it’s available for you whenever you do read it. You have to wait for me to publish it on the website or to send it to Jan who will send it out as a newsletter article, but then after that, it’s available whenever you want it.
Of course, if you want to sit down in my office and talk or connect with me via zoom – you have to wait until both of us are available. Not only that, but you can’t pause, rewind, play our conversation twice as fast, or even skip over parts. In those moments, you have to communicate synchonously. We both have to be there, in the moment, in the present.
This Sunday we’re starting off a sermon series in which we’re talking about the Resurrection, a sermon series called “What are we waiting for?”. In some ways, it is helpful to think about synchronous and asynchronous communication when we’re talking about the Resurrection. The Resurrection will be something of a “pure present”. It will be a moment in which we are all living with Jesus. We’ll be right there with Him. And that is different for us, because the Resurrection will be synchronous when much of how we relate to God on this side of the Resurrection is asynchronous. Now we relate to Him through His Word written for us to connect to Him through time. This is asynchronous and it is a great thing. But then, when Christ comes, our communication will be pure present – it will be in the moment – it will by synchronous.
That isn’t to say that we don’t have those synchronous moments now, but when we get to the Resurrection, all of our moments will be synchronous with God. And that is at least a little bit of what we are waiting for.