The latest Eternity

An Obadiah Slope Column

Eternity is the place where God is, according to the King James version of Isaiah 15:57 “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

It has also been the message Arthur Stace wrote in copperplate handwriting in chalk on the footpaths of mostly Sydney and a newspaper Obadiah founded, edited, for 13 years.

But now it is a rom-com. Here’s what reviewer Joseph Holmes has to say. “The afterlife has always fascinated people. While organised religion is on the decline, more Americans believe in an afterlife today than they have since the 1970s. So it’s inevitable that we would start to see more creative interpretations of the death — and what happens after — in the stories we tell, unmoored by the need to be faithful to religious tradition. 

“Enter ‘Eternity,’ a romantic comedy by independent film studio A24 that centres on a love triangle between a woman and her two dead husbands in the afterlife.  While the movie itself is uneven, the world it creates is a perfect encapsulation of a postmodern idea of happiness — and shows why this view of our ultimate destination is causing us such misery.

“The film follows Joan Cutler (Elizabeth Olsen), a widow who dies and finds herself in an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity. There, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.”

To which Obadiah responds that maybe they should have researched the words of the greatest expert of Eternity and the afterlife, Jesus, because he has been there and back. And he’s the one who says there is no marriage in heaven.

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“Eternity” makes it into the Saturday Paper, which means it must be trendy. And advertising the movie means it has arrived.

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Sausagefest: It is that time of year for Obadiah, when he somehow becomes the barbecue hand. But there’s been a twist, because there’s been some new arrivals at our disability sports club’s tennis program. (Obadiah gets out of ball-picking-up duties to stand in the sun grilling those sausages.) But it’s got a bit complicated. We had pork sausages this week because we have a Hundi family now, and our Muslim friend is non-compliant. But then we realised we had another Muslim, one of the carers. So it looks like it will be two types of sausages, carefully kept apart, for our Christmas effort in a couple of weeks.

Update: a companion on my Monday morning walking group suggests chicken!

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Shout out: When Woollies builds a new store, there’s sometimes an unexpected upside. Here’s a pic from North Ashfield, just where Parramatta Road feeds into a new tunnel, where some folk from St Obadiah’s are having a second year of promoting Anglicare’s Toys n Tucker. It’s a great idea, well worth stealing, that announces there’s actually an Active church around the place (actually several!).