2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2, Ecc. 3:1-15
This well-known passage from the Old
Testament is very wise – not in some profound and otherworldly way, some way
you know rings true but aren’t quite sure why.
It’s wise because of its matter-of-factness. It’s wise because of the blunt way it forces
us to acknowledge stark realities of life we all know to be true but may or may
not want to talk about. We join up with
these worldly juxtapositions in one way or another every single day. They
live in our hearts and hopscotch all over the daily headlines. We can’t miss how everything on this list
happens in time.
Many folks can sing this wise part
of Scripture thanks to the late Pete Seeger having put a folk tune to them in
the song, “Turn, Turn, Turn.” I’m
certainly glad this world famous song ends with a plea for peace (in parallel
with Ecclesiastes 3:8). But I have to
say that it otherwise fails to convey the overall point the writer of
Ecclesiastes was making. It fails to
speak to the wisdom we find in verses nine through fifteen.
In these verses, the words shift
from stating what we all can’t help but acknowledge to stating one thing we may
have difficulty accepting about our relationship with God. In the midst of all we can know and can
control concerning planting and plucking up, about breaking down and building
up, about seeking and losing, tearing and sewing, loving and hating, warring
and peacemaking … we are not able to time God’s omniscient plans. We can mostly manage the timing of many
things in life, but we can’t manage God’s sense of timing. All our human wisdom combined can’t
comprehend and control the complete picture of God’s will for our lives, for
the world. It is sinful vanity for us
to ever argue otherwise -- the same vanity that first bit into God forbidden
fruit back in the Garden of Eden. We
live within time, but time itself belongs to God. It is calculated differently by God’s infinitely
good and redeeming wisdom than our use of it as a tool for measuring and
interpreting our daily lives and human history.
We very easily lose sight of this. Our hearts and minds give way more attention
and energy to all our diligent means of time management. We devoutly
turn to and trust in the clock. We
totally depend on the clock to give security and structure to our personal and
community life. This is necessary and not at all inherently a
bad thing. But if we aren’t careful, if
we cease giving prayerful respect to God’s big picture, we can let the clock
define us. When this happens, we allow
it to function as a false god.
Consider how we feel blessed by the
clock when it grants us peace of mind by telling us that there is plenty of
time for us to do this, that, and all those other things. And consider how we feel cursed by the clock
when it feeds our anxieties by telling us that we’ve run out or have completely
lost time. We especially fear the power
we give to this false god when it “makes us anticipate the moment” in which it
will not speak any more for us, the moment of our death.[i]
Add to this the fact that efficiency is a very active virtue of
American culture. As Christian author
Gregory Spencer has pointed it, “it’s what makes the clock of capitalism tick”
and it usually serves us well. Until,
that is, we let it become our dictator instead of our servant. He shares a personal word about how this has
impacted his family life …
When his daughters were young, he “frequently
bemoaned” how little time he could give to writing. But one day a friend reminded him, "Your
girls will only be toddlers once. Don't worry so much about being
productive." Then another friend chimed in, gesturing to his daughters and
declaring, "Spence, here are your publications!" He got the message. He understood that these friends were
encouraging him to understand time well used is time that appropriately meets
the needs of the moment instead of being measured by the demands of the clock.[ii]
Attending to the needs of the moment
is exactly what Ecclesiastes encourages.
The author teaches us the wisdom of not spending so much energy trying
to predict or control all that can and does happen in this life. Too
much is beyond our human toiling and timing.
Rather than descend into ongoing despair about this, we are taught to
focus on finding holy joy in every moment of our lives and to do this in the
company of one another. All enjoyment,
we are reminded, comes from the “hand of God.” (2:24) Life well lived seeks out the holy business
God has made suitable for each day – the holy business of love, joy, hope,
peace. When time-driven despair
strikes us with all the impact of Big Ben tolling the hour, it “casts a veil
over our eyes, blinding us to the brilliance of God’s love.” But as a different ministry colleague has
preached, “if we see momentary joys as what they are, as small pinpricks of
light in the veil, we live not in despair over meaninglessness but in hope for
the day when that light shines brilliantly to all.”[iii]
2 Corinthians 5 reminds us another
big and wise reason to focus on each moment and find life’s meaning and
security in God’s infinite love alone.
It reminds us that we are ambassadors of Christ. Not during just one time slot or
another. The joyful Good News of God’s
reconciling love in Jesus is gifted to us every second of every single
day. We are urged not to waste time
taking this amazing grace in vain. When
is it an acceptable time to remember this?
To live into it? “Now is the
acceptable time, now is the day of salvation!” comes the Apostle Paul’s prompt
reply. Every minute is full of divine possibility!
What would it be like to really live
with this awareness of time? To fret
less about what worldly time it is, what we’ve gotten done, what we’ve yet to
or never will do? To have more trust that
in this very moment Jesus Christ is ministering through all of us in the power
of the Holy Spirit?
I believe we’d be more thankful for
each breath, be more appreciative of kind words and gestures, be more attentive
to using our spiritual gifts for selflessly building up others in love. The tick-tock tyranny wouldn’t suppress our
energy and hope and dreams. We’d be able
to let go and let God with greater peace of mind. We’d more fully appreciate our loved ones and
feel freer to count our blessings. Fears
for the future and regrets about the past would float away into the redeeming
care of our Lord. We’d be more at ease
with the plain truth that there is a time to be born and a time to die. We’d embrace the wisdom of Ecclesiastes that
teaches “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and
God seeks out what has gone by.” (3:15)
So in summary, we have this ongoing
choice about how we choose to perceive and live in time. On the one hand, we can do so in a way that matches
an invention called the Corpus Clock.
Have you ever heard of this? It
was awarded one of the best inventions of 2008 by a magazine named … wait for
it … Time. You can find it located on the campus of
Cambridge University. This clock has no
hands or numbers. It has three
concentric circles with slits in each.
On the outer rim, a blue LED light circles around with every passing
second. I saw a video of the Corpus
Clock, but could not tell the time by it whatsoever. Yet it’s really more of an art installation
anyway and it gets its message across quite clearly. The message comes across by way of the large,
mechanical, totally grim looking locust that sits atop of it. This thing rocks constantly back and forth
with a fanged open mouth that insatiably gobbles up every passing second. Watching it, you can’t help but get the
point – beware of time for it is a threatening, beastly reality. Its
inventor was quoted as saying that if this clock terrifies you, it’s intended
to.
On the other hand, in light of the teaching
of Ecclesiastes, we can choose to perceive time by way of a different, more
peaceful symbol. I suggest we can do so
by way of a good old fashioned sundial. This
instrument tells us the time of day according to the position of the sun. Symbolically speaking, this can remind us that
the Light of God’s Son is always positioned upon us and that we live every
second of our lives in God’s care. What a wise way to manage time this would
be. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment