Ecclesiastes 3.1-8
Luke 12.54-59
Preached Canberra Baptist Church September 17th 2006
In the dawn of Creation described in Genesis, when chaos ruled over the waters and the wind of God hovered over the face of the deep, the word of the Lord called the world into being. Planet and star, tree and flower, fish and bird, even humankind, all these we identify with the creative act of God. Yet in the primal act of creation other ‘creatures’, the very structures of our world were called into place. Among these were light and, in separation of the light from darkness, time.
We do not readily think of time as our fellow creature. It just ‘is’. It is the matrix in which our lives are lived. We think of it as if it goes on forever – as if it extends infinitely into the past and into the future. As science has introduced us to the notion of ‘geological time’, of Earth slowly formed over millions of years, as astronomers have probed the universe and seen the life-cycles of stars and galaxies, we have had to expand our ideas of time.
Yet time too has been created. Here modern physics bears out the theological insight that time is a creature of God: time and space are now considered to be intimately related in ways that others in this congregation are far more able to discuss than I. Time too was created by God, and if we are to think of the Season of Creation and our stewardship of earth we must engage with our stewardship of time. Our care for the earth, and our care for ourselves, is dependent upon our engagement with time.
Time can be experienced in different ways. There is the synchronic moment, the NOW, attended by past and future. Time can be conceived diachronically, as a flow of events and meanings. As we probe the experience of time we must also engage the mystery of eternity. Eternity is not just time heaped up endlessly forever, but neither is it disconnected to time.
You will be relieved to know that I recognise that we have not time(!) enough for a full examination of these themes but I want to explore some insights about time from the Preacher of Ecclesiastes and the teaching of Jesus.
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes, who probed the futility of human life, was particularly attuned to the mysteries of time. There is the poem of chapter three, celebrating that everything has its time. He celebrates the dead as better than the living, but best of all are those who have never been born have never entered into time and human experience (Chapter 4). He says that ‘every matter has its time and its way’ and ‘the wise mind will know the time and the way’ (8.5-6). He observes that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the skilful, but time and chance happen to them all” (9.11) He knew of the power of time to change human circumstances and interfere with human plans!
The Preacher taught that time is not an endless stream of possibility which presents nothing but freedom and choice to us. Just as the physical world is not the foundation of human life, but the outworking of God’s loving intention, so time is not an endless stream of open and distracting possibility. The Preacher is very dismissive of some of our false attitudes to time. He pricks the bubble of nostalgia: “Do not say ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” (7.10).
He names the limits of memory and anticipation: “[God] has put a sense of past and future into their minds yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (3.11) The Preacher identifies the random nature of mortality: “No one has the power … over the day of death” (8.8). The Preacher exposes the pointlessness of values: “For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them, what will be after them under the sun?” (6.12)
He points to an understanding of time that focuses of the specificity of the present: don’t worry about yesterday, don’t count on tomorrow. Don’t try to do everything at once: know that there is a time for every thing and ‘he has made everything suitable for its time’ (3.11a). Be present to the issue of the present time!
Jesus said similar things. There are two sayings that connect with this issue of the present. “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Mt 6.34) In Luke 12.54 he warns his followers that they “know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (Lk 12.54)
Jesus points to 2 problems we have with engaging with time. First, he points to the worries about tomorrow that crowd in around us and depress us. How often does concern about the future paralyse the present?
In the second he points to our failure to see what is the present issue, the challenge before us that we should address today. CS Lewis said that one of the devil’s strategies is to have us running around with fire extinguishers in the middle of a flood! We don’t discern the signs of the times!
How shall we deal with the invasion of the present by the future and the challenge of identifying the issue of the day? There is a time for every purpose, every action, you just need to know when it is. There is a time for gathering stones together and building up, and there is a time for dismantling and scattering what we have built. There is time for laughing and a time for crying. There is time for holding on and a time for letting go. We just need to know which is when.
I want to apply this briefly, almost sketchily, to three areas: ecology, everyday life, spiritual life.
Ecology
In the face of the environmental challenge both dynamics interact: we are fearful of what may happen tomorrow, and we are confused as to what must be done today. Both dynamics destroy motivation and inhibit responsible action.
Fear of what may happen tomorrow is never far beneath the surface of much of our ecological discussion. People of faith need to live deeply in the spirit of Psalm 46: “We will not fear though the earth should change, thought the mountains fall into the depths of the sea, for the God of Jacob is with us!” Christians should have confidence about tomorrow and listen to Jesus: don’t worry about tomorrow – tomorrow will have enough worries of its own. Today presents us with worries enough!
Let us then think about today. In the complex patterns of change that now affect global ecology, in patterns of climate change and vegetation and all the cycles of nature, time is a critical factor. Just about all natural events run in cycles. There are time lags involved in many cause and effect relationships. Scientists tell us that, even if we adopt right now the best possible practices for managing different parts of the natural cycle, the effects of past choices and poor practices will roll on for decades to come. If we act now the effect will be so much. If we delay the effect will be so much more… In a world of inter-related cause and effect, of time lags and flow-ons and feedback loops, time becomes a key dimension of the reality around us and a key element of the analysis.
In that complexity it is easy to lose sight of what is timely. We’ve all heard of those wonderful promises made by politicians – that are going to be implemented 4-5 or 8 or 10 years into the future – and we know them for what they are! We all know how easy it is to procrastinate, to defer decisions and actions that will not affect us for months or years to come. In something as complex as the natural environment it is so easy to drift along not acting, when the challenge of the present is to begin the transformations today. This is the great challenge of policy, that decisions today do not have effect for years.
Everyday
It is not just in the big decisions, the big promises, that things get put off. There are many fields of human endeavour in which this dimension of time is a crucial dimension of the decisions we make and the challenges we face even in the ordinary stuff of our lives. A wife once asked her husband, When are you planning to mow the lawn? I thought I’d do it tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, she angrily replied – it’s always tomorrow! You’re absolutely right dear – I’ll do it next week!
Human beings, whether politicians or househusbands, struggle with time, with attending to things in a timely manner. Tomorrow and next week are always a more attractive option. Responsible human living requires us to know and take up what is the work of the present moment.
There is another struggle with time – one shared by many of us. That is the struggle to find enough time to do what we want to do! I once met a friend who answered my ‘How are you?” with ‘O the same old problem – so little to do and so much time to do it in!” Isn’t that your problem too? I have one of those electronic diaries that tells me not just what I have to do today but what I have to do for next five days. Jesus and the Preacher remind us that there is a time for everything: let the tasks of tomorrow wait till tomorrow, and let us attend to the tasks of today.
Spiritual life
This significance of the now, of being in the present, also touches the depths of spiritual being. Everything has its time. Even the death of Christ, according to Paul in Romans chapter 5 happened at the right time: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rm 5.6). If there was a timeliness to God’s provision, there is also a timeliness in our response. This same Paul, speaking to the Church at Corinth, makes the plea: “Now is the acceptable time: see, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6.2).
Faith is always lived now. We can never say, I will respond to the grace of God tomorrow or next week or next year. The reality of eternity only touches time in the present. NOW is when I have to respond to the grace of God, to own one’s feelings and commitment and decisions. Lord, I’m here – take me, send me.
Life is only given to you moment by moment. You must take each moment as it comes, consciously, intentionally. I was brought up short by a question in the NCLS questionnaire last week (If you thought yours was long you should see the one they give the minister!) It asked me how much certain statements applied to my life: I count my blessings at least once every day. Life, love, faith, can only really be known in the now, today! You must reach out and take them, you must love and live and believe intentionally, what is before you today.
Our sister time, our fellow creature, God’s greatest gift, our troublesome companion. We waste her, and blame her, and covet her, and take her for granted. In the world of politics and policy, in our workplaces and universities, in everyday life, the aspect of creation most abused and mistreated is Time – that mysterious, fleeting reality that gives substance to our life and can only be known in the NOW. Yet if we are going to live in harmony with nature, we must first learn to walk hand in hand with that primal creature who structures the world - time!
Many years ago I was in a hospital, suffering severe deafness and ear troubles and wondering whether I would ever be able to hear properly again. It was feared that I might lose my hearing completely. I read of the work of John Cage, the American composer. He has written a piece for the piano. It's called 4'33" ("four minutes, thirty-three seconds").The musician walks to the piano, sits before it. The pianist sits there for four minutes, thirty three seconds and then rises, turns to the audience and bows to rapturous applause. The point he is making is that the primary component of music is not sound but time! It was so thrilling to know that even if I was denied sound, I could still have music, if I was given the gift of time.
We have been given the gift of time. Everything has its time and its time must find it. There is a tomorrow, but we should not be so worried about it that we cannot act wisely and well in our present decisions. And there is a today, when we have to act and choose, and decide, and love and believe. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.