“Time Is Life”

September 25, 2005

Scripture Reading:   Exodus 17

Rev. Dr. Carol L. Kerr

Blue Point Congregational Church

When Gavin was in second grade his friend, Eddie, asked his mother for a banana.  She then said, “What’s the magic word?”  This, as we all know, was a rhetorical attempt to improve Eddie’s manners and get him to say ‘please.’  However, Eddie answered, with the truth.  He said, “The magic word is ‘now!’…. Get me a banana, now!”  She laughed and the boys laughed.  Out of the mouths of babes…as they say.  Eddie had hit upon the truth of our day and age  “Now” is the magic word. 

How familiar do these following thoughts sound to you?  How many of us say these things to ourselves on a daily basis:

-         “Hurry up we have to leave now!”  (Let’s say together, Lord have mercy!)

-         If I’d just chosen that other grocery lane, I’d be at the check-out now.  (Lord have mercy!)

-         Why on earth is that person driving so slowly?  Does he think I have all day.  I have to get there now!  (Lord have mercy!)

-         How did it get to be that time.  I’ll never get this done now!  (Lord have mercy.)

-         Next year things will slow down, not now.  (Lord have mercy!)

Today we read about Moses and the Hebrew people in the Sinai desert.  They had escaped from slavery with the Egyptians.  Now they were heading for the promised land that was flowing with milk and honey.  Only they had gotten lost.  They were really lost.  They were lost for years in the Sinai desert.  They ran out of water.  They ran out of food.  They were desperate for God to do something.  They complained that they would rather be slaves than starve or die of thirst.  Who could blame them?  Yet, each time they had given up hope God provided.  When they ran out of water, God showed

Moses where to get some.  He was to take his staff and strike a rock where the water would gush forth.  When they were out of food, God sent them flocks of quail at night and manna in the morning. 

It is a tale thousands of years old.  Yet, how can it relate to our modern lives?  Few of us have ever been lost in a desert.  We never lack for water in the rain drenched north east.  We have abundant food.  Hannaford's grocery store is the size of a city block.  It we have an abundance of everything we could possibly want.  We have everything, water, food, cars, houses, clothes.  We have everything but one.  That is time.  We are always out of time.  We always complain that we never have enough time.  “Now” can’t come quickly enough.  We are in huge need of time, and there is so little of it to go around.  If time was water we would be dying of thirst.  If time was food we would be starving. 

How familiar does this sound?  A man pulls out of the parking lot at work at 5 o’clock.  He rushes to get home in order to have a family dinner before he has to go to a condominium owner’s meeting.  After that he has to go back to work to pick up some faxes that are coming in from California.  His teenage daughter complains the whole dinner that she is going to be late for a movie with her friends.  His son is eating with his soccer clothes on and soccer shoes with the cleats cutting into the floor.  This is because he doesn’t have time to put them on after dinner and get to the game on time. 

How familiar does this sound?  This is not one of my greater parenting moments.  One time Ian, my nine year old son, and I were bicycling.  We passed a little bird by the side of the road that had a broken wing.  It was flapping and going in circles with one wing stuck.  Ian immediately wanted to stop and help it.  I made up a lie and said that it would be o.k.  That is probably was just stunned from hitting the telephone pole.  I lied to myself and said it was because I didn’t know what to do with a broken wing of a wild bird.  However, the real reason was that I had to get home in time for a meeting.  Ian someone knew the whole thing didn’t make sense.  He kept asking me about it over and over on the way home.  I kept lying.  Like I said, this was not a good parenting moment of mine.  How many of us have rushed past something or someone that needed help and didn’t stop.  We had to keep going “now!”  Lord have mercy!

One of the most unchristian things I have ever heard is the expression “Time is money.”  Time is not money.  Rather, the Christian belief is that time is life.  Than God we are Christians more than capitalists!  What is significant for us about this old old story of Moses in the desert is that when they were starving and when they were thirsty God not only gave them enough water and enough food, but he also gave them enough time.

God introduced the Sabbath in the desert. While they were fighting for their lives God insisted that they take time for their lives.  When the people finally came upon food and water, their inclination was to gather it and save it, and hoard it.  Who could blame them?   It was an attempt to take matters into their own hands, and to protect themselves against future droughts and famines.  But, God said no.  God instructed that they only take as much as they needed for that day.  The one exception was that they could collect food two days in a row in order to rest on the holy Sabbath of God.   Moses said,  This is what God was talking about:  Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to God.  Whatever you plan to bake, bake today; and whatever you plan to boil, boil today.  Then set aside the leftovers until morning.  (Exodus 16:15-30)

I use to think that the point of God producing food and water in the desert was to show the big splashy miracle making ability of God.  But, I think there is something much more important going on here.  The point is that God provides and provides just enough for each day.  The will of God for Israel is a discipline of dailyness.  It is a theme that keeps coming up throughout the bible.  (Interpretation series, Exodus, Terence Fretheim).  Jesus instructs that in our prayers we are to ask only for our daily bread (Matt. 6:11)  Jesus also says that there is to be no hoarding of the gifts of God and building larger and larger barns.  We are not to be anxious about what we are to eat tomorrow or how we are to be clothed.  The point of what happened in the Sinai desert and what Jesus was reiterating, is that our daily spiritual practice is to rely on God for our daily needs.  We are to take it one day at a time.

We just read the parable of the rich man trying to gain eternal life.  He was not willing to sell everything he had and follow Jesus.  I came across an updated version of that story in the Jan/Feb issue of Discipleship Journal, by David Henderson.  It goes like this:

THE PARABLE OF THE BUSY YOUNG MAN:

 

NARRATOR:             As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him.

MAN:                          Good teacher,

NARRATOR:             the man asked with a glance at his watch (he only had 10 minutes before his next appointment)

MAN:                          what must I do to get eternal life?  I could really use more time.

JESUS:                      Why do you call me good?  No one is good except..

NARRATOR:             The man’s cell phone rang…

MAN:                          Hello?  Hey Sam.  Listen, I’m, uh, right in the middle of something.  Sort of a time-management thing.  You gonna be at this number for a while?  Great.  I’ll call you right back.

NARRATOR:            Jesus waited patiently for the young man to finish the call.  Then He said,

JESUS:                      You know the commandments:  ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

NARRATOR:             The young man flipped open his planner and began scribbling.  Halfway through the list, he stopped writing and looked up, puzzled. 

MAN:                          Teacher, those things have been on my quadrant two list since I got my first time planner.  I mean, I’ve been doing this stuff since I was a kid.  Is that it?  What else do I need to do?

NARRATOR:             Then the man’s beeper went off.  He reached for his belt and turned off the ringer, glancing at the number as he did so.  Jesus looked at him and loved him.

JESUS:                        One thing you lack.  Go, clear your schedule of all your self-important activity.  Then come and give all of your time to Me.  Let Me order your days.  Fill your life with what really matters.  Follow Me.

NARRATOR:             The man’s face fell.  He glanced again at his watch, closed his planner, and shook his head.  He had really hoped this Jesus might give him some great new time-saving tips.  But this?  He gave Jesus’ hand a quick shake and said,

MAN:                          Hey, maybe we can do lunch sometime.

NARRATOR:             Then he hurried away, for he had a great many things to do and places to go and people to see.

JESUS:                       How hard it is for the busy to enter the kingdom of God!

NARRATOR:              The disciples were even more shocked and said to each other,

DISCIPLES:                What about the whole Protestant-work-ethic thing?  Who then can be saved?

JESUS:                        With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.

PETER:                       We have cleared our schedules of everything to follow You!

JESUS:                      I tell you the truth, no one who has sacrificed to clear his schedule in order to make room of Me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold more time in this present age, and, in the age to come, time without end – and very bit of it brimming over with meaning and significance.  For many who are busy now will have more than enough time on their hands in the day to come (for what is there to do in hell but while away the endless time?), but those who return their time to its rightful owner now will be joyfully occupied for all eternity.

Have you ever thought of waking up each morning and giving your “To Do” list to God?  Have you ever thought of waking up each morning and saying “Lord you have given me another day in which to enjoy and serve you.  I offer it back to you; lead me in the way You would have me use it.” 

This act of yielding should be done repeatedly throughout the day.  It should be done driving to work, between appointments, over lunch, returning home.  As things come along and pile up during the day and as your are tempted to pile more and more onto your “To Do” list ask yourself the following questions:

-         Is this thing I think I should do consistent with the scriptures?  Is it about love?

-         Is it consistent with my passions and gifts?

-         What are my real motives?

-         How does this fit in with what I know I am already called to do?

The miracle is that if we actually live this way, we will find that we have more and more time one our hands to live the way that is true to our hearts.  It will be a miracle just as God told Moses to strike the rock with a stick and water gushed out of it.  Time is not money.  Time is life.  If we take time with God, time will be eternal life.  Remember the ending of the parable of the busy man that we just read.  Jesus said, For many who are busy now will have more than enough time on their hands in the days to come (for what is there to do in hell but while away the endless time?)  But those who return their time to its rightful owner now will be joyfully occupied for all eternity.

This is probably one of the most important sermons you will ever hear.  You see, I am not just talking about slowing down our pace of life.  I am not just talking about stress management.  Although, certainly we can all use some of this.  I am not even talking about prayer.  I am talking about life itself.  You see, this week we found out that our nephew Ryan, who is 14 years old, has had another recurrence of cancer.  They found another tumor in his leg and several in each lung.  He is going to have his leg amputated and lung surgery again.  There are indications that the cancer now is very aggressive.

We hope for the best, but it is likely he will die within the year.  Perhaps months.  What is the magic word?  Eddie had it right in ways he didn’t have any knowledge of.  The magic word is “now.”  For Ryan and his family, Dave’s brother and sister-in-law, and two daughters, all they have is ‘now.’  Now is the time to hold hands.  Now is the time to share jokes.  Now is the time to watch the sunset from his hospital room.  Now is the time to hug and kiss.  Surely they are in a desert that few of us have had to go, the wilderness of the death of their child.  This is when the practice of living daily for God bears the greatest fruits.  God has not given Ryan much time in terms of years.  But, he has given him time in terms of now.  As Moses was told to strike the rock with his staff and water would gush out.  So Ryan’s family must strike the hard rock of time, and let the flow of eternal presence, love, and life happen now.  Will there be enough time.  I believe yes there will be.  Time is not money.  Time is eternal life. 

So we all here must learn the truth of the desert.   We must take time to live what really matters.    We must give each day over to God.  Each morning and pray Lord, you have given me another day in which to enjoy and serve you.  I offer it back to you; lead me in the way You would have me use it.