Time Flies!

 Time flies!

It certainly feels that way for many of us. Perhaps we have crammed so much into our days that it feels like we have not enough time. Or time seems shorter because as we age it takes longer to complete tasks. Maybe we sense the earth’s drift closer to the sun and note that every few years clock time is readjusted by a few seconds because it takes less time for the earth to circle the sun.

Time flies!

In New Denmark, NB, our Lutheran siblings have a tradition where at the end of the graveside prayers, those in the cemetery sing to the tune of Silent Night, the first verse of this Danish hymn:

Klokken slaar, tiden gaar, evigheden os forestarr…

Loosely translated and continuing: Bells strike, time passes, eternity awaits us. So, let’s use the precious time to serve our Lord with earnest diligence; then we’ll come home, then we’ll come home.

Time flies!

The scripture texts for today remark on how it is that humans spend their time.

Isaiah pointedly tells listeners that they busy themselves spending time and money on things that do not satisfy and on things that have little value. As prophets do, they berated humans for amassing wealth and failing to care and share with others. The prophet calls humans to repent… to turn away from wasting time and money.

Jesus is swarmed by a group who are spending their time gossiping about Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with sacrifices and wanting a response from Jesus.  Jesus’ response is a redirection, a turning away from gossip and fear mongering; a call of sorts to repent.

Jesus continues to refocus the conversation by pulling from the news reel of the day. The news of the tower’s collapse and the subsequent deaths was probably the consuming talk of the whole town. Jesus turns people from the news, repent; turn away.

Time flies!

In myself, I have noticed a change in how I experience scripture. As humans turn towards gossip, fear mongering, highlighting death, forgetting to care for neighbour, amassing more for themselves – including power, I hear a growing urgency in the words of Isaiah and Jesus. I sense an urgency within myself. It doesn’t take long for times to change, for that which we thought was stable to fall apart. Repent – turn around.

For Isaiah, turning around is described as: Eat what is good, incline your ear, come to me, so that you might live. Your earthly life, your time as a people is short, get on with living the covenant. For Jesus, turning around is described in the parable of the fig tree where one turns towards patience and loving and tending that which is before them.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians describes for us a community of faith that is figuring out how to apply and live the words of Isaiah and Jesus. They are discerning repentive action: turning away, turning around, and turning towards.

Paul uses snippets of Hebrew stories to serve as examples, explaining that Hebrew scriptures were written down to instruct us, on whom the end of the ages have come. And reminding the people that No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. The scriptures referred to address fear-filled times, the end of the ages as Paul puts it, and are used to illustrate God’s continued faithfulness regardless of world and human affairs.

 

Reading the letters to the Corinthians, we note that the community is not of one mind. Although having a unity in the figure of Jesus and commonality in the following of Christ, there is a diversity of opinion on how the community goes about being a Christian community that lives in a world of idolatry and terror.

The text is very human. It reveals a proclivity for rules, a human system to determine sin and a way to judge the same. It reads pointing fingers at historical actions leading to destruction, exile, and death. In Paul’s letters there is a repeated focus on naming sin, and communities consumed in judging sin of its members, rather than living with Christ-like concern for others and being guided by this principle. It is like the parable of the fig tree, Jesus turns the focus from what is interpreted as a no-good-tree, to concern and love for the tree.

Paul does get to the point of his argument, that the community is to faithfully be on the lookout for ‘ways God will provide.’ And it might be in the most unexpected ways. The church in Corinth is a young Christian community that is different from the world around them. Most notably it is what the community will eat and not eat; these rules based in Hebrew scripture. It posed real challenges and potential danger for the Christian community, as the society in which they lived, shared and ate food sacrificed to Roman-gods. To not eat that which was offered was offensive and anti-Empire. Some ate, some didn’t, both had a theological reason for choosing the action they did, and both sides judged each other’s religiousity or sinfulness. Paul invites the community to repentive action – turning away from judging and arguing. Paul refocuses the conversation of discernment on how to live as God-followers in the world as a turn towards patience and love. Let love dictate interactions in the world.

I hear Paul’s words as an urgent plea to repent, time is flying, time is short. Repent from spending your time making a hierarchy of sin, of judging each other, and get on with covenant living, get on with loving.

Time flies!

Klokken slaar, tiden gaar, evigheden os forestarr… Bells strike, time passes, eternity awaits us.

 

I appreciated the singing of this Danish verse. To mark the end of earthly life, those gathered are reminded that time passes and eternity awaits us. Simply put, it is reminiscent of Ash Wednesday’s Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return and Jesus’ words from the cross to the thief, Today you will be with me in paradise.

The statement is simple and true.

There is certainly nothing we can do about time passing. There is nothing we can do for those who have died. There is nothing we can do to change the past. The final act of singing this verse allows one to gently be laid to rest, while mourners sing a seed of hope to move them from death to living life in the time they have.

As Isaiah, and Jesus, and Paul invite repentance and a turning towards covenant living--

So let’s use the precious time (we have) to serve our Lord with earnest diligence; then we’ll come home, then we’ll come home.

Time flies!

There is no time like the present to repent – to turn around – to turn towards living each precious moment serving our Lord with earnest diligence and with patience, loving and tending those who are around us.