My Times Are in Your Hands
Ephesians 1:3-14
Click here to view the full sermon video for January 2, 2022, entitled "My Times Are in Your Hands."
On Christmas Day the world received one of its most amazing gifts ever-and no doubt the most expensive. The James E. Webb Space Telescope was launched into space from French Guiana. This ten-billion-dollar joint venture of NASA, Canada and our European partners will travel for a month until it begins its orbit about a million miles from earth. If all goes well, this telescope will peer deep into the universe seeing light from about 100 million years after the Big Bang. This takes us back to near the origins of the universe 13.8 billion years ago when galaxies first began to form. And as an added attraction we hope to observe exoplanets revolving around distant stars. We may even find out if there is possible life on these exoplanets. Oh my! The beginnings of the universe and life on other planets! No, this is not science fiction-this is science at its most amazing. Stay tuned and hope that all its complicated parts unfold so we can peer into the beginnings of time and space.
The writer of the Ephesian letter is also fascinated by the beginnings of time. Our text encompasses the bookends of time-the beginning, the middle and the end. It all starts with this phrase: "before the foundation of the world". Here we are brought back to what Stephen Hawkins called "the great wall of time” at the moment of The Big Bang, when time itself commenced. But this letter dares to transcend that "great wall of time" to "before the foundation of the world." This primordial dimension reveals the “mystery of God’s will” to seek and save the lost. Here we enter a dimension before time itself was rolled out like a carpet, realities even the James E. Webb Telescope cannot penetrate.
In Greek the word used for time is Chronos, from which we get chronology. That means measured time, a measurable duration. So Chronos measures movement in space. And in that sense, all Chronos iiis essentially the same. In fact, so similar that many Greeks thought of time as circular, and thus time repeated itself. Like the earth going around and around on its axis and orbiting round and round the sun. Again and again, Chronos repeats itself, same old, same old.
But the writer of Ephesians sees time as a creation of God. Time has a shelf life, just like the world. It begins and it ends, there is an Alpha and an Omega. The world is created in time, moves across time, and then comes to a conclusion. Time and space come to their appointed destination, when God will “gather up all things” in Christ.
And yet here is the marvel. Ephesians believes that certain times are transformative. These pivotal moments are what the New Testament calls "Kairos", that is, time filled with deep significance. Not just passing time or killing time or wasting time. But time that bristles with meaning, like birthdays or anniversaries. Most especially, like the Kairos of the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The writer of Ephesians says that God "set forth in Christ a plan for the fullness of time”. In the fullness of time God provided for our redemption “according to the riches of God’s grace." The “fullness of time"-what a magnificent phrase! When the time was just right, Jesus came among us, living our life, dying our death, tasting the resurrection promised for us. This is the mid-point of all history, from which we mark “before” and “after”, B.C before Christ and A.D. the year of our Lord. Jesus’ life filled all time with the hope of salvation.
Finally, the Ephesian letter looks to the grand conclusion of this divine comedy, as Dante called it. The writer looks to the “gospel of our salvation”, when we receive our inheritance, the gift of God’s eternal love in Christ. This is where all roads lead, to a new heaven and a new earth. That is the Omega point, the grand destination of our journey toward God. Then and only then will all Chronos becomes Kairos, world without end, eternal peace in the presence of Christ our Lord.
So what are we to do with all this high theology, this talk about Kairos, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all time? Quite simply it is to remind ourselves of two profound truths as we usher in another New Year.
One great truth is that we ourselves have a beginning, middle and end. However long we live, we move through time and space to our appointed rendezvous. The Psalmists never tire of reminding us that we are made of dust and to dust we return. We are told to “number our days”, to reckon with our own mortality, that our lives are a precious gift, yet a fragile gift. “All our days pass away” like the grass that fades and withers. And so we say with Psalm 31, “My times are in your hands.” And we entrust our lives into God’s care: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Words Jesus recited as he hung dying on the cross.
Our final hymn today says it poignantly:” Time like an ever rolling stream bears all our years away.” This we have seen dramatically these past two years. Covid-19 has taken from us over 822,000 American lives so far. That’s twice as many casualties as America suffered during World War II. Over 5.4 million people world-wide have died in this pandemic. We have been reminded yet again of how fleeting are our span of days. And so we sing: “Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, be thou our guard while life shall last, and our eternal home.”
The second profound truth is what I would call the stewardship of time, how we use our allotted time on earth. Stewardship of time means seeking to turn Chronos into Kairos-ordinary time transformed into meaningful time. Ordinary events made extraordinary. To live our lives to the fullest every day. “To
do justice and love kindness and to walk in humility with your God.” That is turning ordinary time into extraordinary time.
Jesus said to offer someone a cup of water in his name-that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. The Gospels said that Jesus went about “doing good”. That becomes the model for our lives. Doing good to others is when our lives take on meaning and purpose. We do not live just for ourselves but to bring goodness and hope for others.
I don’t normally cite celebrities but for this quote I make an exception. The actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was asked what he wanted to accomplish in 2022. This is what he said: “I have reached a point in my life this past year where I realized just how vital the idea of time is: who and what get my time these days-people and projects. We don’t get time back. If something gets my time, then I want to go to sleep knowing it was worth it and it was time wisely spent. Time is our greatest and most valuable currency.” This is the “The Rock” who has been giving away stuff recently like his own truck to people in need. “Time wisely spent”-what could be a better definition of that remarkable phrase in Ephesians 5: “making the most of the time,” or its King James translation, “redeeming the time”?
This past week I got a phone call from one of my students at St Norbert College. He is 76-year-old lawyer who has successfully fought cancer recently, thanks be to God. How grateful he is for every day of his life. He wants to devote his remaining years to studying theology and serving the church. All these goals he is quite passionate about. Our conversation got me to thinking about that old Willie Nelson standard “September Song”. That song has this wonderful line: “The days dwindle down to a precious few”.
My student has been thinking soberly and carefully about 2022, how best to use his considerable gifts in the service of Christ our Lord. I was struck by his sense of urgency, the sense that time is a gift to be used well for the glory of God and the building up of one another. It was an inspiring call, received just as I was writing this sermon about the stewardship of time. A coincidence? I think not.
So what about you? Have you numbered your days, considered seriously your own mortality? Such contemplation does not have to become a gloomy exercise in doomsday thinking. These kinds of reflections motivate us to “seize the day”, to take stock of our lives and give us a direction and a purpose. As The Rock said, “Time is our greatest and most valuable currency.” How are you spending that currency?
Have you thought prayerfully about your stewardship of time, how you use your gifts and your opportunities? Have these last two years taught you something about the fragility of our lives, these fleeting days given to us to flourish and serve? I want to live a mindful, attentive life, aware that each day is a gift, not something to be taken for granted.
As I approach my 74th birthday, this is what I hope I can offer in 2022. I want to be a good steward of this precious gift of life, to serve God as I serve others. I want to be more devoted to Christ and more devoted to others who may need my help and encouragement. I want to join with others in working for justice in our community and the world. In other words, I want to appreciate each day as the gift it is, a precious gift, a singular gift. Given to us by God and the gift we return to God, with grateful hearts.
So this is my prayer for the new year, “My times are in your hands, O Lord. Use me as you will, make me an instrument of your peace and justice. Into your hands I commit my spirit, my time and my life. This is my prayer. May it be so.”