The Importance of Time

A sermon preached by Fr Dwight Duncan, ssc, Rector, St Matthias, Dallas, Texas
23 January 23 2000 - The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

• "That kid was bound to get in trouble. He had too much time on his hands.
  
• "No, I can't help you. I don't have the time."
  
• "Time was when I could run five miles a day. Now I can hardly walk one."
  
• "We had the time of our lives!"
  
• "I wish I had that time back. I'd live it a lot differently now than I did then."
  

Of course, you've figured out the theme in these comments: TIME. Time is very important to us, isn't it? It could not be otherwise for this "thing" which measures our movement from birth to the grave.

At times, we feel we have too much of it and because of this we can spiral into a frenzy, wondering how in the world to fill it, what to do with ourselves. At other times - too many times in the lives of us "developed-nations-people" - we feel we don't have enough of it and because of this we can spiral into a frenzy, panicked by how much we have to do.

The ticking of clocks, the turning of calendars remind us that our lives are passing away. We are moving through minutes, hours, days, weeks and years that will not be ours again. This movement can make us glad, as something we have longed for draws closer and then arrives, or as we accomplish something for which we have much expended ourselves. And this movement through time can make us anxious, as something we wish not approaches ... or sad, as opportunities for which we had hoped do not materialize or cannot be reclaimed.

Yes, time is very important to us. And it is important to the God who placed us within it. Think of that: God placed us within this "thing" which is passing away. He placed us within it so that we might be aware that there will come a time in this space/time/energy system which will not be our time.

This is a healthy and holy awareness God wants us to have. Why? So that we might make the most of our time. Make the most of it, however, not to our glory and good but to his glory and for the good of this earth and her peoples. God wants us to do this so that we will become people who are not only worthy but also capable of living beyond time, forever, in the splendor of that city and her people where there is no past and no future, but only an eternal NOW.

Because God wants us with him forever, he places the first stage of our journey to him in a system which is NOT forever. Within this system, every moment is an opportunity for conversion, for change from what has been into what can be. And God urges us to claim these timely gifts of new beginnings, for one day they shall no longer be ours to claim.

In the gospel, you just heard this sense of urgency and immediacy as regards the call to conversion. It opens with one man's time ending, that of John the Baptist. The gospel continues with Jesus proclaiming "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand." And then he commands a response, a call to conversion: "Repent, and believe in the gospel." And by the gospel's end, four men have accepted Jesus' call and their time is beginning. Did you notice, as St Mark points out, that the response of all four to Jesus's call was immediate?

Immediate! God's calls to conversion, to the reorienting of our lives in accordance with his will, are, you see, to be answered promptly and with a thoroughgoing willingness to change, to grow and to become truer images of him in whose likeness we have been created. Therefore you and I are being challenged by God through today's gospel to examine the quality of our personal responses to him.

Question: What might you and I do if only forty days stood between us and the moment of our ultimate reckoning before God, as forty days did for the people of Ninevah to whom God sent Jonah? Remember them? They repented and received Jonah's gospel, fasting and doing penance for their sins. Some of us might be similarly inclined.

Others of us might use our forty days as an extended period of intense introspection and prayer. With forty graced days, some of us could break a few bad habits and/or adopt a few good ones. Some may use the time to mend those relationships that have cooled because of pride, selfishness, stubbornness.

Given forty days, some of us might become bold enough and big enough to jettison an old grudge and to let go of that anger and resentment which alienate us one from another. Although forty days might not be sufficient time to completely unlearn and uproot a deep-seated prejudice or a sense of ethnic superiority, it should be ample enough time to admit honestly to these injustices and to begin to do something about them.

Some of us might use our forty days of turning back to God by turning our care and attention toward the poor, needy and neglected of society. Others of us might resolve to become full-time Christians whose every word, work, choice and decision bear living witness to the faith we profess, instead of remaining part-time Christians whose Sunday experience of worship does not spill over into or affect the rest of our week.

With forty days at our disposal some of us may wish to make a pilgrimage to one of the world's holy places. Others might cultivate a deeper reverence for ourselves and for one another as living holy places in whom God has seen fit to dwell. With the promise of forty days, some of us might realize the need to be reoriented and retrained, as were Simon, Andrew, James and John.

So, what would you do with forty days to prepare for your ultimate reckoning with God? Don't spend too much time on the conjecture because, unlike the people of Ninevah, you and I may not have forty days. The Ninevites were guaranteed that by God, but it was an exceptional guarantee. The only guarantee God normally gives is this day, this time.

And really, few of us can deal with much more than that, can we? Praise God, we do not have to. But we do have to deal with this day, this time. And how we deal with it will move us either towards heaven or towards hell.

We have come here to go for a few moments beyond time into heaven, to be with Jesus at his banquet table. He welcomes us to it so that we may then reenter time, bringing heaven to earth in ourselves.

As you leave today, remember what Jesus has said: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." Repent: turn back to God from any wrong direction in which you are moving. Believe: live by the ways of him who has called you into his marvelous light.


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