A Long, Loving Look at TIme - Luke 13: 31-35

Today, Tomorrow and the Next Day...

Second Sunday in Lent - Feb. 28, 2010

Kay E. Huggins, New Life Presbyterian Church

Luke 13:31-35, NRSV

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “God and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet, today and tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

This highly evocative text contains many themes appropriate for Lent:

• There is the forcefulness of Jesus’ commitment to be about the ministry God has given to him; service to the Lord is always in keeping with times of spiritual intentions.

• There is also the shadow of the cross; beyond mere mortality and death, Lent focuses on the purposes of God in the peculiarity of Jesus’ passion.

• Also the text reveals the dangers provoked by Jesus -- dangers so grave even his religious opponents seek his safety.

But, the theme, I’ve selected for this service is time or rather the approach to time demonstrated by Jesus’ words and deeds. Quite frankly, I thought, before we entered the deeper issues of suffering, extravagance, and death, that we might enjoy a few lighter moments considering a theme of which we all have experience and opinions. So let’s begin with a visit to an imaginary land.

Somewhere, someplace, sometime there were three villages, each at the center of its own valley, each believing that the surrounding mountains marked the limits of the world and that the river along the entrance to the valley (a river well fed by mountain streams) was another boundary line. Each village lived by a self designed rhythm and each community developed unique adaptations to life.

One village, Rush, was full of folks who loved being busy. In fact, they were so expert at getting things done that their little village gleamed as if it were freshly painted -- which often, was the case. At the center of the village was a bustling market with crafters, sellers and all manner of energetic shoppers. One store was most popular. The Idle Time Exchange.

The Idle Time Exchange dealt in wasted minutes --- those intended for waiting, pacing, anticipating. Idle time was deemed worthless, so the villagers from Rush, turned up every day (early) to exchange the day’s projected wasted minutes for busy ones. It was quite remarkable...no lines, efficient service and everyone leaving with more than they came with. At the Idle Time Exchange every minute counted and every customer beamed at the extra five, ten or thirty minutes in their pockets as they left. Indeed, the Idle Time Exchange was one reason why Rush prospered so.

In the next valley over stood Still, an exceedingly quiet time when people loved to linger. They lingered in bed, arising when the warmth of the sun drew them out; they lingered over breakfast (the making and the eating thereof) sometimes not clearing the table until well into the afternoon. Evening were for leisurely strolls to the river, holding babies, counting shooting stars, and telling stories. Daily, dirty clothes piled up as weeds and radishes grew side by side. Oh, things got done in Still --- it’s just that it took time. But, whenever the Extra Hour sale was on at There’s Still Time Bargain Center, most everyone eventually got there to pick up an extra hour or so...and then spent it visiting with neighbors and friends on the Center’s portal. Life flowed slowly in Still, rarely did anyone rush or hurry and they’d never heard of multi tasking.

The third village was March. March ran, well like clock work! At the center of the town was a large bell tower. Every hour on the hour the bells signaled the advance of day or night. At 6 am, everyone arose; breakfast was finished, dishes washed, and the day’s labor begun by 7 am. Throughout the day, with the efficiency of a well tuned machine the young, the old and everyone in between (even babies and the infirm) kept a strict schedule. Because every aspect of life was well managed, there was little waiting and just the right amount of scheduled rest or down time. As in the other two villages, a local entrepreneur established a novel business suited perfectly (of course!) to March, a security service that guaranteed no interruptions, ever! The business was a huge success, for without interruptions, March marched along, hour after hour, day after day, season through season....always on time, always productive, always in tune.

Rush, Still, March -- three separate “realities” cordoned off by mountains, secured in valleys and completely self imagined. And yet, how often do we adapt the peculiarities of one of these villages. Know anyone who is always rushing? Never sufficient time, always carrying on two conversations while juggling three activities and planning another four more? Rush seeps into well-intentioned lives through several holes:

• an inability to say “no” to anything or flip side, the immediate “yes” to everything...

• a lack of reflection on the particular feel of one’s life and the discernment of personal values and goals...

• and, of course, the acceptance of a cultural declaration of what constitutes a full life...an approach supported by media and peer groups alike

Rushing indicates a reactive rather than a thoughtful life...and as one with experienced in this imaginary approach to time it becomes clear that ushing (in all its varieties) is based on soul ignorance and is, ultimately, self-destructive.

Then again, there Still: though beautiful in spaciousness and rest, there’s also a danger in stillness... indeed still folks are often berated in our culture as lazy, and rarely lifted up as role models for the rising generation. The dangerous side of Still is not, however, from any external or cultural judgment. Rather, when life is treated like one long break...

• tedium sets in;

• inactivity leads to lax muscle tone;

• without exercise mental capacities decrease;

• and if one never gets up and out of the house, the possibility of social isolation becomes acute.

Anyone who has ever been forced into stillness by illness or accident knows how swiftly the value within stillness devolves when idleness dominates one’s life. Just as too much rushing is dangerous to one’s soul, too much tedium contracts life’s soulful zest and vision.

As for the rigid scheduling of March! We are all aware of the relief of March. Isn’t it lovely when the vacation comes and there’s no need to wear a watch? The relief of a vacation reveals the domination of schedules: without the compulsive measuring of time and planning of its passage, life relaxes from doing into being. Again, this is an imaginary application of time with which I’m well acquainted. I was raised in a well scheduled home...one my mom used to explain as “A broken shoestring before breakfast knocked everything out of kilter.” Imagine, there wasn’t time to change a shoe string. Sigh, sigh. The clock ticked ever onward in my home. I believe my biggest childhood’s sin was my six year old plan to move the hands of the clock forward by a few minutes each day, so I didn’t have to practice the piano a full half hour; sadly, a six year old doesn’t realize the consequence of five days of pushing the hands forward. I cheated my family of 30 minutes by the end of the week...and the compression of the schedule had severe consequences for me.

Time as rushing.

Time as still.

Time as schedule.

Familiar approaches -- each with benefits and detractions; but none able to compete, however with the radical sense of time accruing to Jesus’ words today as we look at the Luke 13. Surprisingly, all the familiar elements of rush, still and march are in the text:

• Rush: the Pharisees encouraged Jesus to rush away from the gathering danger of Herod’s death threats. Jesus, however, does not buy their rushing; he is not reactionary, he has already considered how he will live his life and he does not waver from his conviction.

• Still: the quoted lamentation over Jerusalem, so sweet, so sad, might have stalled a lesser man. Indeed, why expend effort if the end is Jerusalem’s murder of God’s prophets. Nevertheless, Jesus does not acquiesce before futility, he resolutely continues on to Jerusalem.

• March: there’s even a schedule of sorts in Jesus’ words. “Today, tomorrow and the next day” give a nod to the march of time, but as considered against the backdrop of Jesus’ whole story, this schedule is more his way of being than an imposition of organization on his time.

What distinguishes Jesus’ approach to time is not stated in this passage, however, it can be felt. It comes as the sheer delight he has in life. You see, for Jesus, time is not something to be filled, suspended or scheduled. Time, for Jesus is a divine gift meant to be received with joy, savored with awe and spent with purpose. For Jesus, time is neither chronos (the tick tock of the clock or the neat squares of the calendar) nor karios (the ultimate fulness of God’s unbounded Now), rather time is a bit of both. In Jesus’ sense of time, days (today, tomorrow and the next day) are measured and valued. In Jesus’ sense of time fullness (and on the third day I finish my work) is a plan, but also an honored privilege. By his delight in God’s purpose, Jesus actually pulls clock time and holy time together in such a way that ordinary time and exceptional time blend into one. For Jesus, every moment, every day was an unbounded gift -- a little slice of heaven experienced as joy, awe and purpose.

This is the mystery that Jesus, fully human and fully divine, reveals. He shows us how time is God’s gift to us. Although his insight came from a deeper revelation of God that mere human encounter, still his revelation of time is apt for us. You and I, as fully human and intimately connected to God, can be likewise blessed with time as little slices of heaven experienced as joy, awe and purpose. You and I, within the rush, still and march of time are still able to acknowledge time as a gift. And when we begin to receive time as a gift --- rather than moments, days or years to fill, suspend or scheduled --- we receive, savored and live time as Jesus did:

today........joyfully

tomorrow........in awesome wonder

and the next day.........delighting in God’s purposes within our days and nights

until on the third day we finish.......in God’s unbounded now....

May it be so among us. Amen.