It's About Time

NEW YEAR'S DAY

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

^1.          To everything an appointed time, and a time for every purpose under the heavens:

^2.                      a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted,

^3.                      a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

^4.                      a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

^5.                      a time shoot and a time to reload,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

^6.                      a time to find and a time to lose,

a time to keep and a time to give away,

^7.                      a time to cut and a time to sew,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

^8.                      a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹How wearisome the work in which we toil!  ¹⁰I have seen the affliction which God gave to afflict human children.  ¹¹He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He even set eternity in their hearts, without which no one would ever find out the work which God has done from beginning to end.  ¹²I know that there is no good in them except to rejoice and to do good while you live, ¹³and that, whenever people eat and drink and see good in their labor, it is the gift of God.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 8

^1.          To the Music Director, on Strings, a Psalm of David

^2.          Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,

who set your majesty over the heavens.

^3.          From the mouths of babies and sucklings you founded strength

for the sake of those who arise against you,

to make the enemy and the vengeful stop.

^4.          When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars you established,

^5.                      what are people, that you remember us; human children, that you visit us?

^6.          You set us a little lower than gods, and crowned us with glory and splendor.

^7.          You made us rule over the works of your hands.  You set all under our feet:

^8.                      sheep and flocks, all of them, even the cattle of the fields,

^9.                      birds of the heavens and fish of the sea, taking the paths of the waters.

^10.         Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

THE EPISTLE

Revelation 21:1-6a

            ¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth has gone away and there is no more sea.  ²And I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down new from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her groom.  ³And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the home of God is with his people, and he will live with them, and they will be his people, and he himself, God, will be with them, their God, ⁴and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain ever again, because the first things have gone away.

            ⁵And the one seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”  And he said, “Write, ‘These words are faithful and true.’”  ⁶And he said to me, “It is done.  I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”

THE GOSPEL

Matthew 25:31-46

            ³¹When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory; ³²and there will be gathered before him all the nations, and he will separate them from each other, just as the shepherds separate the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will stand the sheep at his right and the goats at his left.  ³⁴Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, blessed of my Father, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.  ³⁵For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me.”

            ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and provide for you, or thirsty and give you drink?  ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothed you?  ³⁹When did we see you in prison and come to you?”

            ⁴⁰Then the king will say to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, every time you did it to one of these, the least of my family, you did it to me.”

            ⁴¹Then he will say to those on his left, “Get away from me, cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, I was naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 

            ⁴⁴Then they will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you?”

            ⁴⁵Then he will answer, “I tell you the solemn truth:  whenever you did not do it for one of the least of my family, you did not do it to me.”

            ⁴⁶And these will depart into eternal torment, and the righteous into eternal life.

I T ’ S   A B O U T   T I M E

A SERMON FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

by William F. Thomas II

            Today I am 21,018 days old.  21,018 days after George Washington’s birth, it was September 8, 1789, and he had been the first president of the new United States of America for four months and nine days.   21,018 days after Abraham Lincoln’s birth was August 30, 1866, and President Lincoln had been dead for nearly a year and a half.  21,018 after John F. Kennedy’s birth was December 14, 1974, and President Kennedy had been dead for 11 years!  I was 18½ then.

            One morning when I was about nine years old, I had been at school for a short while when it struck me, the inexorability of time, that time moves and it cannot be stopped.  I realized on that morning, when I was nine years old, in the fourth grade, that sooner or later that school day would end, and then the school year would end, that I would finish elementary school, then junior high, then high school, then college; that I was going to get older day by day until my life ended, and that there was nothing that could stop it.  It wasn’t a frightening realization, but it was powerful.  I have never forgotten it.  And so far, it has proven true.  It’s been nearly 50 years since, and time keeps passing on, an instant at a time, hour by hour, week by week,  year by year.

            Unless something happens to stop it, every one of you will be 21,018 days old, two week past 57½.  You will have finished school, probably; you will have married, almost certainly; you will, in all likelihood, have children; maybe grandchildren.  You will have known pleasure and pain, gain and loss, joy and mourning.  You will have held new babies, and you will have attended funerals for people you have loved.  If you could know the pains you will endure, you probably wouldn’t have the courage to fact them.  If you could know the joys you will have, you would give anything to get to them, and to keep them.

            Life is hard.  Life is wonderful.  Life is worth all that is costs.  And it all takes place in time.

            And time is inexorable.

            What is inexorable?

            I think of a steamroller.  It moves down the street, slowly, steadily, unstoppably.  That is “inexorable”.  That is time.

            You beautiful young women will learn that your nose and your ears never quit growing.  And you will discover that women have a double layer of fat—it will almost certainly be harder for you to stay thin than it will be for you young men.

            You strong, energetic young men will find your strength slowly growing weaker.  After age 30 things don’t work as well as they used to.  After 40, you will begin to notice some alarming symptoms.  After 50, the word “old” will begin to apply to you in places.

            Twenty-five years ago on Christmas Day, I preached the sermon in my church, hopped in my car, and drove down here to put a diamond ring on Rev. Winnie Elton’s finger.  We began to plan a wedding, and then, on June 10, 1988, it was our turn to be newlyweds.

Twenty-three years ago today I was driving to what was then called Clayton General Hospital, to see my newborn daughter.  She was in Intensive Care, and we didn’t get to bring her home until New Years Eve.  She had a bacteria that could have killed her if they hadn’t caught it and put her on a 10-day round of antibiotics.  When we got her home, we would lay her on the couch and watch her sleeping, and be amazed that we could feel such an overwhelming love.  And we realized our parents must have felt like that when they looked at us as newborns.  It was our turn to be new parents.

The day we had the funeral for my daddy, 11½ years ago, I got up, showered, and shaved.  As I stood shaving, looking at myself in the mirror, I said, “Well, it’s my turn today, my turn to bury my daddy.” 

It was my turn to be a child, it was my turn to be a teenager, it was my turn to graduate from high school, then from college, then from graduate school; it was my turn to be a young adult, it was my turn to be middle aged.

Now it is my turn to be 57.  There are moments I would like to relive.  There are moments I would love to go back and fix.  There are mistakes I would undo.  There are things I was afraid to try I would go back and dare now.  But it is time for me to be 57, it is my turn to be 21,018 days.  And I thank God!  God has given me a finer wife and a finer daughter than any man ever deserved.  He has given me today, and the privilege of being here with you. 

Inexorable time will come, and you will remember, I hope, that I used to teach your Sunday School class.  I don’t know how you will remember it, but I will forever praise God for this blessing! 

Now it is your turn to be young and beautiful and handsome and strong.  Now it is your turn to have your whole life ahead of you, and to have very little acquaintance with the word “impossible”.  Now if you pick up your Bible and try to read Ecclesiastes, you will probably find it as boring as a math textbook.   Because it is written by an old man who had lived and loved and lost, and now he faces death, not sure whether there is anything beyond that, afraid there is nothing.  I think he is angry with God.  I think he thinks God unfair and arbitrary.  He rages that God would “set eternity into their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:12), yet not allow them to reach it.  It’s as if we are ants in a glass jar, who can see a much bigger world out there, we know it’s there, but there is no way we can reach it.

Yet in this pessimistic, bitter mindset, he finds wisdom and true beauty:

^1.              To everything an appointed time, and a time for every purpose under the heavens:

^2.                              a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted,

^3.                              a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

^4.                              a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

^5.                              a time shoot and a time to reload,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

^6.                              a time to find and a time to lose,

a time to keep and a time to give away,

^7.                              a time to cut and a time to sew,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

^8.                              a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹How wearisome the work in which we toil!  ¹⁰I have seen the affliction which God gave to afflict human children.  ¹¹He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He even set eternity in their hearts, without which no one would ever find out the work which God has done from beginning to end.  ¹²I know that there is no good in them except to rejoice and to do good while you live, ¹³and that, whenever people eat and drink and see good in their labor, it is the gift of God.

What do you think?  Is it true?  Has God truly made EVERYTHING appropriate in its time?  Is there a time to kill and a time to heal, a time for war and a time for peace, a time to shoot and a time to reload, a time to hug and a time to refrain from hugging?

Who knows how many keys there are on a piano?  That’s right, 88.  Now, tell me, which of those 88 keys is always the right key? 

Which one is never the right key?

Every key is the right key, when it’s its turn to be the right key.  Every key is the wrong key when it’s its turn to be the wrong key.

Everything in life is correct at the right time and place, and wrong at another time and place.

What is the time for hate?

Last night a Facebook buddy told me her cousin’s six-month-old daughter is almost certainly going to be dead of cancer in the next few hours.  I hate cancer.  And that is right.  I have another friend, closer to my age, whose grown son has a condition called trigeminal neuralgia.  He is in almost constant pain, his nerves are super-sensitive to everything.  They have tried everything any doctor has advised and they are always traveling, looking for relief for him.  They call it “the suicide disease”, because many who have it reach a point where they can’t stand it any more, and they end their lives.  I hate TGN.  And that is right.

I hate child abuse, I hate slavery, I hate racism and sexism and ageism and prejudice, I hate many, many things.  I hate them because I am a Christian.

God hates.  The fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians says God hates death, that death is God’s last enemy.  I am glad God hates death.

There is a time for hate, and a time for love.  There is a time for war and a time for peace.  There is a time to dance and a time to mourn, a time to laugh and a time to cry. 

God has made everything right for the right time.

Your lives are yours.  The choice is yours.  I’m not saying it will be yours when you’re grown.  It’s yours now.  You, right now, are making decisions which will affect the rest of your lives and the rest of lots of people’s lives.  People you have never met will have their lives changed by decisions you are making right now.  Eternity changes, at least a little, with every decision you make.

There is a time to love, and a time to hate.  Which is it today?  Your choice.

There is a time to shoot and a time to reload.  Your call.

There is a time to build and a time to tear, a time to sew and a time to cut, a time to hug and a time to refrain from hugging.

A time for war and a time for peace.

All of this is your decision.

But you’re not alone.

“In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born a human being, born from human mother…” (Galatians 4:4).

And in the fullness of time, God will make everything right.

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth has gone away and there is no more sea.  ²And I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down new from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her groom.  ³And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the home of God is with his people, and he will live with them, and they will be his people, and he himself, God, will be with them, their God, ⁴and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain ever again, because the first things have gone away.

Yes, inexorable time will bring that about too.  We will see the most beautiful face of all, the face of Jesus.  We will feel the greatest sensation of all, his arms hugging us in welcome.  We will hear the most beautiful music of all, his voice saying to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 

When?

Who knows?

Already I have outlived so many great men.  I’m a year and a half older than Abraham Lincoln was when he died, eleven years older than John F, Kennedy, about 25 years older than Jesus!  If I live past April 4, 2024, I will have outlived George Washington.  And if I live past February 20, 2034, I will have outlived my greatest hero, my daddy.

Or Jesus could take us all home today.  I’m not ready, not completely.  I’d like to have done more for him before then, more for my family, more for you, more for the world.

But nothing, NOTHING life has to offer is anything like so wonderful as to be with him.  On my worst days, when I am so discouraged and so frustrated and so afraid, I can’t wait.  And on my best days, when I feel him closest and love him best and have done all I knew to serve him, I can’t wait.

It’s all about time.

It’s about time.

If It's To Be, it's Up to WHO?!?

THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

^18.         My cheerfulness is turned to depression.  My heart is languishing.   

^19.         Behold, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a far land!

            “Is there no Lord in Zion?  Is there no king there?

                        Why do they vex me with their idols, in their stupid useless things?

^20.         The harvest is passed, the summer is done, and we are not saved!

^21.         On the shattering of the daughter of my people I am shattered!  My grief has taken me.

^22.         Is there no medicine in Gilead?  Are there no doctors there?

                        Why is the healing of the daughter of my people not arisen?

^23.         I wish my head were made of water and my eyes a fountain of tears.

              Then I could cry day and night for the sufferings of the daughter of my people.

^9:1.        I wish I had a place to stay in the wilderness, a hotel.

              Then I would desert my people and leave them alone;

                        for all of them are adulterers, a congregation of traitors.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 79:1-9

^1.          A Psalm of Asaph

            God, the nations have invaded your heritage.  They have defiled your holy temple.

                        They have turned Jerusalem into a junkpile.

^2.          They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the skies to eat,

                        the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

^3.          They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, with no one to bury!

^4.          We have become a joke to our neighbors,

a laughingstock and an insult to those around us.

^5.             How long, Lord?  Will you be angry forever?  Will your indignation burn like fire?

^6.          Pour out your rage on the nations who do not know you,

                        and on kingdoms where they do not call on your name.

^7.          They have consumed Jacob, and laid waste his pastures.

^8.          Do not hold our first iniquities against us.  Let your mercies go before us quickly,

                        for we are terribly weakened.

^9.          Remember us, God of our salvation, according to the fame of the glory of your name.

            Deliver us and forgive our sins, for the sake of your name.

 or

Psalm 4

^1.          To the Music Director, on Strings, a Psalm of David:

^2.          When I call, answer me, God of Jacob.

            When I am in a tight place, enlarge it for me.  Be gracious and hear my prayer.

^3.          Human children, how long will you abase my glory, love useless things, and seek lies? 

Selah.

^4.          Know that the Lord’s saints are precious to him.  The Lord will hear when I cry to him.

^5.          Be angry and do not sin.  Speak in your heart in your bed and be silent. 

Selah.

^6.          Sacrifice righteous sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

^7.          There are many who will say, “Who will show us any good?”

            Turn the light of your face on us, Lord.

^8.          You have put more joy in my heart than in the time of plentiful grain and new wine.

^9.          In complete peace I will lie down and I will sleep, for you alone, Lord, keep me safe.

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 2:1-7

            ^2.1I insist therefore first of all that there be requests, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all people, ²for kings and all in authority, that we might lead quiet, peaceful lives in all godliness and sobriety.  ³This is excellent and acceptable before our Savior God, ⁴who wants everyone to be saved and to come into the knowledge of truth.  ⁵For God is one, and there is one mediator between God and humanity, the man Jesus Christ, ⁶who gave himself a sacrifice for all, the witness to his own times.  ⁷I was made a preacher and apostle for this (I tell the truth.  I do not lie) a teacher of nations in faith and truth.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 16:1-13

            ¹He said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who, he learned, was embezzling.  ²He summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?  Hand in your ledgers.  You’re fired!’

            ³“The manager said to himself, ‘What can I do?  My boss has fired me!  I’m not healthy enough to dig ditches, and I’m too ashamed to go on welfare.  ⁴I know what I’ll do, so that somebody else will hire me!’

            ^5“He called everyone who owed his company anything, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my company?’

            ⁶“He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of oil.’

            “He said to him, ‘Take your contract, tear it up, and write 300.’

            ⁷“He said to the next one, ‘How much do you owe?’

            “He said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’

            He said to him, ‘Take your contract and write one for 500.’

            ⁸“His boss commended the dishonest manager for being clever.  The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.

            ⁹“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness, so that, when they fail, they may receive you into their homes.

            ¹⁰“If you are honest with little, you will be honest with much.  If you are dishonest with little, you will be dishonest with much. ¹¹If you are dishonest with the mammon of unrighteousness, who will trust you with real wealth?  ¹²If you are dishonest with others’ things, who will give you your own?  ¹³You cannot serve two masters.  You will either hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”

IF IT’S TO BE, IT’S UP TO…WHO?!?

A SERMON FOR THE 20^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            “The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.”—today’s Gospel reading, Luke 16:8.

            “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.  They are foolish children, without understanding.  They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.”—last Sundays Old Testament reading, Jeremiah 4:22.

            C. S. Lewis quoted Charles Kingsley:  “Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever.”  Then he rephrased it:

The proper motto is not Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever, but Be good sweet maid, and don't forget that this involves being as clever as you can. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than any other slackers. (Mere Christianity )

It turns out when we give ourselves to God, we give all of ourselves to God, we place at his service our bodies, and our minds.  It turns out he wants us not to check our minds at the door, but to educate them, to exercise them, to hone them, to make them the best tools for his service that we can.

            It turns out being a Christian is not like joining the Kiwanis Club.  It’s more like joining the Marines.  That’s not intense enough.  It’s more like getting married!  God has expectations, like a newlywed.  And, like a good marriage, it’s hard work, it’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, and it’s worth all it takes and more.  If you don’t put much into it, you can expect to get about that much out of it.  

            God doesn’t want infants, at least, not past the time where infancy is appropriate.  God doesn’t want sheep.  God wants friends, loved ones, family.  He wants us to grow into his likeness and his image.  Which begs the question:  WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

            Is he a wimp?

            Is he a fool?

            Is he an ignoramus?

            Is he a king?

            Is he wise?

            How much does he know?

            Is he powerful?

            Back in my seminary days, I drove out to spend some time with my family, while my wife was taking some time with hers.  There my parents and I sat around the kitchen table, drank coffee together, and talked.  We must have gone through three pots of coffee!  It was the first conversation I ever had with them, not son-to-parents, but adult-to-adult!  And it was wonderful!  We got along so well!  We had so much in common!

            To the day my daddy died, he was my go-to guy, the guy who had been there and done that, the guy who understood what I was going through.  He was never a pastor, but he had been a supervisor in cotton mills, with people under his authority and under the authority of others.  What he understood about my situation was almost telepathic!

            Forever and ever, he will always be Daddy to me.  I can never imagine allowing myself to be his equal.  But the closest we came to being equals was one of the best things in my life.  And, I think, one of the best things in his.

            What if that’s what God wants?  What if he wants us to grow to be as much like him, as God-like, as we can be?  What if the King of kings and Lord of lords has chosen us to be the kings over whom he is King, the lords over whom he is Lord?  What if he wants us to be royal, divine, autonomous, powerful, wise, decisive?

            And what if it is a constant frustration to him that so many of his children will not put out one tenth the effort on his kingdom that they do to make it in the world?  What if it drives him nuts that the evils of this world perpetuate themselves and the evil-doers celebrate their pupils in finding newer and better ways to be evil?  Could it irritate God to tears that the very gifts and graces he put in us for the betterment of others and the promotion of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Peace and Prosperity for All, get used to hurt people, the victimize people, the oppress people, the hold people down?

            How much does it hurt God that the Children of This World are wiser in their age than are the Children of Light?  How much does it hurt God that his followers are wise to do evil, but fools in doing good?

            God will not make us obey.  He will not make us love him.  He will not make us build his kingdom.  It turns out a vital part of the mission is for us to want it, and to figure out how best we can serve it.

            Furthermore, so many times when I pray for help, for knowledge, for wisdom, I get no answer whatsoever!  It turns out he has already given me everything I need to accomplish what he wants!  It’s almost like I’m sitting in a car, with the keys in it, gassed up and ready to go, and I’m praying for transportation!  God just looks at me, waiting for me to figure it out.

            “Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness…”  In other words, be wise with everything you have!  Seek every opportunity, watch out for every tool to use for God’s advantage!  How can your education advance the Kingdom of God?  How can your past advance the Kingdom of God?  How can what you have, or what you owe, advance the Kingdom of God?  What do you have?  What do you need?  What do you lack?

            God has done everything for us that we could not do for ourselves in order that we might be saved.  God will do nothing for us that we can do for ourselves in order that we might be grow into his likeness.