1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word comes to us today
from various texts on the stewardship of time from God’s Word as we begin our
Stewardship Emphasis, “The Wonders of His Love.” It’s entitled, “From Here to
Eternity,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Which is
true? Time goes too fast or time goes too slowly? For many of us, it depends on
what is happening during that time. If we’re having fun, time seems to pass
much too quickly. If we’re in pain, or doing a job we don’t like, or waiting
for an important phone call, time seems to drag.
3.
Because
we are Christians doesn’t change how fast or slow time goes in our lives. But
following Jesus Christ can change our view of time. This weekend we begin three
sermons focusing on the “Wonders of His Love” that God gives to
us. Today we look at time as a gift from God and how we can use it to make our
lives purposeful and pleasing to God.
4.
To
affirm that time is a gift is good for us to do, because sometimes
we waste or misuse time. That’s not surprising. Time is part of living
in a world that is cracked and warped by sin, just as you and I are naturally.
How does our imperfection affect the way we use time?
5.
First, it’s easy to be self-centered with our time. I know a
father who used to sit in the living room reading his emails, e-books on his
Kindle, and listening to podcasts on his smartphone. Other members of the
family told him that when he did that, he was sending a message that he didn’t
want them intruding on his time. I know that was not what he intended because I
was that father. But I also know that I’m being self-centered when loved ones
ask me to share my time with them and I don’t. At times we are self-centered
with our time.
6.
The
Bible teaches us another truth about time that at first seems very odd; namely,
we really can’t manage our time. To be sure, I keep
both a weekly desk calendar, a calendar on my smartphone, and my to-do list.
But, I quickly learned as a pastor that I can’t “manage” time. I can do
all the planning I wish, but when I get a phone call to rush to the hospital,
managing that day’s time goes out the window. There’s an even greater truth
here. We really can’t manage time because we don’t know how much time we have
in this life. The psalm writer says in v 10 of Psalm 90: “Seventy years is
all we have—eighty years if we are strong . . . life is soon
over” (TEV). One day God will say to us, “Time’s up!” The fact that
we will one day die also reminds us of our sinfulness, which pops up its ugly
head also in the way we don’t always use time for God’s purposes.
7.
Yet God
did not leave us in the lurch. Jesus entered our time to
“redeem” us. St. Paul says in Galatians 4:4-7, “4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his
Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the
law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God
has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you
are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Redeem is a Bible word
meaning “to buy back,” like buying people who were sold into slavery and
giving them back their freedom. That word redeem can
be a key for helping us to understand our using time.
8.
St. Paul
uses this picture of being redeemed or bought back when he writes his first
letter to the Christians at Corinth. “Your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, who lives in you. . . . You do not belong to yourselves
but to God; he bought [redeemed] you for a price” (1 Cor 6:19–20 TEV). What
was that price? Peter writes that it was the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the
cross, which cleans away our sins (1 Pet 1:18–19). Thus, we loudly proclaim
that Jesus purchased (redeemed) us with his blood. Jesus
paid the price so we could be bought back from slavery to sin.
9.
In
Baptism, God claims us as his children, one of the saints. In Baptism, the
Scriptures teach that God reaches into our lives individually, forgives our
sins, and makes us part of his family, the church. Baptism is one of those means of grace
through which God promises that Jesus’ death on the cross was the price that
purchased our forgiveness, our freedom, our new life. Jesus has “redeemed”
us by leaving the eternity of heaven to come into our world of time and space
and rescue us. That is why we also
confess in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus, “suffered under Pontius Pilate,”
because he died at a particular time and a particular place for us and our
salvation within human history. The
Christian story is no fairy tale or myth that happened in a land, “far, far
away.” No, Christ came to us from
heaven above within our own time, within human history, to save us from our
sins, from death, and the power of the devil.
Each week when we gather in worship the Lord comes to us at a particular
time and a particular place here in our Church where we hear His Word, confess
our sins and receive from Him forgiveness through the Absolution, and receive
the Lord’s Supper. God comes to us
within our own time to give to us His means of grace for take us from here
to eternity.
10.
But
that’s not all. There’s another way to use that same word redeem. For the word
sometimes translated “redeem” also can mean to “invest” or to
“make the most of.” Christian consultant Kennon Callahan makes this point
clearly: we cannot manage time, but we can invest it! As people of God, we have
the opportunity to “redeem” (invest) our time.
11.
The
apostle Paul writes, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like ignorant
people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have,
because these are evil days” (Eph 5:15–16 TEV). The King James Version
translates it this way: “redeem the time.” Use time to its fullest, make
the most of every opportunity, see time as a precious gift from God, which is
not to be wasted. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can “make the most”
of time.
12.
Toward
the end of the 19th century, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel awoke one morning to
read his own obituary in the local newspaper.
It read: “Alfred Nobel, the
inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be
killed in a war than ever before, and he died a very rich man.” Actually, it was Alfred’s older brother who
had died; a newspaper reporter had bungled the epitaph. But the account had a profound effect on
Nobel. He decided he wanted to be known
for something other than developing the means to kill people efficiently and
for amassing a fortune in the process.
13.
So he
initiated the Nobel Prize, the award for scientists and writers who foster
peace. Nobel said, “Every man ought
to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.” Few things will change us as much as looking
at our life as though it is finished. (Is It Real When
It Doesn’t Work? Doug Murren and
Barb Shurin; quoted in Leadership by Rex Bonar, Summer, 1991)
14.
In the Taggatz
household, we are aware that time is quickly moving forward. Our son Eddie just turned 11 this last week. That means just a few more years until he’s
in high school and then he will get his driver’s license. I don’t know if my wife and I are ready for
that yet. Roxanne and I are seeking to
invest the time we have in our children. We treasure the time we spend with
them at the supper table, learning what is happening in their lives. Time
together as a family is so very important but does not happen without conscious
effort and commitment.
15.
One day
our house will be an empty nest. There will be no more time to invest in quite
that same way with our children. Those of us who remember loved ones who have
fallen asleep in Jesus this past year have that kind of situation in our lives
right now. As we give thanks for those dear ones who have died in the faith and
are with the Lord, we can make our lives count, as we live for God. Part of
investing the gift of time is remembering that we can do so because time is a
gift from God, and God is in control. The psalm writer says, “But I trust in
you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands”
(Ps 31:14–15). How are you investing your time from God with those dear to you
and with the others whom God has given to you, including your church family?
16.
God has
given us the “Wonders of His Love.” One of those wonders is time, a gift
each person receives one hour at a time. Time is more precious than the talents
or treasure we’ll talk about in the next two weekends because we have the gift
of time “from here to eternity.” As we invest the gift of time, we
rejoice that the Holy Spirit uses us. He provides the gift of our time to share
the Good News of Jesus Christ, who has bought us back from slavery to sin to be
God’s people. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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