It’s Time
A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent
November 27, 2022
The Rev. Robin Teasley
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! Isaiah 2:1-5
Joshua, Jeremiah, Jonah, Isaiah, Habakkuk
Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” Matthew 24:36-44
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives” Does anyone remember that line from the afternoon soap opera, “Days of Our Lives?” And how many of you have one of those hourglass kitchen timers, or like to play board games with those tiny hourglass timers? I have to confess when I can actually see time passing, whether it’s grains of sand or the hands of the clock on the wall ticking away, it can make me a little anxious if I am already concerned about something.
How many times a day do you think about time? Time is relative. When we are young, we have all the time in the world and the month of December seems to last forever as we wait for Christmas to arrive. But when we are older, we find we are always racing the clock, there is never enough time to get everything done.
The truth is, we struggle with time management all year long. Maybe you notice that time is passing when you get out of bed in the morning and your joints complain; or when Facebook shows you a picture of your child (or yourself!) from five or ten years ago and you are suddenly aware of how fleeting life is.
The time in which we live our daily lives is called Chronos time, meaning time as a quantitative, finite resource. We mark our time by calendars and clocks, the change of seasons, and special days throughout the year. We guard our time or waste it, we treasure it or while it away. However we spend it, we know at some level that we only have so much of it.
But God’s time is not like our time. God’s time is Kairos time. Kairos is a Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment and it has a qualitative, infinite nature. God has all the time in the world. God’s time is eternal, and we get a glimpse of that in our readings today.
presented to the United Nations on 4 December 1959
The Prophet Isaiah looks beyond his own time of war and violence to the coming Kingdom of God. For Isaiah, time is measured as wars end and peace reigns. It’s measured when weapons are turned into farming tools. Notice that Isaiah did not hear the word of the Lord, he saw it. Notice that he did not know when the Kingdom of God would appear, but he knew what to look for, and what to be doing in the meantime. Even when the people of Israel were living in exile and times could not be any worse, Isaiah encouraged them to walk in the light of the Lord. The Prophet knew that God was with them even in their waiting.
In our Gospel reading, Matthew was writing to new Christians who had been waiting for Jesus to return as he promised, but it was taking longer than they thought it would and they were losing hope; they were getting old, and time was slipping away. Matthew reminds them what Jesus told his disciples about time saying, “but about that day and hour, no one knows…keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
On this First Sunday of Advent, we are still waiting for the return of Christ. We are going about our lives, probably focused more on the Chronos, the immediate timing of events on our calendars than we are focused on the Kairos, the eternal timelessness of God.
The Gospel text has a sense of uncertainty and urgency about it that can bring all our hurrying and scurrying to a halt, if we will let it. No one, Jesus says at the beginning of the passage, knows when the Lord will come, not even Jesus himself. Then he follows that sobering statement by giving several examples of pairs of people being taken unawares, one taken, one left. At the end of the passage, in case we weren’t listening carefully, Jesus underscores again that the Son of Man will come at an unexpected hour. And don’t we know something about uncertainty, surprise, and unexpected events?
Let’s update the examples Jesus gives his first century followers just a bit. Two friends went to the doctor; one was diagnosed with cancer, another not. Two workers applied for a job; one was chosen, the other not. Two kids were navigating their way through high school; one fell into the hands of a drug dealer, the other not. Two couples were joined in marriage; one stayed married, the other did not.
As time keeps ticking away, life happens, whether we are ready for it or not. It may seem impossible to connect the Chronos and the Kairos, but this is where a third measure of time can be helpful. Liminal time creates a space of hope between Chronos and Kairos. In Latin, a limin is that transverse piece of floorboard in a doorway. Liminal is a word that means limit or threshold – think of crossing over the threshold from one room to another, from one way of being to another.
Author and theologian Richard Rohr defines liminal time in this way: "It is when you have left, or are about to leave, the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer.” Ancient Celtic Christians called these liminal times “thin places” where the veil between earth and heaven was thin and permeable. Liminal space is often found in nature or in times of quiet prayer. You can see how even my attempt to explain with works seems to blend time and space, and to connect heaven and earth. Liminal times divide our lives into before and after, making time forever different. The pandemic has been a liminal time. This transitional time between rectors is a liminal time for Immanuel.
Jesus tells us to keep awake, whether the events are joyful or tragic, whether we succeed or fail, because God is in the midst of it all, even if we cannot see or sense God’s presence until later. God promises to be with us in every circumstance, at all times. We have been able to see where and how God has been present in the life of this parish as we have shared stories in our adult forum conversations.
What if, in this Advent season, we try to see time differently, in the light of hope? What if we take time to look for the presence of God, the face of Jesus, in our personal lives and among those whom we encounter, in all that we do, and wherever we are? To assist with this, the church has some gifts for us to help us merge our time with God’s time, our calendar with God’s calendar.
On Tuesday evenings in Advent, you are invited to enter a liminal space, here in the church, for quiet prayer. You may take an Advent Calendar home with you today. For each day there is a suggestion of a way to spend your time to help bring about the Kingdom of God. These gifts will help you prepare for the coming of Christ as a child in the manger, and as the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Title Image: The Gleaners, Jean-Francois Millet
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