What time is it?

One answer to this question is 9:00 (11:25). Or time to worship. Time for the sermon to begin. A time to be quiet and listen. Or a time to daydream, or make a mental "to do" list. Or perhaps a time to just be still, very still, so still, others around you may wonder if it is nap time. Time is what is happening here and now.

What time is it?

Another way to think about this question is to understand time as a season of life.

To answer, some might say: it’s a time of planting and nurturing gardens to grow.

Others might say it’s a time of soccer and end of school year projects, concerts and activities.

For some, it’s a time of starting up, gearing up, trying to keep up with the busy schedule of life.

For others, it’s a time of slowing down, sitting back, relaxing, reflecting, remembering times gone by.

For some, it’s a time of looking forward with a sense of expectation and excitement.

For others, it’s a time of looking back on life, with some sense of regret, perhaps, but with also some sense of peace.

What time is it for you?

What time is it?

In her book, There is a Season, Joan Chittister describes the dimensions of time. She writes:

"Time. We have objectified it and packaged it and made it seem to be itself a thing. We put it on our watches and calendars and schedules. We make wise remarks about losing it and wasting it and spending it. We use the same verb to talk about time as we do to talk about money: we save it, and count it and invest it. We forget, too often, to savor it, enjoy it, to trust it. Instead we fill it and wrench it; we race against it and fight it; we make it enemy instead of friend. And so we lose it."

What time is it?

Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch, in the first century, wrote, "Time is the wisest of all counselors."

What is the lesson time has to teach us? What time is it?

The ancient Greeks had two different ways to answer the question, as they had two different words for time—kronos and kairos.

Kronos is the Greek word which refers to sequential or linear time. In Greek mythology, the god Chronos, pictured as elderly, gray-haired and bearded, was the personification of time. We know kronos time as chronology; tick-tock time. It is measured by clocks, hours, minutes and seconds. We schedule our lives by it. Some people even refer to much of life as "putting in the time."

Jonathan Larsen’s Broadway Musical Rent questions the measure of time, the quality of this kronos time with the lyrics of "Seasons of Love":

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure—measure a year?

In daylights—in sunsets

In midnights—in cups of coffee

In inches—in miles

In laughter—in strife

In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure a year in the life?

What time is it?

Another answer is what the Greeks called kairos time. It refers to the right time, opportune time or seasonable time. It cannot be measured. It is the perfect time, the qualitative time. The present moment, the defining moment, a time-frame for divine interaction and occurrences. It is God’s time.

This is the time we find described in the Scripture lessons for today.

From Ecclesiastes: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.

And it goes on to name 28 "times" or experiences known to all human beings, including:

The author named Qohelet, a Hebrew word which means Teacher, doesn’t say why things happen at their appropriate times, they just do. But the teacher does remind us that God made everything suitable for its time. God has provided direction and design to all the times. They each have their purpose in our life stories. They all have their place in God’s story.

From Revelation, we read of the end of time, the fulfillment of kairos time, when Jesus will reign, and all will eat from the tree of life and drink of the water of life as a gift. It’s all a part of God’s providential plan for us and for our salvation. When will this be? We wonder.

The book of Revelation is actually a letter written to the churches, instructing "patient endurance" and encouraging "holding fast to the faith of Jesus." It is not written so much that we will understand all mysteries of eternity, all the details of the end of time, but to encourage us to use well the gift of time. What time is it? Jesus says, "Surely I am coming soon."

This was written nearly 2000 years ago. Still we are waiting for the time when Jesus will come again and usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth. How then shall we wait?

We can mark time by the tick-tock of kronos time, driven by it, frustrated by it, consumed by it, and ultimately, feel cheated by it.

Or we can accept the gift of time God has given us, and allow kairos time to mark us and change us and bless us. For it is in these kairos moments, where we live the great drama of life, that we feel most alive, most in touch with our eternal purpose, closest to God who holds us in all times.

What time is it?

For our church, we are about to enter a new time. An Interim Pastor will begin work here on Wednesday and preach next Sunday for Pentecost. It’s a new time. An interim time.

What time is it?

Some say it’s sad time, a time we did not necessarily want and a time to resist any change.

Others say it’s a wasted time, a backwards time, a fallow time.

Some say it’s a time to take a break, go away, stay away, call me when it’s over, by the way.

Others say it’s time to do the necessary tasks and get to hiring a pastor, the sooner the better. The clock is a ticking. Time is a wasting! Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes and counting!

But, I wonder if the Scriptures aren’t inviting us to consider this interim time as kairos time.

The right time, opportune time, qualitative time, appointed time. A defining moment, a time-frame for divine interactions and occurrences. God’s time. The time when God acts. Kairos time is rich with potential and pregnant with possibility.

In this kairos time. ..

I wonder what God may be up to?

I wonder what we will learn about ourselves and our mission as a church?

I wonder how we will grow in faith together as brothers and sisters in Christ?

I wonder how the Spirit will blow and who or what it will inspire and empower?

I wonder how God will stretch us and mold us and fill us and use us and bless us?

I wonder what the time will be like if we receive it as God intends it—as a gift, a gift of time, rich with potential and pregnant with possibility.

I wonder if something new just might be born here among us, in this time?

What time is it?

It’s God’s time.

It’s a season of change.

And it’s also 9:12 (11:39). Time to end the sermon.

After all, there is a time to speak and a time to be silent.

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.

God has made everything suitable for its time.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.