Time: A Eucharistic Perspective
The following is very similar to a sermon-teaching that I recently
delivered at First Presbyterian Church of Plainwell.
Time!
Benefactor or dictator? Enemy or champion? Friend or foe? How do you view the
ever-moving hands on the clock of time, even if silently, clicking away?
Thoreau said that time was but a stream he went “afishing in.” Solomon viewed
time as something pre-ordained. There is a time for everything, birth, death,
and all of life’s events in between. What’s your reaction to that? One person
might say, “Yes, and I didn’t have anything to say in any of it--that’s fate.”
Another might say, “Yes, and even though I didn’t choose when to be born or to
die, I believe there is a good and sovereign God behind time; even though I
don’t alway understand His timing, I
know that it is ultimately good.” Generally, which attitude reflects yours?
Yes, of course, you know where I am going with this. Time is of God, yet He is
outside of the time He created; God has a calendar and works within it. Psalm
90:4 tells us that a thousand years in God’s sight are like a day gone by.
Galatians 4:4 says that in “the fullness of time God sent His son forth to
redeem those under the Law so that they could be adopted into God’s family.”
God had and has a plan for the ages--time will come to fruition.
Time might
be viewed as two arms, one raised and fisted, the other outstretched with
cupped palm; the first shouting, “What time is it?” the other asking, “What is
time for?” The Greeks gave us two words that nearly always seem to translate
out as “time,” in the Bible and other works of literature--chronos and kairos;
the names of two minor gods in their pantheon of “deities.” Chronos, a
self-indulgent, gluttonous, cannibal is never satisfied, always destroying what
it begets. Both Reubens and Goya depicted Chronos as a ravenous father hideously devouring his own children. Kairos,
also depicted in great art works, presents time as a gift, an opportunity; a
season--a servant of a holy purpose.
Of
course, These words do not have to have the above meanings for us today, but
they represent a mindset; a mentality; a mini meta-narrative. Probably, other
than the subjects of life and death; time has been philosophised and poeticised
more than any other subject. Time matters, and how we view it, makes a great
difference as to how we live. Holy Communion is one of those kairos moments.
How many minutes we spend partaking is not the issue; do we meet Jesus as we
“remember,” eating and drinking the elements that represent of his body and
blood. Do we experience the intimacy of the extended moment? I trust that we do;
that can only happen by your and my having made a personal faith relationship
with Christ.
The other
issue with time, of course is tense--past, present, and future. Notice that the
Lord’s Supper remembers the Passover--when Israel exited Egypt under God’
miraculous actions. And, Communion looks to the future--Jesus said he wouldn’t eat this meal again until he did so
in the completed Kingdom of God. The meal was quite obviously for right then
and there; just as it is for Christ’s followers here and now. We must all
balance past, present, and future. (Try driving your car without any rearview
mirrors. On second thought, no, don’t.)
It’s a
struggle for many of us who are aged not
to get locked in the past; when we are so chained, we usually spend a lot of
time playing “Ain’t It Awful.” (Yes, there’s much that’s awful going on in the
world, but our time and energy would be far better spent praying, “Thy Kingdom
come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And then, let’s put some
feet on our prayers.) On the other hand, trying to get children to plan for the
future is sometimes difficult too. Someone said “Plan as if you had a hundred years, and live as if this
was your last day on earth. Wonderfully, God has given us a choice; we can live
with a chronos or kairos attitude and outlook. And, we can live meaningful
lives today, empowered by the Holy Spirit, based upon what Christ did for us in
dying on the cross and rising from the dead all of which looks forward a New
Heaven-Earth inhabited by God and His vast family of eternal children.
Time is
more than a stream to go “afishing in,” (Yes, I get metaphors.) even though
going fishing could be a very kairos thing to do. Time is a gift that has the
potential of being used for great evil or immense good. The Psalmist prayed,
“Teach us to count our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Ps.
90:12) Thoreau also said, “We grow not
older by the years, but newer by the days.” That’s a marvelous combining of the
the kairos mentality and a wise balance of time’s tenses. Thank you, Lord for
the gift of time, may we use it for your glory and our good. My cup runneth
over.
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