marking time

from my sermon on 12/4/11 from 2 Peter 3:8-15a

God's view of things and ours are different. May I tell you a story? There was a man who grew close to God. One day, in his praying, he became so bold as to ask God, "What's a 1,000 years like to you, God?" A thousand years is like a second to me, answered God. "Well, God, what's a million dollars like to you?" A million dollars is like a penny to me. The man got even bolder and after a pause, asked, "God, can I have one of your pennies?" Sure, said God, in a second.

The text says that with God one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. God's view of time is different from ours. I am doing a sermon series on time. I am finding that time is our most valuable commodity, even more valuable than money. Today, I want you to listen for 2 things about marking time.

One, for us, time can slow down and speed up. You remember from your study of physics that as we approach the speed of light that time will slow down. Scientists have actually proved this with extremely accuarte atomic clocks. You know this from personal experience. You are driving on these slick streets like we have right now. Everything is ordinary (have a metronome going back and forth at a reasonable pace). Then, all of a sudden, this flatbed truck is turning right in front of you, blocking both lanes. Time slows down (make the metronome go slower). You see everything with perfect clarity. You understand that you will not have time to stop. You will hit the truck. You notice the name of the lumber company on the door of the truck. You see that it is a Ford R-450. If you are a parent, even if your kid is not in the car with you, you will throw out your right arm, trying to defy the laws of physics, in order to stop the child hurtling forward. You see that the steel bed of the truck is right about where your neck is in your car. By the grace of God, you don't hit the steel bed, but the read wheels of the truck, and you live. It only took a few seconds, but for you it took a lifetime.

Time can speed up...especially as you get older. My doctor friend describes it like this: when you are a baby and you have lived one day, that is all the time that you know...just one light period and one dark period, a few feeding times. What happens when you are 80 years old...well that is 29,220 days. For you, a day is a tiny fraction of all the time that you know. How many light periods and dark periods have you experienced? How many meals, baths, traffic signals?

What does this have to do with the scripture passage? In the early church there was an issue around the delay of the coming of Christ. They expected him to return quickly. From the way they marked time, Christ seemed to be slow. Peter is saying from God's perspective, the way God marks time, is that this so-called delay is actually a gift from God. It is a time to repent, a time to respond to God's mercy, a time to experience God's purifying fire. We take time now ...in silence...there may something you want to repent of....we have a prayer of confession coming soon...there may be something you need to give over to God's mercy....there may be something you have been holding onto more tightly than God's desire to hold onto you. We take time now to repent.

The second thing I want you to remember about marking time is this: some said that Christ's delay in coming back meant that they could do whatever they wanted. It was a license to licentiousness. Others thought that it meant that they didn't have to do anything. It was an invitation to idleness. Friends, this is not the problem most of us have today. We overfunction. We are crazy-busy. We don't see time as God's time, but as ours solely, and we fill it up, every minute of it. We must be doing something all the time, and then we complain that we don't have enough time.

The second thing I invite you to do this Advent is to allow for "gap time." This means to not be so busy as to not leave time for God to break in. As a pastor friend of mine says, to allow for God's unscheduled appointments. Peter in this letter says, it is to lead lives of holiness and godliness, where righteousness is at home.

It was right at this moment in writing this sermon that God broke in. A man we will call Tom came to see me. Months ago, I had helped him out. He had been visiting in worship here. He had told me that his family needed food. I told him about all the different agencies through which we worked and that I didn't hand out money. He told me his child was hungry. And I never do this, but I took him over to HEB and bought him groceries with my own credit card. Then his car was low on gas, so I filled it with gas on my credit card. I wouldn't miss the money. But then I didn't see Tom again. He was gone. Ah, I thought, lesson learned again. I got taken again. Then he shows up right when I am talking about gap time. He said that he had gotten work up in the Dallas area after a hail storm. He was bidding on roofing jobs. Now he was in desperate straits again. We went through all of the options. None of them would help. I told him I didn't have any money to give him and I didn't know what to do. He said, "You could pray for me." Ah....I understood...what he really needed was for me to listen to him and to pray for him. That was gap time.

Then on Friday morning I am working on Habitat for Humanity. I love that time. I get to work with guys with power tools. Kevin and I are hanging doors. Gerard, our project manager comes in with a couple. I ask if they are the homeowners. They say yes. They apologize, saying that they won't be able to come back on Saturday to work on their house. Why, I ask. Maggie says that her sister, carried a baby to 7 1/2 months, but lost it, and she is now in ICU. I ask if it is OK to pray (I never assume it is). Yes, Maggie replies. There in the front room of their new house we pray all together in a circle of love. That is gap time.

I am asking you this Advent to mark time by allowing for gap time. We can get so busy in a worship service, we may miss God. I get anxious when there is silence in worship, but maybe that is the time that God speaks. (silence) We need gap time here today. We can get so busy in the church calendar we can squeeze God out. Maybe we need to have fewer meetings so God can show up in gap time. For you as a student in school, you ask someone how they are doing, and she responds "fine," but her voice drops to let you know she is anything but fine. So you pause and you listen. That's gap time. You receive a call from a wrong number, but there is something in person's voice to let you know it is not a wrong number for you. You listen. That's gap time. You remember that in music the rests are just as important as the notes. We need gap time.

This Advent, we are marking time, not just sitting around being idle, but making time count, looking for ways to practice holiness and godliness, where righteousness is at home. The good news is this: We know that God has made time for us.