Time Matthew 24:36-44

Time. What is it? We talk about time flying, trying to save time, getting a jump on time, that time is money, when we are behind time we try to make up time, we say time waits for no one, that we are in time, out of time, and that things are timeless. We sing about time. Jim Croce asks “If I could put time in a bottle”, the Stones say that “Time is on my side”, Pink Floyd, in its song on time, talks about time running out. From the Bookends album, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle sing, “Time, time, time, / See what’s become of me.”

From Isaiah, we hear that it is time to “beat our swords into plow shares and our spears into pruning hooks”: a time for nations to find ways of making peace and to learn the arts of war no more. From Romans we hear that we should know what time it is. It is time to wake from our sleep and dress ourselves with the armor of Light, to put on Jesus Christ, to remember who and whose we are.

Time is one of those most talked about things in our lives. One of the most asked questions is, “What time is it?” We run our lives by it, and yet, we still don’t fully understand it. For instance, does time only go from here to there, or is it possible that time can go from there to here? Can we travel in time? Can we go back in time and then come back to what would be the future? Or can we go forward in time and then come back to what would be the past? Can we in some way un-ring the bell that has been rung? Is time circular or is it linear?

With all the questions that we have about time, should we be surprised that our Gospel reading tells us that we will not know the time when the Son of Man will come again? This Advent, as we begin our new liturgical year, we confess that all we do is about time, but the time that we proclaim is God’s time, not our own. And, God’s time often runs contrary to our own.

So, we begin our time together this year burning candles, adding the light of one more candle each week, measuring the time between Christ the King Sunday and Christmas. We print special calendars that remind us that, as the world is getting darker and darker, our spiritual worshipping world is getting brighter and brighter anticipating the Second Coming of Christ. And then, when the Son of Man does not come, we begin retelling the story of Jesus Christ who has come to live among us and to be proclaimed as the light of the world, the light that cannot be overcome.

This time of waiting is not some idle time. We always hope for Christ’s coming, yet we prepare ourselves for his postponed coming again. And so, entering into our Gospel text today, we encourage one another in God’s kingdom work for which we are called, remembering that, in the days of Noah, people became complacent in their faith and did not remember their relationship with God and one another. We remember that Noah and his family were saved from the flood while the others were swept away. We pray that we will not be those people who are complacent in their faith and be swept away to the outer darkness in Christ’s second coming, but that we are those who remain for the coming day of judgment.

Thinking about the time we have shared, let us say with Frank Sinatra, “It was a very good year.” Let us pray with Ray Price “for the good times.” As we look back to the past year, we acknowledge with Bob Dylan that “the times, they are a changin’,”and with Chicago, let us ask, “Does anybody really know what time it is?” And then say, “Yes, it is God’s time.”

Let us walk in God’s light and walk in God’s time.