Time, Times, and Half a Time

Time, Times, and Half a Time 

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Time is a funny thing. As I set the old church clock each Sunday morning, the time on my phone has already changed during those moments it takes me to move around the minute hand, time and again. That clock, donated to the church many years ago by the youth (hoping, no doubt, that it might have an affect on length of services) has ticked and tocked through many worships. Some of those youth have now doubtless passed on. 

The clock doesn’t control the time. It simply attempts to mark it (and not all that successfully - it’s forever slow). And one thing I notice about the old clock - it always moves forward, never back. Because once time has passed, it’s gone. There is no reclaiming lost time. Forever gone.

You can’t really “save” time. You can’t hoard it. You can’t “save it up.” I understand that there are all kinds of time-savers out there, but they merely attempt to speed up projects and processes so that you can use time for something else. You are not the master of time. In some senses, it masters you.

Paul speaks of “redeeming the time.” That is, we are to make good use of the time that God gives us. And time is just that: a gift. And that time that is given, we can spend, on ourselves, or on others; in the service of me, or in the service of God. “Redeeming the time” means that we use this gift in ways that matter; in ways that may have lasting benefits; even eternal benefits.

But “redeeming the time” does not mean that you can reclaim past time. It’s lost. It’s gone. You can only start now, as we see time as the playing field of Christ’s mission, not ours.

And then, time’s up. Our earthly lives will be over. We don’t know when, or how long. There is no way to bargain for more. God’s got it set in stone. And He hasn’t told us. We are not in charge of this, just like a whole lot of others things we’re not in charge of.

But the Lord who directed Paul to write “redeem the time” has done something else, something better. He has come to redeem people, to redeem you, so that, having believed in Him; having followed Him and served Him - when your time is up, He gives again. He doesn’t give you more time. He gives you eternity, a space where we are forever in His presence, and a kind of life where we are forever where we are supposed to be, never again late; never again lost.