Robin McGonigle
University Congregational Church
May 1, 2022
After the Rain: Time
Ecc. 3: 1-12
Can anyone please tell me what time it is? Do not bother looking at your watch. I am not speaking about that kind of time! In the Bible, time has a much broader meaning than the ticking of the clock. That is what I would like for us to think about in the sermon today: What time is it spiritually… for you… for me… for us?
If your house is anything like ours, you have clocks in about every room. There is a bit of an obsession about time that we have. Most of us have clocks all around us – on our cell phones, our computers, on our TVs, and many other places around us. Digital, and otherwise. Seldom do they all agree. One may read 10:56; while another says 10:54; while another is on straight up 11:00 o’clock. What time is it, really?
You know this, but we measure time from the rotation of the earth and the time it takes to revolve around the sun. From there it is a simple matter of mathematics … only it does not come out even. So, we must adjust – like the way we add an extra day to February every four years – only more minute.
The problem is the earth does not always rotate at a constant speed. Depending on any number of variables, including erosion, volcanic activity, the tides, the polar ice caps … the speed of the earth spinning on its axis varies ever so slightly, and we must account for that by adding or taking away a millisecond or two.
When you think about it, it is amazing: The earth, like its Creator, has a mind of its own defying our precise calculation.
Well, in the same way, seconds fade into minutes, and minutes into hours, and hours into the days, weeks, months and years of our lives. Just as the seconds tick away without our knowing exactly the time of day, so do we live out our lives in a shroud of mystery, never knowing for sure what time it is.
The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. Ecc. 3:1-12
Alexandra Elle wrote, “The greatest lesson I’ve adopted from time well spent – and time wasted – is that I am the gardener of my destiny. Digging dirt and sifting soil. Planting seeds and watching them grow, slowly and with an unrushed ease. Time has never failed to offer clarity, perspective, and a sense of peace.”
Time is our most precious resource. It is perishable and irreplaceable. God has given us all the same amount – 24 hours per day. The quality, joy, and impact of our lives are related to how wisely we use the time we have.
This does not mean that we must hurry or hustle through life. At this point you probably know that I am really preaching to the preacher, because I struggle with that type A syndrome like many of you. Too many of us are stressed-out, over-committed, and spread too thinly.
Do you wonder whether you are using your time as a type A personality or if you are using it as God intended? Here are a few clues:
- If the traffic light turns green and the driver up front waits as long as three seconds to move out, a type A person might toot the horn.
- Type A and OCD people like to do two things at once and doing three things simultaneously is heavenly.
- A Type A person’s favorite inventions are e-mail and voice mail, so he can send messages to people 24 hours per day.
- A TOCA member cannot watch TV unless she has a book, magazine, or computer in hand, because the commercials are a waste of time!
- A Type A person always drives eight-to-nine miles per hour over the speed limit.
- As a Type A person passes someone driving right at the speed limit, he mumbles, “Come on, granny, drive it or park it.”
- If the spouse or girlfriend of a Type A or OCD person says, “Let us take a stroll,” he responds, “How long will it take?”
In contrast, the Bible never says that Jesus rushed anywhere. He was usually busy but found time to pray a lot. His total ministry was accomplished in a few short years, but he found time to play with children, to investigate a fig tree, to take a nap during a boat ride, to rest at noontime beside a well, and to attend a wedding reception.
Look again at our traditional word for today. Please note that the text provides us a beloved list of things for which there is a proper time. We do not know why things occur at their time… they just do. In verses 2-8, there are fourteen antitheses, which encompass twenty-eight experiences know to all human beings. The first item on the list, “a time to be born, and a time to die” is clearly out of human hands, but the rest involve human choices.
In verse eight, the human experiences of love and hate; war and peace are raised. However, the writer reverses the order in the final clause – putting peace at the end. That creates a bracket of the entire poem: it starts with birth and ends with peace. Further, their antitheses: death and war and demoted to realities that are profound and universal but have neither the first nor the last word. This is important, say the commentators. It is not by accident. The first thing about time is that we are born. The last thing about our time is that we know peace. This is God’s intention. In-between, we make choices which can work for good or not.
Our striving during our time is for a purpose: to enjoy our lives. That is our purpose! Please note that time in the first eight verses is not set or manipulated by God. God’s name is not mentioned until the final paragraph about purpose and only then is it mentioned that the enjoyment of life is the reason for our time.
As we age and mature, we have more choices about how we spend our time. Time can be our nemesis or our friend. It can help us accomplish what we set out to do or it can rob us of what is most important. Time can offer us clarity, perspective, and peace. The thing we all know about time is that it does not stop or slow down. And how we invest and spend it is an art form.
I have good friends who know how to use their time wisely. They know what they want from their time, and they set out decisively each week to plan their schedules purposely so that their time is spent intentionally doing what is important to them: quality time with grandchildren; exercising their bodies for health; enjoying their friends with social and creative activities; reading; volunteering; downtime with their spouse; and so forth. They are using their time wisely and purposefully instead of allowing time to get the best of them. I have suggested to them that they might want to author a book or teach a class to instruct others on how to retire successfully – but they say that is not how they want to spend their time 😊
I do not even know if the soap-opera Days of our Lives is still on TV. I remember my grandma watching it. Who can forget the voice of the late MacDonald Carey, saying, “Like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives”? He is right, you know. Sand never runs upward in the hourglass. Each grain of sand, like each day, is unrepeatable. It is a distinctive 24-hour gift from God, and we are the stewards of that time. Between being born and having God’s given peace, what choices will we make about our time?
Resources Used:
Elle, Alexandra. “After the Rain; Gentle Reminders for Healing, Courage, and Self-Love.” San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 2020.
“The New Interpreters Bible Commentary.” Vol. III. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 2015.