Romans
13:11-14
In his
sermon titled The High Cost of Believing,
John Buchanan, former moderator of the PCUSA, tells about one of his earliest
trips to
He says, “We were dinner guests in the
apartment of the Moderator of the
That’s
what stewardship is all about: living the faith we claim. We live our faith through
faithful stewardship of the gifts God has given to us: the gifts of time,
talent, treasurers and testimony. Are you living your faith or just talking
about it?
We will
focus this morning on one of these gifts: time.
How well do you live your faith through the time you have? This morning I want
to share with you three truths about God: truths which help us to live the
faith we claim.
The first truth is this: God owns all of time:
God
created time. 20th century theologian Karl Barth said that God exists inside of time and outside of
time at every point of time at the same time. In other words, God exists in
an eternal NOW! God is in no way limited
by God’s creation as you and I are. God created time for you and for me. And how
we use this gift says a lot about how well we live our faith.
Erma
Bombeck once wrote a column chiding a mother for scolding her son during a
worship service. The mother had said to her boy, "Stop that grinning.
You’re at church." What better time to smile or grin or laugh than
when we have gathered to worship the God of all joy!
The
Psalmist said it best when he declared, "This is the day the Lord has
made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." In other words, each day we
are called to open the door of our hearts to gratitude.
Time is
God's impartial and generous gift to all. Therefore, time is to be gratefully received and enjoyed.
We all have the same amount of time each day. Both your minutes and mine have
60 seconds. Every hour has 60 minutes. Every day has 24 hours. No one is
slighted.
How
many times have you said or heard others say, "I don't have time to do
this or that." But, we always have time for the things that are most
important to us, don’t we? The struggle we all face is how to allocate the time
we have been given.
Time is
God's gift entrusted to our stewardship. God trust elicits our prayers. A good
prayer to embrace comes from Psalm 90, “…teach us to number our days that we
may get a heart of wisdom.” Consider
also Psalm 39, “O Lord,
make me know my end and what is the measure of my days;”
All time
belongs to God. When, by
the Spirit of God, we are attuned to this truth, we live the faith we claim.
Another
truth about God, which helps
us to live the faith we claim is this: God limits our time on earth.
A story
is told about a man named Art. Art’s doctor diagnosed him as having a terminal
illness that would claim his life within a year. However, after only a month,
it was discovered that the original diagnosis was mistaken and Art was told
that his condition was not terminal after all. As Art reflected on the month he
had spent under this mistaken death sentence, he acknowledged the pain he had
experienced. But he also acknowledged that there was positive in the midst of
his pain. He said, "I began to see the beauty of God's creation the way
I hadn't seen it before." "With the length of my life limited,
I began to make the most of every moment."
Time is
a gift that is to be used for God’s glory. Since each day brings us closer to
heaven, Paul urges us in Ephesians 5, “Look carefully then how you walk, not
as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are
evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord
is.” Because of the brevity of life, God's people are called to seek,
understand and live out God’s will.
In the early
1970s, Jim Croce recorded a song titled “Time
in a Bottle.” It says in part, “If I could save time in a bottle. The first thing that
I’d like to do is to save every day till eternity passes away just to spend
them with you.” Croce died at the age of
24 in an airplane crash; just one day before that song was released.
That
God limits our time on earth is a sobering thought! James describes life on
earth as “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Now
is the time to live, to love, to laugh and to serve God and humanity. We cannot
afford to waste time on that which does not matter in the eternal scheme of
things.
A little
girl was once fascinated by her mother’s egg timer, a small hourglass with sand
in it. Her mother explained that it took the sand exactly three minutes to
empty, then you just turn it over and it does the same thing all over again.
That afternoon the little girl brought a friend into the kitchen and said, “See, you run it through like this, then you
just turn it upside down and you get your three minutes back.”
Whatever
time we fail to use for God’s glory is time lost. We can neither save time in a
bottle nor replace it with and hour glass. God calls us to make the most of
time now while we have it. And we make the most of time when, by the Spirit of the
Living God, we recognize what God is doing around us and join God in the doing.
Our
passage says, “And
do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up
from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first
believed.”
Two
truths about God help us to live the faith we claim: all time belongs to God and
God limits our time on earth. When by the power of the Spirit at work in
us, we hear and believe these truths, we do not merely talk about faith; we
actually live it.
The third
and final truth is this: God calls you and me to apply the gift of time in
service to others.
Time is
but a prelude to eternity. Eventually we run out of tomorrows… unless… unless
our lives are built on Jesus Christ; he who alone is eternal. For all who are
in him have eternal life right now… not later; not at some distant point in
time; not at the end of this physical life. Eternal life is ours right now. No
time is wasted when that happens.
God
never asks us to do anything for which God does not also give us the ability
and the time to do. God calls us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul
and strength. We do that by giving ourselves to God’s service. When we live the
faith we claim, we love our neighbors; we worship and fellowship with them, and
we serve the world beginning with God’s people.
An
ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra
assignment. Fifteen students showed up. He divided the students into three
groups of five each. He instructed the 1st group to proceed
immediately across the campus to a certain spot; if they did not get there within
fifteen minutes their grade would be affected. A minute or two later he
instructed the 2nd group to also proceed across the campus to the
same spot; but they were given forty-five minutes to get there. The 3rd
group he instructed likewise, but he gave them 3 hours for the trip. Now,
unknown to any of these students, the teacher had arranged with three students
from the Drama Department to meet them along the way, acting as people in great
need. The 1st one they met covered his head with his hands and
moaned out loud as though in great pain. The 2nd, further along the
way, was on some steps lying face down as if unconscious. The 3rd,
on the very steps of the destination, acted out an epileptic seizure. Here is
what the professor discovered? Not one of the 1st group stopped, only
two of the 2nd group stopped, and all five of the 3rd group
stopped.
Be
honest with yourself - and with God – would you have used your time faithfully
or would you have passed by? Let no one say, "I don't have time to
serve God because my home life or my job or some other thing keeps me from
it." We live our faith by serving God the best we can, whether we are
young or old or somewhere in between. We live our faith by serving God the best
we can as a parent or spouse or single person or administrator or laborer or
student or teacher. For, thereby we bring glory to God.
And if
our lives are so busy we can't find
at least one hour out of the week to gather with God's people for mutual
up-building and corporate worship, our lives are truly too busy and in need of change.
The
Apostle Paul says, “… clothe yourselves
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires
of the sinful nature.”[1] Since
faithful stewards live our faith day-by-day we look forward to that day of
accounting. We anticipate a home in Glory and those wonderful words of the
Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your
master.”
AMEN