Do you know what time it is? Just now, you likely paused to check. You may have looked to the clock on the wall, or the phone in your pocket. Maybe you raised your arm to glance at the watch on your wrist. Or called out, “Hey, Siri, what time is it?” You have your answer but what time is it, really? You’ve heard it said, “We have all the time in the world!” But have also been cautioned, “Time’s a’wasting.” How do we really know what time it is?
There’s an absolute atomic clock reference point that nations have agreed to recognize which essentially never varies. Our device’s time derives from this atomic standard. But Jesus wanted his followers to reconcile their life’s mission to a different clock: eternity. It includes everyone. It extends everywhere. Jesus wanted them to make time for living.
Our Bible journey continues in Mark 9:37-50, just after last week’s account when Jesus shockingly lifted a child to his lap and reminded his disciples that if greatness is one’s goal, serving others, especially children, must be the focus of one’s practice. Not skipping a beat, the disciples then smugly report that they condemned some outsiders for using Jesus’ name to heal people. How dare “outsiders” presume to do what “insiders” did! “What!?,” Jesus exclaimed as he scolded them, “Stop giving others a hard time!”
This week we’ll learn how to reset our clock to God’s time. Making time for living invites us to remove distractions, false reference points, and criticism of those who serve differently. What time is it? Its time to bless others and preserve the peace.
It’s all about time. How do we know what time it is, or know if if the clock we have is set correctly? What do we do? Live “out of sync” or reset? Our choices: Try to set everybody else to our time (not a good choice!), or the better choice to set our time to God’s time. Let’s ask God to reset our clocks and keep in time with God.
Make America Great Again is , well, a great slogan! It stirs our imaginations to conjure images of America as Great! But what is our frame of reference to be Great? Back a few centuries ago, America was considered Great because it was the friend of all, welcoming of every religion, even the Puritans (who were kicked out of England because their faith was just weird), the Anabaptists (who fled Europe because their faith was non-conformist), the Roman Catholics (who were feared to be worshipping a prince in a tall white hat instead of the Prince of Peace), and welcoming of Italians, Germans, Scots, French, Asian, African, and South American countries, too. Being great means no one is left behind. There is room for you. One more. The ones no one else seems to want. The others who are forgotten. Being Great as in winning the Great War, enjoying the Greatest Show on Earth, hearing the Greatest story ever told, singing Great is Thy Faithfulness, and recalling Jesus tell his disciples, Greater things you will do, are all, as I said, really great. Aspiring to greatness can be a great thing to aspire to. But what is great? And how do we as individuals become truly great? How do our communities become great? How can Cold Spring Church become great?
What’s the difference between children and adults? Age? How about speed? Listen to the following pieces of music. Two pieces. Same music. Same pianist. Same piano. What’s different? (Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations: 1. 1955. 2. 2005.) The first was faster than the second. The number “50” represents the difference between these two performances. 50 years between them. When younger, we move faster. As we become older, we move slower. But the childlike love for the music in 1955 was the same childlike love Glenn Gould played in 2005. All of us are children. We just move at different speeds. God loves all children, no matter how fast or slow they move!
The entire family will enjoy our four-week Advent journey leading to Christmas. Be energized by special music, lighting the Advent Candle, and a message of hope as we move towards Bethlehem and the birth of Christ. Let’s engage and extend the Christmas Spirit when “The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message).
