Time

We may rebel against it; we may try lotions and potions to pretend to delay aging, or try to do too many things at the same time like talking on the cell-phone while driving…but we understand something about chronological time.

Telos however, is something quite different from chronological time.

Telos is significant time, the right and proper time, God’s best time.

And we think that we cannot understand telos, God's good time, at all.

When this concept is suggested, we may become annoyed, bitter, or angry with God.

Hasn’t this family had enough sorrow for awhile?

We were just together in the days before Christmas to lay Doris to rest, and here we are again.

How is this the right time?

There was the shock of last Wednesday, and in reaction about 20 family members squeezed into the hospital room.

Then when it became clear that there was not going to be a reversal of the situation, the clock began to move ever so slowly as we waited for the death that was inevitably coming.

How was that telos, the right time?

Judy didn’t use the word, but she was agonizing over the idea for days.

But then there was 2 AM on Tuesday morning when I awoke out of a sound sleep, with my subconscious hard at work on this idea, and knew that there would be no more sleep until I got up and wrote all this down.

How was that the right time?

It may not be clear to us at the moment.

I didn't know until later that the several hours that I was thinking and writing were the very hours when Lois was dying.

Oh, maybe it was the significant time, the right time to be writing and thinking!

JS Bach has a cantata with the title God’s Time is Best, in which he explores the concept.

In our sorrow we sniff, “Well, what does he know?”

He buried a young wife, and a number of his children that did not live through childhood.

He had violent arguments with employers, and a number of personal disappointments as well as too many sorrows,

and yet he is willing to sing God’s time is best.

How could he, how can we, say that?

It hurts so much.

Some of this question will remain a mystery to us on this side of the resurrection, but we can point to a few clues in scripture to guide us.

The central thing about God’s time is that it revolves around our Lord Jesus subjecting himself to chronological time, being born in human flesh, living for us, dying for us, being resurrected for us, for our redemption.

St. Paul says, At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly… that’s us!

And St. Luke says in the Christmas story that Jesus was born … in the fullness of time.

Think also of Anna and Simeon, the latest of those who waited and watched in Israel for the Lord to fulfill his promises.

When Simeon had the chance to see the infant Jesus brought into the Temple,

he had the ultimate privilege to exult, Now let your servant rest in peace, for mine eyes have seen your salvation....

He was able to recognize that as God's right and good time, the best time of all for him.

But you see telos always centers on our connection with the Lord Jesus; that is what makes it the significant time.

So what has been happening in the hours and days since last Wednesday?

Judy says that almost every relative has had an opportunity to be with Grandma Johns and with each other.

That is God's good time.

We have had repeated opportunities for prayers of thanksgiving to God for the life and times that folks have shared with Lois.

That is God's good time.

We have prayed again and again that Jesus hold onto her and to all of us as he has promised to do in Holy Baptism.

That is God's right time.

All of these are the kinds of things that make this telos, the right time, God's good time.

And through the time of this past week of watching and praying, the more we come to realize that those activities do not need to stop with this gathering for a funeral service.

They can, and indeed should, continue day after day, year after year.

Again and again, it will be the right time --for remembering Lois,

--for naming her in prayer,

--for saying thank you to God for the gifts we have received because of her,

--for anticipating that the community of love she shared with family and friends finally will be made complete.

Those are all telos, right times, God's good time.

The more we meditate on this, the more positive we feel.

If it is Easter Sunday, we hear again of Jesus' resurrection and anticipate our own.

If it is a different day, it is still a day that the Lord has made as a reflection of that first Easter day.

If it is a day of great sadness such as today, we know that the sadness will not overwhelm us because of Jesus.

If it is a day when things are less than perfect, it will be a day when Jesus gives us what we need from his great store of strength.

We could dwell on the problems, such as Lois living 40 years alone after the death of her husband, or her deafness, or her independent nature which could also be so exasperating to others...

but those problems are overshadowed by the fellowship, the speech and song, and the community established and upheld by the Lord Jesus with us and with Lois.

Oh yes, each time, each day, is God's good time, the right time, significant time, made so by his wondrous love for Lois and for us. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.