Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

The Acceptable Time

2 Corinthians 6: 2

December 31, 2006

The Acceptable Time

"It's 7:00 A.M., It’s time to get up." "Boy, it's cold out here. I hope the bus is on time." "Have you ever noticed, Fred, that the closer you get to quitin^’time, the slower the clock runs?" "Will you hurry up? It's time we left. We're due at the Thompson’s in less than twenty minutes." "Mom, can I stay up and watch Saturday Night Live?" "No, Johnny, it's time you went to bed."

There is, perhaps, no time during the year that we pay more attention to time than on New Year's Eve. Thousands gather this evening in Times Square (where else?) in New York City while millions more watch on television as the Big Ball descends marking the exact moment when the old year ends and the new year begins. Eating and drinking and talking and laughing will cease in parties all over the nation as guests count down the last seconds of the old year and greet the new precisely at midnight with loud and raucous sounds. I can think of no moment in time that is given more attention by more people than the moment in time that marks the transition of years. In our Western culture, we are creatures of time and we pay it our homage never more grand than this evening.

For many time is a constant and therefore measurable and predictable. The earth circles the sun every 365 ¼ days. The earth rotates every twenty-four hours. And we have divided each of the hours into 60 minutes, and each of those minutes into 60 seconds. Time is measurable, constant, and predictable.

But to some theoretician scientists time is not constant but relative. Albert Einstein was one of those scientists and when questioned once on the relativity of time answered with this less than scientific explanation: "When a young man sits on a hot stove a minute seems like an hour. When a beautiful young lady sits on that same young man's lap an hour seems like a minute". Oh, yes, time can be constant and time can be relative.

Time may be measured by human beings dividing each day into hours, minutes and seconds. And time may be ordered by human beings developing a calendar of months and weeks. But time is given by God. In the creation story in Genesis it says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

It is in this gift of time that we live and breathe and work and play. In time governments rise and fall. In time war is waged and peace kept. Time is the arena in which we exhibit our best and worst – as individuals and as nations and as a species. All experience is met in the confines of God-given time.

But when the Bible speaks of time it more often than not has something special in mind. Time is more than the medium in which we live out our existence. Time is more than a convenience which humanity is privileged to measure and order for our use. Time, repeatedly in the Bible, is a favorable and decisive moment and those favorable and decisive moments are set by God. In Ecclesiastes 3:17 it says that God has appointed a time for every matter and for every work.

That kind of time is most clearly recognized when Jesus uses the word. Jesus' first words in the Gospel of Mark are, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Just hours before Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing that the decisive moment for his battle with sin on the cross was near, he says, "My time is at hand.” When Paul writes of Jesus' coming he writes of it coming at the right time: "But when the time had fully come God sent forth his son to redeem those who were under the law." (Gal. 4:4) And again in Romans 5:6: "...at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

We are familiar with this use of the word "time" and use it this way often, and it only needs pointing out to illustrate that. How many of us have been admonished, "There is a time to work and there is a time to play." That has less to do with clock time than it does with the prevailing circumstances. So also one worker might be counseled by a co-worker, "I don't think now is the time to ask for a raise." Again, that has less to do with what time it is than whether the conditions are favorable.

There was a "right time", a favorable and decisive moment, for God to grant us his grace in Jesus. There is also, according to St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 6, a right time for us to receive that grace. Paul writes, "Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'At the acceptable time I have listened to you and helped you on the day of salvation. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. In this moment, as we are most conscious of the passing of time, it is well to be reminded that every moment is God’s moment, is a moment for receiving God's grace.

The New Year is a popular time for making resolutions, pledges of improved behavior, everything from losing weight to being a better parent. Those who keep those resolutions discover that it isn't good enough to make that resolution once New Year's morning. Resolutions successfully kept are those repeated every morning. Whether it is eating less and exercising more, or being more patient with your children or more attentive to your spouse, past promises do not equal present performance. The New Year’s resolution fails everyday we do not renew it. So also, having received God's grace yesterday, or anticipating God's grace coming tomorrow has little significance if we do recognize and receive God's grace today.

It has been said that yesterday is a cancelled check and that tomorrow is a promissory note but that only today is cash in hand. In similar fashion God's grace yesterday is a cancelled check and his promise of grace tomorrow a promissory note, but only grace received today is cash in hand. This, of course, is not cash in the literal sense, but rather blessings of salvation today that are beyond any monetary measure.

God's love and care are given daily and are to be received daily. Martin Luther, in his Small Catechism, connected Baptism with daily receiving salvation: “Baptism signifies that the old person in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned through daily sorrow for sin and repentance, and that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” That new person that is raised day after day is a timely gift of God's grace.

My prayer for you is that every day in 2007 you might wake to these words: "Behold, today is the acceptable time; behold, today is the day of salvation." Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.