by Rev. Dr John Evans
Sermon for the 25th week of Pentecost, 26 Oct. 2008
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Matthew 22:34-46
Today I wish to reflect on time; the passing of time and more particularly our time today – our time in the present.
During the week I read yet another article on how the events of this last month (or was it this last week?) were the ‘end of an era’. Today’s reading from Deuteronomy is about the end of an era – the death of Moses – within sight of the promised land. We have journeyed with him, his birth, his call, Mt Sinai and the law, his stiff necked people and now his death. The psalm, ascribed in the psalter as a prayer of Moses, is about time and its passing –
Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to another.
you sweep us away like a dream; we fade away suddenly like the grass,
in the morning it is green and flourishes;
in the evening it is dried up and withered.
Time moves on; eras come and go; lives come and go. And time dominates our lives – what is it, Einstein’s fourth dimension? – it sits out there and measures and judges us. I am not saying just ‘the clock’ dominates us – we are always in a rush – but the philosophy of time, or science of time, even the theology of time rules our lives.
We live in an age in which we recognise that time is linear. There is a beginning of time – the passage of time – and well, the end of time. The past, the present and the future. This is the Judeao-Christian (and Islamic) understanding of time – which, I might add, has profoundly advanced western scientific thought. You might be surprised at all of this and think, ‘Time is time.’ Well, not so – other cultures, other religions have a different understandings. The main alternative is that time is circular – what goes around, comes around – reincarnation is part of such a different understanding of time. Astrology is also based on cycles of time. The stars and planets move in cycles – sometimes spanning hundreds and thousands of years, and the belief is that these patterns and cycles influence us and so our life moves in a certain cycle or rhythm. I have recently come to think economists have this cyclical view of time – their science is about how we move between one boom to the next bust and back again. Others do not believe in the past or the future – there is just the eternal present – they literally live like there is no tomorrow.
We however believe in a beginning, the passage of time, and the end of time – and God underpins all of this. Psalm 90 again:
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born
From age to age you are God (90:2)
For Hebrew people, for us, God is a God of history – God acts in history, in the passing of time. So with Moses – God brought the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, gave them the law, and brought them to the promised land. From the beginning of time – to when God will be all in all – this is history. A huge expanse of time – it is holy time.
The point I wish to make today is that we don’t handle the present very well.
When we first moved to Perth, the Church placed us in rental accommodation next to the West Leederville Primary School. On the first Sunday lunch, we sat down to eat and we could hear this clash of metal on metal – a strong metallic sound. It sounded as though there was something wrong with the house. We got up – did a quick scout through the house, couldn’t see anything wrong and sat down again. But there it was again. It was loud – and it was not a comforting sound. This time we went outside. Now we had quite a tall fence at the back – and we peered over it. We were gobsmacked – amazed – we could not believe our eyes. There were about 50 people, all dressed in medieval outfits – some were in chain mail, helmets, boots, shields and having sword fights with huge broad swords all ranging across the West Leederville Primary School yard. It was amazing! We found the source of our noise! There were damsels in long dresses, conical hats and flowing material from the point, there were court jesters, there were even several Friar Tuck look-alikes. Men and women, boys and girls all happily living in the past. So, we got to learn, that every Sunday these people gathered to live as if it was 1002 and not 2002.
Many of us in church, and not this church I should say, are Sunday by Sunday a bit like my former Sunday neighbours. They hang on to the things of the past, and expend all their energy making sure that things are done the way they have always been done – not because these practices have current significance, but that they are just old and they have always done them that way. (Thus says the man who gets dressed up in fancy clothes!)
Now at the other end of the spectrum we have an ever increasing number of people who cannot abide the reality of this world, and now they live in a virtual world, a virtual universe even. Through electronic games, or particular chat rooms on the internet, they are not actually themselves, and they live out some huge fantasy. I am not personally aware of all this – but I always am amazed at the huge economy that exists around these electronic games. Apparently there is more money to be made in the games that spin off a movie, than the actual movie itself. For many of our fellow citizens – there is a whole virtual world out there in the ether.
I come back to my central point that we can find it difficult in living in the present – we have become disoriented by the rapidity of change. We seem to be ending an era, every week. With the ever-increasing scientific and technological powers available to us we are becoming god-like – as we ponder this rapid passage of time. Psalm 90 evocatively says of God: God, you sweep us away like a dream; we fade away suddenly like the grass. The technological changes we can bring about means the ways we knew and understood fade and wither very quickly – just like the grass we see in this drought-stricken city.
We are unsure as to how to live in the only reality we actually have this morning – and that is the present.
Through this first year of the lectionary cycle we have been reminded about the message of Jesus – especially as presented earlier in the year in the Gospel of John. That message was simple about life – abundant life, the fullness of life now. Remember how we looked at the stories and encounters of Jesus in John’s gospel with the text: “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that through believing you may have life in his name”.
We wish to have life in his name. Jesus appealed to the past – he was of the house and lineage of David, he offered hope for the future; but he dealt with the present reality . . . ‘believe in me’ was his challenge.
From our gospel reading today Jesus was asked the famous trick question, what was the most important commandment within the law? And I think we know the answer:
To love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, strength and mind. And the second is like it: Love others as much as you love yourself.
Here was summarised all the teaching of the past, for life in the present. Here was the simple guide – live a spiritual life, live a life of love – now! When Jesus is challenged earlier in his ministry about “who is my neighbour?” and in Luke the famous story of the good Samaritan is told, Jesus told the lawyer who asked the question, “Go and do likewise now”.
This teaching of Jesus is very focused on the present. For us today, Jesus is not saying, do what I have done in the past. If you like, you do not have to get dressed up as a first century Palestinian Christians to have life – like my loveable former neighbours in Perth; or his message is not ‘Endure the present turmoil the best you can; bunker down, withdraw, for the coming reign of God will surely come. The meaning of life is only somewhere out there in the future.’ It is true God is out there in the future too, but Jesus is saying live now with all your heart, mind and soul in the knowledge and present of the love of God; and love others.
Now I want to say that embracing these simple principles does not necessarily lead to instant pleasure, rewards and recognition.
At a personal level there can be barren times. In preparing for this service I came across an old sermon in which I was reflecting on a severe moment of crisis, or more particularly lament, in my own life. Again it related to 2002 – when Emily and I were in Perth, and Jean was with Kate in Sydney as she finished high school there. A difficult time to just be a family, but also it came as a stark reminder to me that time moves rapidly, changes come at breakneck speed, and then . . . nothing changes. Kate in 2002 was planning what university course she would do – and she wanted the to change the world (as I sincerely hope many, most high school leavers still wish to do, despite the press they have received during the week). And it hit me. Hit me hard. This was exactly the same thing I had hoped to do a generation or so before as I set off from rural NSW to go to ANU to study law in Canberra. And I had failed, my generation, the wonderful, nothing-can-stop-us generation of baby-boomers, had failed. And now my daughter, well daughters, want to address the failings of the previous generation. Our neighbours are not just those who happen to be living with us at this time – they are future generations too, do we love them, as we love ourselves? Next Sunday will be All Saints Sunday – we will remember the love of those who have gone before, who love us today, as they loved themselves.
And all of this I believe is extremely relevant to us as a congregation. How are we today, in this rather perplexing, but good, God-given world and fundamentally good times of ours, able to love God and our neighbours as ourselves? How can we be true to the saints who have gone before us here, and be today, and in the future, a church which loves God and serves our neighbours as ourselves?
We have been endeavouring to discern this, this year. Though prosaically called planning days, endless papers from the minister, meetings and deliberations of various councils, there are now dreams and hopes the Church Council feels we can share with the congregation. In your Bulletin today you have some of those foundational thoughts about these matters. There is planned a special congregational meeting on Sunday 16th November at which we hope to be able to look at specific ideas and plans for next year and the future.
As Psalm 90 finishes, this too would be our prayer:
Show your servants your works
And your splendour to their children
May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us;
Prosper the work of our hands;
Prosper our handiwork.
