Whose Time Do You Have?: Sermon Romans 13:11-14

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept you Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so that we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We have many valuable things in our world. Gold is worth about $800 an ounce, silver about $14 an ounce, and platinum about $1450 an ounce. We have our cars that are worth around $20-30,000 dollars, houses that are worth $100,000 or more, and not to mention the thousands of dollars we spend on gadgets, gizmos, and clothes. We are lucky in America to have many valuable things. However, the most precious thing that we have is time. Time is the world’s most precious commodity. It is priceless in our society. No one can make any more. We cannot dig more up from the ground or create it in a lab. We cannot horde it or control it. Time works independent of human influence. The clock keeps on ticking despite what we might do. People live and die by the tick of the clock. We have our days divided and scheduled down to the minute. We have our calendars, our PDAs, our cell phones, and computer programs that help us keep track of our time. Even our kids now days have their own schedules. “I got to play at the sandbox until 4 and then I have soccer until 6 and then I have to chase the dog around the yard at 8.” Some could say that our society worships the clock. How many times do you check your watch a day? How many times do you check it during one of my sermons? Time is money and money equals happiness, right? If we mange our time well then we will be happy. This is what society teaches us.

In our lesson this morning Paul warns against bring lulled to sleep by the repetitiveness of the daily grind. The church in Rome had many things to distract their attention in those days just like we do today. Paul urges the Romans to know what time it is. The idea is not so much what time but whose time. Like many words in translated from the Greek the word time has different meanings and different words in the Greek. Time can mean chronos which means the ticking of the clock. This is the time that we follow everyday. It is the seconds, minutes, and hours that pass by day after day. We follow this time almost as a religion. Our time system is based on mathematics, geography, and astronomy. One hour is the time it takes the earth to rotate 15º on its axis. 15 times 24 equal 360 or one revolution of the earth or one day. A year is the time it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. Time has been based on astronomical signs since the ancient times. It is of human origin. A day, an hour, a minute are human measurements. Chronos is quantitative in nature meaning that its value is based on its measurements or quantity.

This is not the meaning of time when Paul uses it in verse 11. Time in this instance translates from the word kairos. Kairos is altogether different. Kairos is divine time or God’s time when taken in Paul’s context. Kairos is qualitative in nature meaning its worth is based on the quality of its use and not on the amount. Kairos roughly translates into “an opportune moment”. Kairos is the way God sees time not in minutes, hours, or days, but in opportunities, in opportune moments. Let me tell you a story to illustrate. I may have told this story before, if I have please indulge me. I was at the emergency room at Hillside Hospital with my friend’s dad. He was having non-emergency blood work done, but the lab is next to the emergency room. As I was sitting there waiting on him to get through a woman was there waiting for emergency treatment. She was right next to me and she was crying. Something within me said, “talk to her” be an ambassador of God to her. I wanted to so badly, but my shyness prevented me from doing this and just as I had gathered up the nerve she was called back. My moment of kairos had come and gone without me taking advantage of it.

Knowing what time it is, in this case, means seeing time as moments to be seized for God and God’s purposes and not just as the ticking of the clock. As Christians we are called to see time not in as chronos but as kairos. We have to be responsible in God’s time and know God’s purposes which are revealed in Christ. These purposes include the greatest commandment which is to love God and love your neighbor. This is what God’s purposes boil down to. As we said last week, do all the good you can. However, it also means to be wary of those things that distract us from God’s time.

The problem in waiting on God is that we are so wrapped up in chronos, the ticking of the clock, that we grow impatient for the kairos or those Godly moments. We grow impatient waiting for the return of Christ that we become distracted by the world around us. What are we waiting for? We are waiting for our salvation. This might sound shocking to some of us. We are waiting for salvation. The popular term in American Christianity is “saved” in the past tense, as if the event as already occurred. However, look at what Paul says in verse 11 “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers” this language indicates a future event of salvation. None of us are saved yet, the event has not taken place. This does not mean that our salvation is not assured through Christ it is, salvation is imminent, but it has not occurred and so we still wait for that moment.

So as we wait for salvation we are faced with false means of salvation that are offered to us. The Church in Rome faced the same problems. The imperial machine offered their own form of salvation through loyalty to the emperor. The Church had to choose which lord they would serve, Caesar or Christ. Our own empire is not led by emperors but by corporations vying for our dollars. In our society today, many people have packaged salvation as a commodity, sometime to be bought and sold. Our society offers many of these false means of salvation. They come in pill bottles, in liquor stores, in shopping malls, and at Wal-Mart. We can be lulled to spiritual sleepiness by the constant bombardment of advertisements and enticements. We can let our guard down.

Paul calls the Church of Rome to wake up and understand what is going on around them. He tells them to be aware of the darkness around them and to embrace the armor of the light. Advent is a time to ask ourselves, who is Lord of our life? Whom do we serve? Do we serve the Caesar of corporation or do we serve Christ? Are we using our time to serve God and God’s purposes or are we wasting our time serving the idols of modern society?

Now let me pause for a moment. Am I saying that you should not buy Christmas presents for your family? No. Am I saying that you should boycott Wal-Mart or Macy’s or shopping malls in general? No. What I am saying is this, we should be aware of how our money is being spent. We need to understand where our money goes and how our buying and spending habits affect other people and the environment. I am saying that we should support corporations and business that are responsible to the environment and to other people.

Advent is about taking the kairos and putting it into the chronos. Meaning that our time, the ticking of the clock should be used responsibly and for God’s purposes and we must be aware for those moments of opportunity when they come by. We have to make every minute, hour, and day work for God’s kingdom. That is what Jesus meant when he said to seek first the kingdom of God. This is what we do as the Church of Jesus Christ. We must know what time it is and whose time we’re on.

We are God’s people living in a godless world which means that we must stay sharp and alert. We must be wary of seemingly benign temptations that come our way. We cannot be lulled to spiritual sleepiness by the distractions of this world. We have to wake up to the responsibilities of being God’s people. This Advent season let us not sleep walk through the world. But let us wake up to the darkness around us and let us put on the armor of light. Let us keep God’s time on our mind.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.