CHRISTIANITY 101: TIME IN A BOTTLE
Many years ago, an American missionary in China found it necessary to leave his family for an extended period of time. Fearful his youngest daughter would not understand, he placed in his pocket a rare treat in that part of China – a shiny, red apple – to give to her as he boarded the train. Today he would likely have given her an iPad equipped with Skype so they could communicate face-to-face, but that was not an option a hundred years ago. So he brought an apple.
Finally, the moment for his departure came. He embraced his wife and each of his older children in turn. Then it came time to say goodbye to his youngest daughter. Picking her up in his arms, he placed the apple in her hands. He hoped the gift would soften the impact of his leaving. Instead, when he boarded the train and looked back, he saw the apple slip from her hands and roll across the platform. Tears streaming down her face, she ran beside the train and cried, “Daddy! I don’t want what you give! I want you!”
Perhaps the most important commodity we have to give is our time. Perhaps the most important commodity we possess is our time. Yet time cannot be saved, it can only be spent. And we are the ones who control exactly how our time is spent. Keep that thought in mind as we move on.
Last week we worked hard to establish the premise that maybe Jesus Christ did not go to the cross primarily to do for us wretched sinners what we could not do for ourselves. Maybe Jesus Christ went to the cross primarily because he loved us enough to want something better for us. What Christ wants for us is eternal life in heaven, and a transformed life on earth. The question thus becomes, “Are we grateful enough to want that for ourselves?”
We postulated that our spiritual lives are shaped by three basic things: our narratives, our practices, and our communities. Our narratives frame our understanding of God and of ourselves. Our practices are the things we do on a regular basis that help to form who we are. Our communities are the places we go where we are surrounded by – and influenced by – other people…for better or for worse.
We worked hard over the course of the last few months to establish new narratives about God. We determined that God is good, God is trustworthy, God is generous, God is love, God is holy, God is self-sacrificing, and God transforms. Yet in order for us to truly be transformed, we need to examine our spiritual practices and our communities, as well. Today we begin the process of examining our spiritual practices. Our spiritual practices – or disciplines – place us before God so that God can transform us. Yet before we get to that, we need to wrestle with something else. We need to wrestle first…with how we spend our time.
Never before in the history of the world have a people enjoyed so many technological marvels designed to save them time. From indoor plumbing, to refrigeration, to the automobile, to the computer, to the cell phone…theoretically we have the world at our fingertips and the potential for more leisure time than ever before. Yet today in America, the average parent spends more time answering e-mails than they do with their children. Apparently something has gone dreadfully wrong.
Several weeks ago, my wife and I were having dinner at Applebees. After we finished our meal and paid our bill, we began to walk out of the restaurant. There, in the booth behind us, sat a young couple, who were probably in their late twenties, and their two small children. While the children ate, both parents’ meals were sitting on the table…only about half finished. We noticed that both mother and father had their heads down, looking at their cell phones, madly typing out text messages. I kid you not! There they were – sitting in the midst of their family – maintaining communication with someone else. While we may indeed have the world at our fingertips, it’s almost as if we have lost the ability to communicate face-to-face. We have lost the capacity for intimacy. Can you hear me now?
My twenty-year-old daughter tells me that she and her friends have come up with a way to combat this problem. Let’s say six of them go out to dinner. What everyone has to do is place their cell phone in the middle of the table. If anyone picks up their cell phone during dinner, they have to pay for everyone’s meal. That’s one way to create face-to-face communication!
In a book called Margin, author Richard Swenson notes that in 1967, a group of futurists told a Senate subcommittee that by 1985 – thanks to modern technological advances – Americans would be working but twenty-two hours a week for twenty-seven weeks a year. The average worker would retire by the age of thirty-eight. They predicted that we might have too much time on our hands. Yet the reality is that – since 1973 – leisure time in America has actually decreased by 37 percent. How did that happen?
Modern technology certainly does reduce the time we have to spend on certain tasks. Thanks to the microwave oven, one can bake a potato in a fraction of the time it would take to use a conventional oven. Rewriting a school paper on a computer is much quicker than it used to be when we had to use typewriters. E-mail allows us to contact friends and family all across the country in a matter of seconds, whereas conventional “snail mail” would take days.
So where did all of this predicted leisure time go? We use it on other things. Our modern technological advances have raised the expectations of what we can accomplish, so what we do is book more into our schedules. We increase our workload to keep up with – or to get ahead of – other people. And if we fail to raise the bar, we will fall behind, be less productive, and thus feel less important.
In a single lifetime, the average American spends six months sitting at traffic lights, eight months opening junk mail, one year searching through desk clutter, two years trying to call people who are not in, three years in meetings, and five years waiting in line. In a single day the average American will commute forty-five minutes to work, be interrupted seventy-three times, receive six hundred advertising messages, and watch four hours of television. And what do we have to show for all this increased productivity? We have greater health problems, unbearable stress, and less time for the most important things in life.
When we get too busy, there are three basic things that we tend to drop from our schedules. And, believe it or not, they typically fall in this particular order. The things busy people drop from their schedules are: 1) Time with God – things like worship and prayer; 2) Time for self-care – things like diet and exercise; and finally, number 3) Investment in important relationships. We spend less time with family and friends.
Near the end of 2008, right about the time when our nation’s economy tanked, worship attendance and stewardship in this church decreased dramatically. It happened in a lot of other churches all across the country as well, but we were determined to find out why. Was it a problem with the church? Was it a problem with the minister? Was it a problem with the Presbyterian faith in general? We were determined to get to the root of the problem.
We formed what we called The Church Revitalization Task Force. One of the things we did was visit all those people in the congregation whose attendance patterns had changed over the course of a couple of years. One person said, “The minister doesn’t preach from the Bible enough.” Another person said, “The minister preaches from the Bible too much.” There wasn’t a whole lot we could do to resolve that particular problem. In general, however, what we found was that people’s priorities had changed. In other words, they were busy with other things. Like I said, when we get too busy we tend to drop important things from our schedules. And the first thing we tend to drop…is time with God.
In the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke, Jesus and his disciples were welcomed into the home of a woman named Martha. Now Martha had a sister named Mary. She also had a brother named Lazarus, who is not mentioned here. In any case, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him teach, while Martha scurried about the house. It is not easy to get ready for thirteen guests, and Martha had a lot to do. As she cleans up the front room, I can almost hear her cry, “Lazarus! Must you always leave your tunic in a pile on the floor?” As she begins to prepare the evening meal, I can almost hear her say, “Mary, I could use a little help in the kitchen!”
Martha was busy making ready for her guests, but was getting no help from her siblings. Finally, she raised her concerns to Jesus. “Lord,” she said, “do you not care that my sister has left me to do all of the work by myself?” To which Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. One thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Now the fact of the matter is: Who would have cleaned the house, if not for Martha? Who would have prepared the evening meal, if not for Martha? You see, this is not a matter of choosing the right thing or the wrong thing. This is a matter of choosing the greater thing or the lesser thing. And therein lies the difficulty for us, as well.
Most of us do not need to eliminate bad things from our lives in order to find balance. Instead, we must choose between multiple good activities. We simply do not have the time to do all that we might like to do. When we add too many things to our lives, something has to be eliminated. Unfortunately, busy people often rid themselves of the most important things: Time with God, time for self-care, and investment in important relationships.
All too often we suffer from what Dr. James Bryan Smith calls “hurry sickness.” Hurry is an inward condition that comes from a feeling of a lack of time. Hurry is not merely acting quickly; it is an inward condition that comes about when we over-commit. As Carl Jung once said, “Hurry is not of the Devil; hurry is the Devil.” The point is that we will never achieve spiritual growth – we will never encounter a transformed life – as long as we suffer from hurry sickness.
What we really need to do is slow down a little bit and learn to see what’s really going on all around us. We need to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Dr. James Bryan Smith describes just such a thing in his book, The Good and Beautiful God. He writes:
One day, in the midst of my efforts to slow down and become present to God, I decided to take an afternoon to try to live deliberately. It was an unseasonably warm mid-February day, so I sat in an Adirondack chair in my back yard. Of course, the leaves had long ago fallen, but one bushy tree stood out. Normally, I would not have paid much attention to this tree, and given the time of year, I would not have spent more than a few minutes in the back yard. But there I was, and the tree had my full attention.
After a few minutes, I noticed something strange about this tree in addition to its leaves: it had lots of tiny grape-like berries. I began to wonder why it was so full of berries at this time of year. Because I had been in and out of prayer all afternoon, I turned my attention to God and asked, “God, why is this tree so full of berries?” Right on cue, a little bird the size of a finch, flew to the tree, skewered a berry, and flew to a nearby bush where it began to dine. The Spirit whispered, “That is why the tree is full of berries.”
It was as if the Sermon on the Mount was being preached in my own back yard. “Look at the birds of the air, how they neither sow nor reap, but are fed by their Father in heaven,” Jesus said. But the sermon was not over. The Spirit then led me to consider just how many berries were on that tree. There were thousands. And then I was led to consider how small those little birds were – so small they could fit in the palm of my hand. The point was that God has provided for them more than they will ever need. The application is that when we live in harmony with God, we have access to more than we will ever need, as well.
As The Rev. Dr. Robin A. Myers once wrote in his book, Morning Sun on a White Piano, “In every waking hour a sacred theater is in session, played out before an audience that is largely blind.” That audience is largely blind…because it doesn’t take the time to pay attention.
Singer/songwriter Jim Croce once wrote: “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do…is to save every day – ‘til eternity passes away – just to spend them with you.” It’s a wonderful sentiment, but like I said at the very beginning of this sermon, time cannot be saved…it can only be spent. But it can be spent more wisely.
What we need to do is learn to prioritize. What we need to do is learn to create margins in our lives. What we need to do is learn to live deliberately. Then – and only then – will we be ready to begin the process of trying to live a transformed life. Amen.
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