December 2, 2007
Rev. Terry D. Campbell

Prepared for Christmas: 1. Time
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’— ²before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; ³when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; ⁴when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; ⁵when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. ⁶Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, ⁷and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

How can you live this Christmas season, so that when its over, you can say—“I may be tired, but that was a blessing this year. I’m glad we had this holiday season. I will do something like that next year—or even regularly in the coming year.”

We say that time goes so fast—and that it gets hectic around Christmas—that we don’t have time to breathe. We go a mile a minute trying to get everything done! How much of what we do around the holiday season is necessary? Are we guilty of succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent and ignoring the important? What would happen if you were to prioritize your activities and then diligently work off of THAT list?

Confront time’s Tension.

What is time? A non-scientific, but user-friendly, generic answer could be that time is life . . . with limitation (in this world). When I’m dead, time in this world will cease for me. Life without limitation is eternity in God’s presence in heaven. Our text talks about us having experiences like when time has passed and: “³when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop”; “and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.” The silver cord, golden bowl, pitcher, and wheel symbolize life’s fragility and limitation. Remember your creator in the days of your youth—think about tomorrow today, while there is time to do something about it. When tomorrow is gone—it will be too late.

In this world, we must learn to work within limitations to be able to experience a positive and meaningful life. We are stuck with a perpetual frustration of not being able to do everything. In this world I must choose which things I will do: what I want to do versus what I can do; what I ought to do versus what I desire to do.

How sad and helpless are the words “I should have . . . ” or “I wish I had of . . .” To prepare for Christmas we must confront time’s Tension.

Time forces Initiation of my current values.

Because we are limited by time, our actions are based on my values at the moment. Like it or not, our actions reveal what we are thinking, believing, our values at the moment.

Because Ebenezer Scrooge’s priority was money he gave no thought to anything else, including other people. The actions and his attitude he initiated each day revealed his values. When his values changed, so did the actions and attitudes he initiated.

What will your actions this Christmas say about your relationship to God? How can you make getting closer to God a priority this Christmas? Now is the time to decide—to confront time’s Tension and Initiate a change. Will you be too busy or otherwise involved to sense God in your life? Or will you find the wisdom, strength and joy of experiencing God—even in the mist of the holiday season? Will you daily pray, “I, too, am now an incarnation of Your Spirit. Show me today what You want me to do.”

What will your actions this Christmas say about your valuing of other people? What do you need to do to reach out to your spouse? our your children? to reach out to friends? or is God calling you to help someone in need? Maybe to be a special blessing to children in general?

And You—how will you feed your spiritual being this year? Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as we love our selves.” What do you need to include in your activities this season so that you take care of yourself and won’t spiritually starve? “What good is it to gain the whole world and yet lose your own soul?” Or, in revised Campbell version, “What good will it be to gain the perfect Christmas if in the process you lose you own soul?”

What does God want you to be sure to do for YOU this season? How about regular attendance at worship, listening to a special song with spiritual meaning, re-reading the Christmas story each day from the King James Bible or a variety of other translations to keep focused on and thinking about what God has done. Now is the time to decide to take better charge of Christmas time.

Time use needs Meditation.

I can’t run around going from urgent thing to urgent thing to urgent thing—or I will miss the important things. The urgent has a way of trying to drown out the important.

Let prayer help keep you from the tyranny of the urgent. Evaluation in God’s presence of what I have done, should have done and choose to do in the future is crucial. God has priorities. Confess past failure and seek God’s help for future successfully honoring and serving God.

Time results in the Expression of my life.

Whatever you decide, these are the expression of your life—your choice of the use of your time here.

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.

What will you do now?

May God help us prepare for Christmas by our wise understanding and use of time. Amen.