One of our favourite books as a family is Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, which has of course been made into 3 long feature films. In a poignant moment in the book, the little Hobbit Frodo complains: 'I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.' To which the wise wizard Gandalf replies: 'So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.' Stirring words: All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Perhaps we may feel we are not very good at deciding how to use our time. Certainly, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all that needs to be done and I am not sure I always use my time in the best way. Many of us may feel this particularly acutely at the moment during these Covid times. We may indeed wish none of this had happened, but so do all who live to see such times. We have no control over that, but we can decide what to do with the time that is given us.
Deciding what to do with our time is a theme in all our readings today.
In our gospel reading we heard the parable of the talents. This one of a series of parables which Jesus uses in the context of teaching about the end times and the coming of the Son of Man, his term for himself. There was an expectation in these early days of the church that this would take place very soon and so the question of how to live in the meantime was very urgent. We may not think much about the end times, or the return of Christ, but all of us nevertheless live in the in between times, in between Jesus' first coming as a little baby and his second coming as the glorious Lord. How do we live in these times? In these parables, Jesus stresses the need both to keep awake and alert and to be faithful with the resources, including the time, we have been given.
In the parable we have just heard, the master who is going away gives different amounts of talents to his servants. The word 'talent' did not originally refer to our natural endowments and gifts, which is how we use the word in English; rather a talent was a large unit of money. But the point of the parable is to highlight that whether the servants have received one, five or ten talents the master has entrusted a great deal to all of them for them to use in his service. So this picture speaks to us of all that God has given us to use in his service. This refers not just to money, but to all our gifts, resources and opportunities, including our time.
Jesus first describes two servants who, during the time the master has been away, have made the best use of their talents; all the gifts, opportunities and responsibilities they have been given. But Jesus characterizes most interestingly the third servant, the one who doesn't use his time or resources well. 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.' We are drawn into the heart and mind of this unproductive servant, who is overwhelmed by the tasks set before him, paralyzed by anxiety, and wastes his time, doing nothing. He wastes the gifts and opportunities he is given, doubtless jealous and resentful as he sees the other servants so busy and fruiftul; he fears that he can only fail, so he does nothing. Perhaps we might recognise ourselves in this servant. Sometimes we can waste our time, paralysed by anxiety and jealous of the gifts and the success of others.
Our reading from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians also concerns the use of time, though here the emphasis is more on our attitude than our actions. The Thessalonians are urged to keep awake and to live in the light. They are to be spiritually alert and open to God's presence rather than lulled to sleep by the preoccupations and distractions of the world around them. They need to put on faith and love, and to seek always to live for Christ. The emphasis here is not so much on 'doing' as on 'being'. They are to be spiritually awake and to encourage one another and build one another up.
Using our time well involves faithful work and service, using all our gifts, opportunities, and money, in the most effective way, as the servants are urged to do in the parable. But it does not mean frenzied activity, or busyness for the sake of it. To use our time well we need to see our time as a gift from God and to be open to God's grace in the midst of that time. For some of us that will involve a demanding job, seeking wisdom in the constant juggling of our use of time. Others among us may have a lot of free time and indeed feel we have so much time that we are bored, or lonely or depressed. But we are all called to live with spiritual alertness and with openness to God. And to encourage one another and build one another up; even if we feel we cannot do much we can pray, send messages, or make phone calls. Whatever our stage of life or situation, we can make space to pray, to reflect on God's word and to be open to his Spirit so that all our time may be fruitful in Gods sight.
Our time can be redeemed as we are drawn by grace into God's time. Our OT reading this morning from Psalm 90 is a reflection on this.
At first glance the Psalm seems rather depressing. The psalmist seems to rub our noses in our mortality and sinfulness. In the light of eternity, in the light of God, we are like grass, here today, withered away tomorrow. We may or may not be granted a long life, by normal human standards, but, even if we are, all our years are 'but labour and sorrow, for they pass away quickly and we are gone'. And it is not just that we are transient, flimsy beings, but that we are also sinful: 'Our iniquities you have set before you, and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.' But out of this awareness of sin, frustration, and futility, the psalmist cries out: 'So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.'
O God, my life is short, and I so often make a mess of it. Redeem my time. I cannot redeem it myself. I cannot myself impose meaning on this life of mine, but you, O God, take what is left of it, and in your grace infuse it with your wisdom.
Our life may be short and we may often make a mess of the short time we are given. We might think of the memorable words from Shakespeare's Richard II: 'I wasted time and now doth time waste me.' But, our lives are not in fact brief and meaningless, for the meaning of our brief lives is found in God. The eternal God is our dwelling place, the psalmist says in verse 1. Our lives are tied up with the majestic and eternal God, and he is our ultimate home. That eternal perspective can give hope, meaning and purpose to our lives in the here and now.
As the Psalm concludes we move from dust and ashes to grace and peace: 'Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.' Unlike the servant in the parable who has a negative view of his master as a harsh and demanding man who would not tolerate his failures, and this paralyzes him, the psalmist knows God's steadfast love and forgiveness. Grace is always available.
Only by God's grace can our time be redeemed; only God's grace can set our life on a new foundation in which we are set free from anxiety and jealousy, and holy living and fruitful work becomes possible, because we are happy to be and do what God has set before us. Even when we fail, our failures have been taken up and forgiven by God; so we do not have to be paralyzed by the fear of further failure, and we can pray, in the Psalm's final verse: 'May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork.' Through the grace of God, our lives and our work, our being and our doing, can be fruitful.
Our lives may seem short, small and insignificant in comparison with Gods eternity, but God's grace is with us in the concreteness of our ordinary daily lives. Our little lives matter to God, indeed they matter so much that he came to share that frail, short human life with us in his Son Jesus Christ. We look back to the first coming of Christ, the Word made flesh, God among us, and we look ahead to his coming again in glory when our dwelling place will be with him forever. Meanwhile, we live in the in between times, with all its joys and frustrations, anxieties, struggles and failures. Let us pray that in this time, through all the days of our life, be it long or short, we will live spiritually alert to God's grace and open to his Spirit, praying for a wise heart that we might use our time well.
Revd Helen Marshall