Time...

Mark 13:1-8

Last week we heard a story about a woman who took her last penny and gave it to God. This week, I’ve been thinking about what we do with our time. In particular, I’m thinking about a question that gets asked all kinds of ways: “If you had one day left to live, how would you spend it?” Think about it for a moment…really think. What would you spend that last 24 hours doing? Would you spend it with the people you love the most? Would you enjoy your last day with family and friends? Would you do something crazy? Steal a car? Rob a bank? Something crazier? Would you spend that last day enjoying your favorite location on earth? Would you drive to the mountains, head to the beach and sit by the ocean, walk through the streets of your favorite city? Would you tell someone something you’ve been meaning to say, but haven’t found the time or words yet? What would you say? “I’m sorry”? “I love you.”? “I really can’t stand you”? Would you, instead, be paralyzed by fear? Would you stay at home and sit and wait and worry? What would you do if you knew you only had one day left to live?

Of course, we have no idea when our last day will come or what we will do with it. But think about it for just a minute.

Essentially, this is what Jesus’ disciples are concerned about. It’s what Peter, Andrew, James, and John are thinking about as they sit on the Mount of Olives with Jesus. Really, who could blame them for thinking about it? Just a few minutes earlier, as they were all heading out of the Temple, one of them happened to mention how impressive the whole structure was-“Look at these stones, they’re huge! Look at these buildings, they’re bigger than anything I’ve ever seen!” Then, instead of agreeing, Jesus told them with a less-than-casual tone in his voice that one day the whole thing would be reduced to a pile of rubble.

Once they’re safely across the way, sitting up on the Mount, they ask Jesus a question like the one I began with this morning. “When will this happen? How will we know?” If we were there that day, we would probably ask the same kind of thing.

I wonder if this same kind of thing was on Paul’s mind when he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. In fact, I think what he writes in 10:24-25 makes a pretty good answer to questions about what to do with the time we have left-whether it’s one day or a hundred years, I think they make good sense:

“Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” -Hebrews 10:24-25 (MSG)

If you know that the time you have left is limited, then Paul says: encourage love, help out, make time to gather together, and in all of it go above and beyond-be inventive-do it all in ways that the world has never seen before.

This verse becomes even more important when the things that Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for start to happen. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars… When people try to get you to compromise on your beliefs… When there is conflict… When there are earthquakes… When there are people without enough to eat…

You know what? All of those things are happening right now… War, conflict, messages that compete for our attention, natural disasters, hunger… So Paul’s words are important for us today. They were happening back then, too, when Paul wrote those words. They’ve been happening since nearly the beginning of time.

So what do you do when you know that the time you’ve got is limited? I’ll bet Jesus was aware of this question every day of his life. I’ll bet it never drifted too far from his thoughts. I’ll bet he lived with it throughout nearly every moment. I’ll bet he thought about it during those last twenty four hours of his life. From sitting at the table sharing a meals with his best friends to praying in the garden for strength in those final hours. From being arrested and hauled off, to being raised on the cross. I’ll bet he thought about how he had spent his life especially in those last moments as friends scattered while others stayed…as people mocked while others couldn’t bear to look. I’ll bet he thought about it a lot at the very end.

I wonder how Jesus thought about his time on earth on the other side of the cross. When the stone was rolled away and the sun streamed in? When his friends stood in disbelief at his living, breathing body?

Time is precious when you know you don’t have a lot of it. Time may be even more precious when you find some you didn’t know you had, or even better when you get some you thought you’d never live to see.

I think, in essence, this is what Jesus’ message on the Mount of Olives is about. Live your life while you have the time to live it. Be the person God created you to be while you can. Find time for what’s really important when you have the time.

If you’ve got ten minutes, twenty four hours, or twenty four years, then you’ve got time. Time to invent something new. A new person to reach out to. A new friend to make. A new chapter to open in an old relationship. A new message to share with the world. A new stone to turn over. Until that day when everything is new…remember what Jesus did for you and what Paul told you, and live lives that let the people around you know that you’re making the most of your time and they can too.