The Rev. Mark Moline
Sunday July 26th, 2009
Title: “The Time of Your Life”
In my sermon just a few weeks back, I quoted Christ from the 5th chapter of John’s Gospel, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” I am confident that even as a young boy, Jesus saw God miraculously turning water into wine, so he – in turn – launched his earthly ministry by doing the same at that wedding in Cana of Galilee. As a teenager, even I saw God performing that very same miracle – with my own eyes. And before you begin to think I’m losing my mind, let me explain that at that time I was living in Linden, California and from our house – on a clear day – I could see the snow on the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and then during the spring/summer thaw I saw that water gushing down off those mountains and pushing back the banks of the diverting canals that criss-crossed the central valley. I saw the growers around Lodi irrigating their vineyards with that water. Then I saw, and even worked in the harvest as we cut ripe grapes bursting with juice; water on its way to becoming wine. Then later as I would pass the wineries, I could smell the water-turned-grape-juice turning into wine. Ventnor’s don’t manufacture wine. Like the servants at the wedding they assist God. Mary told the wedding servants “Do whatever he tells you.” She knew more than others that God provides the creation, the power and the time; God does all the work.
Creation, power and time. In today’s Gospel reading we have the miracle of the feeding of the multitude from five barley loaves and two fish, and we are reminded that God is also about the business of feeding hungry people; providing nourishment, sustenance and life. Now, just give me two fish, assuming one is a boy fish and the other a girl fish, and the barley grain it took to make those five loaves, and give me an Iowa farm with a nice sized pond and most importantly — give me enough time – maybe a couple of years or more, and I too will feed five thousand people from those original two fish & that handful of barley grain. That’s nature. That’s God’s miracle that surrounds us that we so often just take for granted. Jesus simply does in five minutes what it usually years for God to do. You see it’s all about time, or more specifically about power over time. You and I have no power over time. But God is bigger than the down-to-earth concept of time he created for us. Christ, as God incarnate has and uses that power.
In John’s Gospel he is quoted as saying, “Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” He didn’t say that he was before Abraham. He said I am (present tense) before Abraham was (past tense). He comes not from history, even though he became a part of human history, he comes from a dimension above time. He comes to us from the eternal now; eternity in the present tense.
Our Gospel lesson also cites the miracle of Christ walking on the water. Now there’s a flamboyant little attention-grabbing stunt that stretches our faith and our imaginations. Why would he do something so seemingly sleight-of-hand or slight of feet in this case? Why would he perform a miracle like that? What purpose did that serve? Who did that help?
Well, let’s get into God’s time machine we call Holy Scripture and go back to the very beginning of “time” – back to the genesis. “And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee was not the first time God had walked on water. God was moving across the face of the waters before time existed, but that is past and because the concept of “the past” is part of our concept of time, even in his incarnate form he was still the master of time. “Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were travelling.” What Hollywood pop culture might call a time warp is just God being God.
I told you we dare not separate the members of the trinity. The Son, that humble and gentle man named Jesus, our friend has the power to do as the Father does – the power to work miracles, the power to move across the face of the waters — the power to transcend time.
His power over time is awesome. It is astonishing. His disciples were terrified to see God moving across the face of the waters, but Jesus said to them – as Jesus says to us today, “It is I – do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid of time and/or the ravages of time. The master of time is with us.
Peter Gomes, the Chaplain at Harvard, preaches about miracles and declares, “The question to be put about a miracle is ‘What does this say?’ At its essence a miracle is a message – an illustration or a demonstration of a message that God chooses to communicate to us. A miracle is God’s extraordinary message in the midst of the ordinary,….”
During the Wednesday evening Bible Study we asked the Gomes question about the miraculous feeding of the multitude. What does this miracle say to us today? We believe it speaks to us of power, and the group found great contrast between our Old Testament reading about King David’s horrible abuse of power, and the Gospel reading about Christ’s right use of power over time for nurturing, healing, delivering, freeing and loving. God uses power for life. All too often, like King David, humankind uses power for death, deceit, oppression and intimidation.
As an absolute monarch in that day and age and culture, King David had power over the life and death of his subjects. As such, he had Uriah killed. He had the power to do that; He did not have power over time. Jesus sent the twelve out with the admonition not to fear “those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Our body is in subjection to time; our soul is not. In his book, “The Eternal Now, theologian Paul Tillich writes, “We speak of time in three ways or modes – the past, the present and the future. Every child is aware of them, but no wise person has ever penetrated their mystery. We become aware of them when we hear a voice telling us, “You will come to an end.” Our awareness of time begins with the anxious anticipation of the end.”
I agree, but with faith in an eternal God who exercises power over time, we hope in Christ to actually survive time. In fact, through faith, through prayer, through His word, through the Sacraments, through Christ — I think we already have one foot in that eternal now.
Tillich also writes, “There is one power that surpasses the all consuming power of time – that is the eternal. He who was and is, and is to come, the beginning and the end. He gives us forgiveness for what has passed. He gives us courage for what is to come. He gives us rest in his eternal presence.”
