“It’s Time . . .”
Rev. Barry W. Szymanski, J.D.
Minister of Pastoral Care
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
February 12, 2012

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL

The passage from Mark’s Gospel, which is to be read today, is about Jesus curing a man suffering from leprosy, which, as you know, is a disease affecting the skin; in severe cases, it causes a loss of bodily sensation and disfigurement. Even 2,000 years ago people realized that leprosy is transmitted following close personal contact. For these reasons, lepers were shunned – and forbidden contact with the general population. In fact, it was unlawful for a leper to approach a regular person. Therefore the leper took a risk when he approached Jesus. The leper believed in Jesus. He knew that Jesus could heal him. He did not question Jesus’ miraculous powers – but he did question whether Jesus would have compassion on him. When you hear this passage, picture the other people around Jesus and the leper when the leper came close to Jesus. And see Jesus touching the man and his sores of leprosy! After the cure, Jesus told the man not to tell others - other than the priests – what happened – the reason that Jesus did this is that he did not want to be know simply as a miracle worker -- Jesus knew His task was as the Messiah – the Christ.

THE GOSPEL

A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But the leper went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

SERMON

As we look toward Lent, we must remember that we are a resurrection people! This is how Christians are different from other religions – our faith, our hope, our love, God’s word, the experience of early Christians, and the experience of Christian witnesses for 2,000 years all tell us that Jesus was raised from the dead. While Thomas did not believe until he saw and touched the risen Christ, we can, with God’s grace, believe because of him and his witness.

Their Christian faith has caused people to sacrifice their lives, their time, their gifts, and their talents to further Jesus’ body on this earth. When Jesus walked this earth he, as a devout Jew, intimately knew the books of the Hebrew Testament. He knew the Book of Ecclesiastes. He prayed the Psalms. He understood the Torah. He knew of the Prophetic Books. He grasped the wisdom books. As Jesus grew up he learned from his parents, and from the Rabbi’s, and the Scribes, and from life itself, but also from the Book of Ecclesiastes and the passage, which was read today.

This passage states that God appoints a time for everything and also for every occurrence, which happens on this earth. These teachings were part of Jesus’ early education. Time is so simple and yet so complex. Time only goes in one direction – forward. There is a time to be born and a time to die. Of course. Simple. Yet time is elastic. People deeply in love experience time differently from others – especially when separated from each other. Then each moment away from the other person seems like an eternity. And isn’t that an interesting use of the concept of time – eternity.

Often we speak of time as ‘standing still. We say, ‘time drags.’ If we take a trip we look forward to, say the Wisconsin Dells, it takes a ‘long time’ to get there, yet when we return to go home, it often seems that the time ‘seems to go faster.’ Why is it that the coming and going on a trip seem to last so differently in time? The time before Christmas seems to stretch out – especially for a young person. And for me, now that I am older, the years between Christmases get shorter and shorter. Doesn’t it seem that Thanksgiving and Christmas were just weeks ago? Time is of God’s creation. God has no ‘time.’

In one of the early centuries of the church Augustine stated that time is the unfolding of God’s plan for the world. In the Gospels, Jesus often stated that ‘it was not yet his time.’ Is time on our side? We can debate that question. However, time is always on God’s side. For us, time is a non-renewable resource. And when time is ‘well spent’, it is a glory to God. And when time is wasted, it is gone forever.

Time was also described by a great philosopher and humorist who had great insight, Will Rogers, who said “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life tying to save.” So, right bow, in time, we are spending time an hour in God’s unfolding plan to worship Him. This time is special time. It is sacred time. We are in a place devoted and made sacred especially for this hour. But our time is even more special. For we are a congregation which is continually rebuilding itself And this takes time — in time!

During this time of transformation – which must always be ongoing – it is, as the author of Ecclesiastes would say, a time to greet, hug, welcome and accept. It is a time to speak, to encourage, to inspire, and to reassure. It is a time to rejoice and be glad and be happy. As a resurrection people, we are a joyous people. We share our lifetime with the resurrected Jesus. Jesus spent 30 years of his lifetime in preparation for public ministry. He then lived three years in public ministry. We are spending our time, right now, worshiping our God, and seeking grace for our ministries.

Within our time on earth we rejoice, we love, we are patient – or, at times, impatient. We make decisions. Some of our decisions in life we regret; some we think were good. But regardless, we live with the decisions we make during our lifetime – because time is irreversible. We all live with the decisions we have made throughout the years. As a congregation, we live with all of the decisions that we, as a church, have made for 170 years. We have had many major decisions – when to build the first church, when to build the second, when to build this Nave. This Nave was dedicated as sacred space decades ago. But your time spent there continues to rededicate this sacred space Sunday after Sunday.

God knows we love and serve him. You and I, for example, can sit on a couch and tell our spouse how much we love them; or sit on a couch and tell our children we love them. We can even sit on a couch and tell God we love him. But the proof of our love is in doing. The proof is standing up, and getting off of the couch and being with our spouse and with our children. Continually rebuilding a church is the same. Getting off of the couch and being with our spouse and our children.

Just as the church members from over a century started, when they remade this congregational again, we do the same. They did what we are now doing: --Stretching ourselves economically, --Stretching our personalities, --Stretching our time. The proof is in the doing. The author of Ecclesiastes would have to agree that what better use of time than to continue to transform God’s congregation?

We have so many choices in this world – more so than ever before. For example, we can shop at Target / Marshall Fields / Boston Store / Sears / various malls / or on TV or online on the Internet. We choose who we love. We select the things we possess. We determine what we believe. We decide where we place our hopes. So did the leper in today’s Gospel. He chose Jesus and pursued him! The leper knew that once Jesus was close at hand, it was for him, a time to be healed.

This is for us a time to rejoice, a time to be gathered and a time to embrace. This is a strong congregation that is built upon the faith of all who have gone before us, and all those here now. Is it a time to rejoice? You bet! Is it a time to be glad? You bet! Is it a time to be happy? You bet!

In life, there is time to plant, to plan, to reap, to construct, to be together, to celebrate together, to experience together, to worship together. We know that this world will pass – our personal experience tells us that. As Christians, we know that God is eternal, and our faith tells us what comes next.

Our basic decision, our fundamental decision, our fundamental life choice Is to conform ourselves to knowing God’s plan in time, to living God’s plan in time, and loving God and his people throughout eternity. Worship becomes a very special time for us with God. And, like the leper before us, for each of us to seek out Jesus.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians at Chapter 1 [:6] “Be confident of this one thing, that God who has begun a good work in you will carry it to completion . . .” Let us not have a concept of ‘lost time.’ Let us pray for the grace to have ‘found time’, quality time with God, quality time with our families, quality time with friends, quality time with God’s people. Let us pray for the grace to use God’s created time well for it will never return.

A man by the name of Theophrastus, who was born 300 years before Jesus, said: “Time is the most valuable thing a person can spend.” Carl Sandburg wrote that:

“Time is the coin of your life.
It is the only coin you have,
and only you can determine
how it will be spent.
Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

Do not underestimate God’s sometimes furtive, mostly quiet, often unobtrusive, and occasionally surreptitious ways of getting what God wants! I look to my life and how God tricked me into seminary. I would never have made a conscious decision to enter seminary. This summer I will begin my 7th year of service as an ordained minister – that thought – and the six years are amazing to me.

Sue and I just celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. Sue and I can’t believe we are grandparents. I want to make this statement again: Do not underestimate God’s sometimes furtive, mostly quiet, often unobtrusive, and occasionally surreptitious ways of getting what God wants!

In all of history there has been tension. Tension means being alive. The Hebrew Testament is full of tension. The Gospels are bursting with tension. The Letters of Paul and James and John and Jude are complete with tension. The Book of Revelation is teeming with the tension of the world it addresses. And what does that mean? Tension means that GOD IS ALIVE!

If we don’t see a baby for two months, but then see it – and it has not grown, we think illness, we look for disease. We are each different than we were just some TIME ago. Time moves forward. With the faith of the leper, and in time, God’s Will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now is the time to pray for the grace to realize that if we approach Jesus, he will be there for us. We know what the leper did not, that we who believe in Jesus are a resurrection people! Amen.