Bilbo
and the Riddle
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Colossians 4:2-6
Grace Presbyterian Church
January 19, 2014
Rev. Dr. Richard E. Miller
The
Hobbit Riddle
On December 11th, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” appeared in the
theaters. It was part two of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J. R. R.
Tolkien’s 1937 book, “The Hobbit.” In part one, Bilbo and Gollum have a
contest of riddles which, as all you know, was a popular game among Hobbits.
Gollum asked Bilbo to solve this one. “This
thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites
steel, grinds hard stones to meal. Slays king, ruins town, and beats high
mountain down.” What is it? The answer is Time.
In
this first month of the new year, it seemed timely to me to share some thoughts
about time. After all, the New Year celebrations are long gone. The lighted
ball in Times Square has fallen. Auld lang syne has been sung many times. The
firecrackers have been set off. Tin pans have been beaten. Roast pork and
sauerkraut have been eaten. And we have stopped saying, “Happy New Year” to
everyone we have met.
And
now we have entered 2014. Probably nothing reminds us of the passing of time as
much as saying “Happy New Year,” or “Happy Birthday.” In each case, something
changes, either the year or our age.
Time
is Relative As we all know, time is quite
elastic. It lengthens itself when we are standing in a long line at the
grocery, or it shortens itself when we are on vacation. As Albert Einstein put
it: “When a young man sits on a hot
stove, a minute seems like an hour. When a beautiful young lady sits on
that same young man’s lap, an hour seems like a minute.” And someone said
that time was Nature’s way of making sure everything didn’t happen at the same
time.
When
we were young, new years and birthdays were welcome for it means we were
growing up and were able to do things we could not do before. As the years went
by, we rejoiced when we were able to
stay up later, when we became a teenager, had our first date, or obtained our
first driver’s license. Time was our ally. We had time for everything in the
world.
Time
is Precious However, as many of you know, as
we grew older the years seem to fly by faster than ever before. Several times a
week someone will comment on how quickly time seems to fly. Do any of you
remember what happened on January 6, 2013? That was the Sunday of my first
sermon in this pulpit. A full year has sped by. And of course, I know you all
remember my sermon on Haystacks and Stars, right?
Not
only does time seem to move more and more quickly, time also becomes more and
more precious. One day it dawns on us that we have lived more years on earth
than we have left to live.
Living
in time In light of how quickly time passes, and how precious time
is, the question I ask this morning is “How
are you going to use the time you have left here on earth?” In our
morning scripture, Paul encourages us to use the time we have on earth in two
ways.
First,
he says that we should devote time to prayer with thanksgiving and pray that we
can find opportunities to tell others about Christ. He makes no mention of
spending our time watching television or surfing the web. He fails to mention
going to movies or New Year’s Eve parties. What he does say is that in the
midst of whatever we are doing each day, we should find a quiet place and pray.
And those times of prayer should be filled with expressions of thanksgiving for
God’s blessings. In addition, we should pray that God would present us
opportunities to tell others about Christ.
Second,
Paul says that we should “Conduct
yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your
speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you
ought to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6) Gracious speech means courteous
speech.
Speech
seasoned with salt means to speak with spiritual understanding. Making the most
of the time means to redeem each moment in a way that glorifies God. It means
using each moment in a way that enriches our lives and the lives of those around
us.
One
person made this observation: “There are
fathers waiting until other obligations are less demanding to become acquainted
with their sons. There are mothers who sincerely plan to be more attentive to
their daughters. There are husbands and wives who intend to be more
understanding. But time in itself does not draw people closer. When in the
world are we going to begin to live as if we understood that this is life? This
is our time, our day, and it is passing. What are we waiting for?” [Richard
L. Evans]
Barbara
Bush said, “At the end of your life, you will never regret not having
passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more
deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a
parent.”
And
Nelson Mandela once said, “We must use
time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
In
Ecclesiastes we heard that “For
everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time
to be born, and a time to die;
a time to weep, and a time
to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time
to dance;
a time to embrace, and a time to
refrain from embracing;
a time to keep silence, and a time to
speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”
That’s
the way life is, isn’t it? We were born and one day we shall die. In between
these two times are moments of laughter and joy and dancing interspersed with
moments of mourning, crying and tears. And we never know for sure which is just
around the corner.
This
morning I offer an additional thought - that of seeing all of creation with a
new sensitivity and awareness. It’s almost experiencing life as we did as
children. Perhaps what I’m suggesting can best be explained by the following
story:
It
is the story of a high school teacher whose husband died very suddenly of a
heart attack. A few weeks following the funeral, she said the following to her
students.
“Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and
give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end. It
can be taken away at any moment. Perhaps, this is God's way of telling us that
we must make the most out of every single day. I would like you all to make me
a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find
something beautiful to notice. It doesn't have to be something you see, it
could be a scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's
house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in
the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls
gently to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish them. For,
although it may sound trite to some, these things are the 'stuff' of life. The
little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for
granted. We must make it important to notice them, for at anytime it can all be
taken away. For as we get older, is not the things we did that we often regret,
but the things we didn't do.
“Take
Time to be Holy”
William Longstaff wrote the words to to this hymn. He
was neither a pastor nor a songwriter. He was an English businessman and
a Christian layman who took his faith seriously.
Hearing a
sermon on the text, "Be ye holy, for I am holy," Longstaff was
inspired to write a poem, "Take Time to Be Holy." Some years
later, George C. Stebbins put the poem to music. Since it is always easy to
sing a hymn without really hearing what the words are saying, I’d like you all
to open your hymnals to page 441. We will read aloud in unison the first
stanza. The second by only the women. The third will be just the men. And the
fourth in unison again. As we do this,
try to apply the words to your life and to the way you will spend your time on
earth.
UNISON Take time
to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are
weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.
WOMEN Take time to
be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with
Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou
shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His
likeness shall see.
MEN Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever
betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow
the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust
in His Word.
UNISON Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath
His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains
of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for
service above.
Remember, life is not measured by the number of
breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Amen.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NRSV
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NRSV
For everything there is a season, and a time for every
matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is
planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather
stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from
embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Colossians 4:2-6 NRSV
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with
thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a
door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in
prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.
Conduct yourselves wisely towards outsiders, making
the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too
long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who
love, time is eternity.
It
has been said that “Waste of wealth is
sometimes retrieved, waste of health, seldom; but waste of time, never.”
Or,
as the old country song proclaims, “Old
pappy time is a’ picking my pocket.”
Today
it is possible to measure time in microseconds (a millionth of a second),
nanoseconds (a billionth of a second), picosecond (a trillionth of a second),
or even femtoseconds (a thousandth of a picosecond). A femtosecond is so
short that there are more femtoseconds in one second than there are seconds in
the past 31 million years. Few of us here this morning worry about anything
less accurate than a minute. If we ask three people for the time, we likely
will receive three different answers.
Bible If
we turn to our Bible, we find that it starts out, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis
1:1) This truly is the beginning of time as we know it, for it was then that
the earth and sun were created. And our concept of time depends solely upon the
revolution of the earth around the sun. However, God does not keep time n the
same way we do because he existed long before he created the sun and the earth.
It is believed that for God, all of time is in the present. The psalmist said
of God, “A thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm
90:4)
John
writes that in the life to come, “Night
shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be
their light..” (Revelation 22:5) In essence, time stands still
in heaven.
What
exactly is time ? One person
wryly noted that “Time is nature’s way
of keeping everything from happening all at once.”
Keeping
track of time has always been important In Europe 500 years ago, preachers set an
hour glass on the pulpit when they were ready to preach. It took about
thirty minutes for the sand to flow to the bottom. I suppose that if the
preacher wasn’t finished, he could simply turn the hour glass over again.
The
most precise time is measured in a laboratory in Boulder, Colorado where the
National Institute of Standards and Technology operates an atomic
clock. It is accurate to within one second in 300,000 years.
Turn
Around Many of you remember the
song, Turn Around. “Where are you going my little one, little one, Where are you going my
baby my own? Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four, Turn
around and you're a young girl going out of the door. Where are you going, my
little one, little one? Dirndls and petticoats, where have you gone? Turn
around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown, Turn around and you're a
young wife, with babes of your own.”
Luke
and New Year’s Eve You know what I did ten years ago
on New Year’s Eve? I spent six hours with my eight year old grandson, Luke. We
played games, watched Andy Griffith videos, ate chocolate chip cookies, which I
had made, and at midnight, we ran outside and banged pots and pans together.
Not only were we having a great time, Luke was storing that night with his Papa
in the memories of his soul. Not only will he remember that night, but he will
tell his children about it many years from now.
Now,
ten years later, Luke is 18. Do you know
what I did with him on New Year’s Eve? Nothing. I didn’t even see him. He went
out with his girl friend on a date. I was not invited to go along and
rightfully so. Our time together ten years ago could never be repeated. In
other words, in life we must seize the moment or its gone forever. Carpe Diem.
Don’t delay spending quality time with your loved ones today, for the
opportunity won’t come around again.
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