Exhortation, First Advent

“What time is it?” This may seem a simple and straightforward question. We glance at our watches or at the clock on the wall and give an answer. In fact our answer to this question reveals a great deal about our worldview.

We often conceive of time as a commodity, some kind of stuff that can be “saved,” “wasted,” or “lost.” We calculate the passage of time in very precise ways, down to the nanosecond. Sometimes, we think of time as a prison – we feel trapped by our work schedules, and we have to submit to the airline schedule if we want to get to our destination. Above all, we think of time as “empty”; it has no qualities of its own; time is a dimensionless straight line, nothing but the regular beating of synchronized clocks.

For Christians, time is ultimately not a commodity that we can manipulate and control, nor a prison from which we need to escape. Time is a gift of God that we should receive with gladness and thanks. For Christians, time is not merely the thin rhythm of a beating clock; time is rhythm, but it is also melody and harmony, a polyphonic texture of interlocking melodies and harmonies, a fugue. For ancient Israel, time moved not only by the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, but with the weekly rhythm of work and rest; the monthly rhythm of new moon festivals; the annual rhythm of Passover, Pentecost, and Booths; and the larger rhythm of Sabbath years and the recurring years of Jubilee.

By observing the church calendar, we are attempting to recover a richer, more biblical sense of time. Celebrating Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter and Pentecost is a way of redeeming time. To celebrate Advent is to take a stand against the corrosion of modern life.

What time is it? Don’t merely think “10:30 AM, Sunday, November 27.” It is the Lord’s Day, the First Sunday of Advent, the new covenant, the time that follows and is filled by the resurrection of Jesus and the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit.