1/5/64

Scripture: Luke 4: 1-15.

Text: Luke 4: 5; “.. and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time...”

Haven’t you heard a little child plead for “just a few more minutes” at play before being sent off to bed? Or perhaps it is the couple who want the orchestra to play “just one more dance” before the party ends. It suggests to our minds a kind of “stalling” against the march of time. Usually, the child should be going to bed in order to get the rest that is necessary for a healthy body. And even the gayest of parties must come to an end. For one must be ready for another day. And it is probably more fun to look ahead to the next party if the last one ended full of fun rather than wore to a weary halt. Nonetheless it is an arresting possibility that those few minutes before bedtime could become the highlight of the child’s day. And the last dance could be something memorable filled with exquisite joy. This is worth considering at the beginning of a new year.

Minutes are a symbol of the rapidity of life. The pace seems slow when you think of the years --- especially if you are a child, very impatient to be grown up; or a youth, anxious to get along with some cherished accomplishment. But when you think in terms of seconds or of minutes, you have an accelerated sense of the swiftness of time. Minutes may symbolize the generosity of life. When you hear someone say, easily and glibly, “I don’t have time,” you may suppose that he is overworked. This is not necessarily the case. Sometimes it means not so much that he is overworked, as undermanaged in the use of his time. From sunrise of one day until sunrise of another day, each one of us has 1,440 minutes of time to use. That is a generous allotment, provided the minutes are intelligently accepted and arranged, and employed with appropriate industry. The minutes symbolize the generosity of life.

Further, minutes may symbolize the relativity of living. They are like distance, which is relative, according to our ability to reason. Recently, one of our church members went to Alaska to make her home there with her Air Force husband. One short generation ago, Alaska was at least two weeks distant from Wisconsin, whether by land and sea, or entirely overland. Now that same distance is measured in a few hours of travel time by air. And the telephone nearly erases the distance!

Great happiness, or exultant joy, can pack the hours together until they seem like minutes; while extreme suffering may stretch the minutes out until they seem like hours. The use which we make of the time which is impartially allotted to us is significant in the light of life’s rapidity, generosity and relativity.

Perhaps you recall a remark which is credited to the Duke of Wellington when he was analyzing certain victories which the British had scored over the French. Someone credited the successes to British bravery. The Duke immediately qualified that assumption by saying, “British soldiers are not braver than French soldiers; they are only brave for 5 minutes longer.”

Whether or not one debates the merit of the Duke’s estimate, his comment does point to a principle of action that often determines the difference between success or failure; that is, the ability to hold out, and keep persistent, for five minutes longer. But suppose that we do have “five minutes longer” --- (1) five minutes of life at its ending; or (2) five minutes before the music stops and the lights go out; or (3) five minutes more in the laboratory or the study. Are those minutes or hours necessarily good, or precious of themselves? Only an exceptional importance can really justify the parent in letting the child stay up five more minutes, lest Dad or Mother be a party to robbing something that is essential to the child’s health in the form of refreshing and rebuilding sleep.

A man named Ezra, returning from captivity and entering the Holy City, Jerusalem, was appalled at the careless compromise of others who had returned earlier, only to fall into the heathen ways of the neighbors to Judah. Ezra cries out: “And now for a little moment, grace has been showed from the Lord our God.” [Ezra 9:8]. But this prophet goes on to point out that his people are not doing what will show their appreciation of God’s grace. While they have a priceless opportunity for recovery, and rebuilding, before some new enemy might come to destroy them, they are tossing it away in careless neglect! Five more minutes, or a whole new year, will have merit for us only in the use which we make of that time.

A common saying, that many of us may remember from childhood, is that “procrastination is the thief of time.” Some of us have a letter that should be written. But each day finds it put off a little longer. Someone has a debt to pay, or a friendly call to make, or a book to read. But it isn’t done just yet. Some of us have a dedication to make to Jesus Christ, but we keep putting it off a little longer.

There is an account given of an English prince who usually put things off. When he became an army captain in charge of troops in the Sudan, he had to deal with some rebellious and fanatical tribesmen. One day, while he was at breakfast, a courier rushed in to tell him that the dangerous native tribesmen were approaching to attack, and that his own troops needed to be moved to a better position. “O, wait a few minutes,” he remarked. “We’ll have to finish breakfast.” But the breakfast was never finished. The tribesmen did attack, in less than 10 minutes, and the whole company was wiped out. When the news reached England, the captain’s mother shook her head in sorrow. “I know exactly what happened,” she said. “He waited 10 minutes.”

The benefits of time are not for the procrastinator. But they do accrue to the person who will persevere in good effort. To the one who will be “brave for five minutes longer,” time becomes precious beyond price. In resistance to wrong, a moment more becomes precious. The moment for dedication becomes a priceless bit of time. The Scripture lesson this morning was read from Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world “in a moment of time.” It was as though, in that moment, Jesus could see the possible conquest of all those nations, and had to decide whether or not to attempt it. Wouldn’t his end and aim justify such a means? He meant good for the whole world. What splendid good could be accomplished by a beneficent ruler after he had conquered the nations! But in almost the same moment, Jesus rejected the very thought of using that kind of power for his aims. He summed up his idea of goodness in a quotation from his Bible: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.”

This may very well be the moment for your decision; for your dedication; for your resolution to join the church; for your volunteering for service to youth, or helping with the children, or singing in a choir, or leading an adult class, or helping a scout unit, or working on a church finance committee, or helping with a building committee, or inviting someone else into the church fellowship. Time is precious for decision and dedication.

Time is also precious for assurance. We waste much of it in fretting and anxiety. Jesus had the word of confidence for us when he said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and all these other things, about which you become anxious, will fall into their place. [Matthew 6: 33].

A hospital visitor asked a patient how long he would have to remain in bed. And the patient had a good answer when he said, “Only one day -- at a time.”

When it comes to anxieties, it is a good idea to live a day at a time. There is assurance in it.

Time is precious for progress. David Livingstone was sent out by the London Missionary Society to Africa. He said to the Society’s directors that he was at their disposal “to go anywhere, provided it be forward.” It was his natural trait to go ahead. A man who knew him from his youth said of Livingstone: “I remember his step, the characteristic forward tread, firm, simple, resolute, neither fast nor slow, no hurry, and no dawdle, but which evidently meant getting there.”

Sometimes we practically break the speed limit getting nowhere. A good use of the five minutes we have, or of the whole new year ahead, is to get somewhere with it. Even a small task that fits into a plan of progress, becomes worthy. Are you helping the church to go forward this year? Will your methods, your policies, your plans for it advance the cause of Christ in lives near and far? Will you set your life to what leads forward?

In the spirit of venture and dedication, may your new year, 1964, lived one day at a time (366 of them) be the finest and best yet! And let each succeeding minute be splendidly Christ’s moment.

Amen.

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(Some of this material was used from sermon of 1-5-58)

Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, January 5, 1964. (communion Sunday)

Also at Imiola Church, January 4, 1970.

Also at Waioli Hiu’ia Church, December 31, 1971.