Taking Advantage Of The Opportunity
Sermon
Living Between the Advents
Preaching Advent in Year B
Object:
Different people have differing perspectives on time. At no time of year is that more evident than at this one. Our little ones think that Christmas will never arrive. The rest of us think that last Christmas just happened a couple of months ago.
Differing perspectives on time are not restricted to the holiday season, though. I learned recently of an organization called the Long Now Foundation. The foundation encourages us to think with a much longer-term perspective than we usually do. According to their information:
It has been nearly 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age and the emergence of modern civilization. Progress during that time was often measured on a "faster/cheaper" scale. The Long Now Foundation seeks to promote "slower/better" thinking and to focus our collective creativity on the next 10,000 years.
The roots of the foundation lie in the idea of a computer scientist named Daniel Hillis. In 1993, he wrote:
When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. Now, thirty years later, they still talk about what will happen by the year 2000. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of the millennium. I would like to propose a large ... mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.1
I will avoid the obvious joke about the cuckoos that come out every millennium. What did catch my attention was the way in which this group takes a long-term view of history. They are actually symbolizing their view by constructing just such a millennial clock. "This world has a long time ahead of it," they seem to be saying. "Let's take a long-term view and get ready for the next ten thousand years."
Contrast with the viewpoint of the Long Now Foundation that of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a viewpoint symbolized by another, decidedly different kind of clock. Since 1947, the cover of the Bulletin has featured the Doomsday Clock. This clock symbolizes how close, in the estimation of atomic scientists, our world is to a nuclear catastrophe. With midnight standing for the time such a catastrophe would take place, the clock has for the last fifty years stood somewhere between seventeen and three minutes to midnight. The first clock stood at seven minutes to midnight. The closest to midnight it was ever moved was in 1953, just after both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted successful hydrogen bomb tests. The scientists set the clock at two minutes to midnight. As recently as 1984, during an intensifying arms race, the clock was set at three minutes to midnight. The last time the clock was adjusted was in 2002, when it was set at seven minutes to midnight.2
Do you see the difference in the two perspectives? One perspective says, "We have thousands of years of history left, so let's take full advantage of the opportunity." The other perspective says, "We may have little time left, so let's do something about it." Either perspective, when taken seriously, should spur us on to action.
Peter offered his original readers and us a perspective that is a combination of the long-term and the short-term view. On the one hand he said, "With the Lord one day is like a thousand years" (3:8). On the other hand he said, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief" (3:10), that is, suddenly and unexpectedly. In light of both realities, Peter said, there is incentive to act. There is tremendous opportunity in these days, just as there was tremendous opportunity in Peter's day. We have the opportunity to repent and the opportunity to grow.
The Opportunity To Repent
We are inclined to misinterpret delay. If something needs to be done and a person takes a long while to do it, we interpret that as procrastination or as laziness, and that may be. On the other hand, it may be that the person has a very good reason for the delay. Planning may need to be done. Further maturity may be in order for the group or person to be targeted by the action. Or, if some judgment needs to be passed or some punishment needs to be inflicted and the person responsible for meting out the judgment does not do so quickly, we might interpret that delay as weakness. The fact may be that an opportunity for change is being provided.
Already in the first century, people were wondering what was taking God so long to send Jesus back. Scoffers were saying that the world had been around for a long time and would certainly continue; there was no evidence that it would come to an end. Peter responded that the Lord had destroyed the world once by water and would do so again by fire (vv. 3-7).
Moreover, Peter reminded his readers that the Lord's time frame is not our time frame. A thousand years and a day, a day and 1,000 years -- it's all the same to God. We are bound by and to the clock and the calendar; God is not. Therefore, to try to restrict God to our view of time, to our notion of what is a long time or a short time, is to try to limit God, and that is always inappropriate.
Most importantly, the delay by God in sending Jesus is not a sign of slowness or inability or inattention. No, the delay by God is a matter of grace. It is a matter of forbearance. It is a matter of patience. "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance" (v. 9). The time that the Lord has granted to our world has stretched on for another 2,000 years. The time that the Lord has given you has stretched on now for however long your life has been. If you have not accepted him as your Savior, you still have the opportunity to repent.
Sometimes we have to live a long time and go through a lot before we are in a position truly to understand and accept God's grace. Perhaps the world has to get to a very low point before some of us will ever see the need to repent. Or, maybe your personal life has to deteriorate to a certain point before you will see the need to repent. It certainly does not have to be that way, but even if things get worse as time goes by, the time that goes by is a sign of God's grace and patience. Philip Yancey tells this story:
When Bill Moyers filmed a television special on the hymn "Amazing Grace," his camera followed Johnny Cash into the bowels of a maximum-security prison. "What does this song mean to you?" Cash asked the prisoners after singing the hymn. One man serving time for attempted murder replied, "I'd been a deacon, a churchman, but I never knew what grace was until I ended up in a place like this."3
"I never knew what grace was until I ended up in a place like this." What kind of place are you in? Are you finally in the place where you are ready to know what grace is? Are you in a place where you are finally ready to repent?
Some of the scariest words I ever hear people say are "I'll get my life right with God when I'm ready." Yes, God is patient. God is forbearing, but time is not unlimited. Remember, the same God for whom 1,000 years is as a day is also the God whose Son will come like a thief in the night. You have the opportunity the repent now. What will you do with it? As the hymn challenges us:
While we pray and while we plead, While you see your soul's deep need,
While our Father calls you home, Will you not, my brother, come?
You have wandered far away; Do not risk another day;
Do not turn from God your face, But today accept His grace.
Why not now? Why not now? Why not come to Jesus now?
Why not now? Why not now? Why not come to Jesus now?4
Now is the time of salvation for you. Why not come to him now? John the Baptist challenged his listeners to get ready for the coming of the Messiah by repenting of their sins. The challenge is the same for us, except that we repent because the Messiah has come and because he is coming again.
The Opportunity To Grow
Once you repent there is still a long way to go. Many of us repented and became Christians, long ago or recently. Whether you have been a Christian for decades or whether you become a Christian today, you still have a lot of growing to do. When we trust Jesus as Savior we also acknowledge him as Lord of our lives. His lingering, his delay in returning, gives all of us a tremendous opportunity to grow in our relationship with him. When he comes, don't we want him to find us to be people who have grown and matured in ways that will please him?
Peter reminds us that we are to be becoming disciples who live "lives of holiness and godliness" (v. 11), so that we will "be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish" (v. 14). What does it mean to be holy and godly, without spot or blemish? There is a moral connotation here. Our lives are being molded by God to be more and more like Jesus. We are not to let the world dictate what kinds of lives we live. Cleansed by the blood of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit of God, we are being shaped into people who bear witness with our lives to who God is. We are not saved by works; we are saved only by the grace of God that we experience through faith. We are not doomed or even crippled in our discipleship when we sin after we are saved. But, the fact is that if you have a real encounter with the living God through his crucified and resurrected Son, Jesus Christ, you will be changed. Some of that change will be instantaneous. Much of that change will happen over a long period of time, but where God works change takes place, and it is change for the better. We want to use what time we have left bearing witness to Christ with our lives and doing things that build up rather than tear down. Morality does matter.
But being holy and godly without spot or blemish is not just about morals; it is also about service. This kind of language is typically used in the Bible to describe people and things that are set aside for use in service to God. As we grow in our relationship with God, we realize that while we are saved from our sin, we are also saved to serve. When our Christian faith really takes hold of us, when we are seized by the reality of all that Christ has done for us, we become people who give of ourselves in service to God. How do we serve God? By serving others. Is there lots of time left before Christ returns? If so, that is good -- it gives us lots of time to grow in service. Is there only a little time left? If so, that is good -- it gives us incentive to do all that we can while we have the opportunity.
Conclusion
We are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. That makes us people with a long-term perspective who are ready for whatever happens in the short term. We assume that we have 10,000 years to work and to serve and we are always looking forward. Yet we know that Christ could return in the next second and we want to be found fulfilling our calling. Either way, now is the only time we have. Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to repent. If you are a Christian but you have not been taking full advantage of the time that has been given to you, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to commit yourself to fuller service.
__________
1. All information and quotes about the Foundation are drawn from their website,.
2. All information about the Doomsday Clock is drawn from the website of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,.
3. Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), p. 179.
4. Daniel W. Whittle, "Why Not Now?" in public domain.
Differing perspectives on time are not restricted to the holiday season, though. I learned recently of an organization called the Long Now Foundation. The foundation encourages us to think with a much longer-term perspective than we usually do. According to their information:
It has been nearly 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age and the emergence of modern civilization. Progress during that time was often measured on a "faster/cheaper" scale. The Long Now Foundation seeks to promote "slower/better" thinking and to focus our collective creativity on the next 10,000 years.
The roots of the foundation lie in the idea of a computer scientist named Daniel Hillis. In 1993, he wrote:
When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. Now, thirty years later, they still talk about what will happen by the year 2000. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of the millennium. I would like to propose a large ... mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.1
I will avoid the obvious joke about the cuckoos that come out every millennium. What did catch my attention was the way in which this group takes a long-term view of history. They are actually symbolizing their view by constructing just such a millennial clock. "This world has a long time ahead of it," they seem to be saying. "Let's take a long-term view and get ready for the next ten thousand years."
Contrast with the viewpoint of the Long Now Foundation that of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a viewpoint symbolized by another, decidedly different kind of clock. Since 1947, the cover of the Bulletin has featured the Doomsday Clock. This clock symbolizes how close, in the estimation of atomic scientists, our world is to a nuclear catastrophe. With midnight standing for the time such a catastrophe would take place, the clock has for the last fifty years stood somewhere between seventeen and three minutes to midnight. The first clock stood at seven minutes to midnight. The closest to midnight it was ever moved was in 1953, just after both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted successful hydrogen bomb tests. The scientists set the clock at two minutes to midnight. As recently as 1984, during an intensifying arms race, the clock was set at three minutes to midnight. The last time the clock was adjusted was in 2002, when it was set at seven minutes to midnight.2
Do you see the difference in the two perspectives? One perspective says, "We have thousands of years of history left, so let's take full advantage of the opportunity." The other perspective says, "We may have little time left, so let's do something about it." Either perspective, when taken seriously, should spur us on to action.
Peter offered his original readers and us a perspective that is a combination of the long-term and the short-term view. On the one hand he said, "With the Lord one day is like a thousand years" (3:8). On the other hand he said, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief" (3:10), that is, suddenly and unexpectedly. In light of both realities, Peter said, there is incentive to act. There is tremendous opportunity in these days, just as there was tremendous opportunity in Peter's day. We have the opportunity to repent and the opportunity to grow.
The Opportunity To Repent
We are inclined to misinterpret delay. If something needs to be done and a person takes a long while to do it, we interpret that as procrastination or as laziness, and that may be. On the other hand, it may be that the person has a very good reason for the delay. Planning may need to be done. Further maturity may be in order for the group or person to be targeted by the action. Or, if some judgment needs to be passed or some punishment needs to be inflicted and the person responsible for meting out the judgment does not do so quickly, we might interpret that delay as weakness. The fact may be that an opportunity for change is being provided.
Already in the first century, people were wondering what was taking God so long to send Jesus back. Scoffers were saying that the world had been around for a long time and would certainly continue; there was no evidence that it would come to an end. Peter responded that the Lord had destroyed the world once by water and would do so again by fire (vv. 3-7).
Moreover, Peter reminded his readers that the Lord's time frame is not our time frame. A thousand years and a day, a day and 1,000 years -- it's all the same to God. We are bound by and to the clock and the calendar; God is not. Therefore, to try to restrict God to our view of time, to our notion of what is a long time or a short time, is to try to limit God, and that is always inappropriate.
Most importantly, the delay by God in sending Jesus is not a sign of slowness or inability or inattention. No, the delay by God is a matter of grace. It is a matter of forbearance. It is a matter of patience. "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance" (v. 9). The time that the Lord has granted to our world has stretched on for another 2,000 years. The time that the Lord has given you has stretched on now for however long your life has been. If you have not accepted him as your Savior, you still have the opportunity to repent.
Sometimes we have to live a long time and go through a lot before we are in a position truly to understand and accept God's grace. Perhaps the world has to get to a very low point before some of us will ever see the need to repent. Or, maybe your personal life has to deteriorate to a certain point before you will see the need to repent. It certainly does not have to be that way, but even if things get worse as time goes by, the time that goes by is a sign of God's grace and patience. Philip Yancey tells this story:
When Bill Moyers filmed a television special on the hymn "Amazing Grace," his camera followed Johnny Cash into the bowels of a maximum-security prison. "What does this song mean to you?" Cash asked the prisoners after singing the hymn. One man serving time for attempted murder replied, "I'd been a deacon, a churchman, but I never knew what grace was until I ended up in a place like this."3
"I never knew what grace was until I ended up in a place like this." What kind of place are you in? Are you finally in the place where you are ready to know what grace is? Are you in a place where you are finally ready to repent?
Some of the scariest words I ever hear people say are "I'll get my life right with God when I'm ready." Yes, God is patient. God is forbearing, but time is not unlimited. Remember, the same God for whom 1,000 years is as a day is also the God whose Son will come like a thief in the night. You have the opportunity the repent now. What will you do with it? As the hymn challenges us:
While we pray and while we plead, While you see your soul's deep need,
While our Father calls you home, Will you not, my brother, come?
You have wandered far away; Do not risk another day;
Do not turn from God your face, But today accept His grace.
Why not now? Why not now? Why not come to Jesus now?
Why not now? Why not now? Why not come to Jesus now?4
Now is the time of salvation for you. Why not come to him now? John the Baptist challenged his listeners to get ready for the coming of the Messiah by repenting of their sins. The challenge is the same for us, except that we repent because the Messiah has come and because he is coming again.
The Opportunity To Grow
Once you repent there is still a long way to go. Many of us repented and became Christians, long ago or recently. Whether you have been a Christian for decades or whether you become a Christian today, you still have a lot of growing to do. When we trust Jesus as Savior we also acknowledge him as Lord of our lives. His lingering, his delay in returning, gives all of us a tremendous opportunity to grow in our relationship with him. When he comes, don't we want him to find us to be people who have grown and matured in ways that will please him?
Peter reminds us that we are to be becoming disciples who live "lives of holiness and godliness" (v. 11), so that we will "be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish" (v. 14). What does it mean to be holy and godly, without spot or blemish? There is a moral connotation here. Our lives are being molded by God to be more and more like Jesus. We are not to let the world dictate what kinds of lives we live. Cleansed by the blood of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit of God, we are being shaped into people who bear witness with our lives to who God is. We are not saved by works; we are saved only by the grace of God that we experience through faith. We are not doomed or even crippled in our discipleship when we sin after we are saved. But, the fact is that if you have a real encounter with the living God through his crucified and resurrected Son, Jesus Christ, you will be changed. Some of that change will be instantaneous. Much of that change will happen over a long period of time, but where God works change takes place, and it is change for the better. We want to use what time we have left bearing witness to Christ with our lives and doing things that build up rather than tear down. Morality does matter.
But being holy and godly without spot or blemish is not just about morals; it is also about service. This kind of language is typically used in the Bible to describe people and things that are set aside for use in service to God. As we grow in our relationship with God, we realize that while we are saved from our sin, we are also saved to serve. When our Christian faith really takes hold of us, when we are seized by the reality of all that Christ has done for us, we become people who give of ourselves in service to God. How do we serve God? By serving others. Is there lots of time left before Christ returns? If so, that is good -- it gives us lots of time to grow in service. Is there only a little time left? If so, that is good -- it gives us incentive to do all that we can while we have the opportunity.
Conclusion
We are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. That makes us people with a long-term perspective who are ready for whatever happens in the short term. We assume that we have 10,000 years to work and to serve and we are always looking forward. Yet we know that Christ could return in the next second and we want to be found fulfilling our calling. Either way, now is the only time we have. Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to repent. If you are a Christian but you have not been taking full advantage of the time that has been given to you, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to commit yourself to fuller service.
__________
1. All information and quotes about the Foundation are drawn from their website,
2. All information about the Doomsday Clock is drawn from the website of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
3. Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), p. 179.
4. Daniel W. Whittle, "Why Not Now?" in public domain.
