The Gospel of Mark, and Jesus’ mission on earth for that matter, can be summarized in one verse: “‘The time has come,’ Jesus said. ‘The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:15) Continue reading
Time
All Our Yesterdays and Tomorrows (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-22)
Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
We see in this quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth that the theme of Ecclesiastes is felt and expressed by all men in all of history. Continue reading
Oh time, where did you go? (Psalm 90)
An interesting thing happens when raising children. You will not need to teach a child to say, “mine.” As soon as the child understands the concept, everything is “mine.” That firetruck, “mine.” That sippy cup, “mine.” That book, “mine.” Everything is “mine.” But do you know what you will need to labor repeatedly to teach a child? To share with his or her sister. Continue reading
Tikkun Olam (Proverbs 27:1)
Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
I like to fix things. Most people do. It is a facet of our humanity that we create and repair. Life is short. And in our short sinful imperfect lives we are called by God to be co-regents, to participate in the restoration of the Kingdom of God in the here and now. So how do you and I repair/restore the world together; how do we repair ourselves, the people in the complex and paradoxical world in which we live? Continue reading
Sacred Time: Part 2 – The Gift of Time (Psalm 90:2)
Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
Time is sacred. Theologian Carl F.H. Henry characterized time as “the divinely created sphere of God’s preserving and redemptive work, and the arena of man’s decision on his way to an eternal destiny.” Continue reading
Sacred Time: Part 1- What is Time? (Jude 25)
Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
Time, what is it? Time is ubiquitous yet necessary for everyday life and all academic thought, but its fundamental nature remains a complete mystery. Time is persistent and unaffected by humanity, by you and I. Time dominates all human enterprise (or seems to) and will not stop, slow down or be altered by any technology or industry. Nothing makes a difference to the unstoppable ticking of the clock. Continue reading
Time Enough at Last (James 4:13-15)
Submitted by Andy McIlvain.
I chase time. I want more of it. And often in my life I have felt like Henry Bemis in the 1959 Twilight Zone episode in which the people and the world around him conspires to keep him from having more time and in his case it was to read books. Continue reading