Give Me A Little More Time
Colossians 3: 12-17
LUKE 2: 41-52
DECEMBER 29, 2024
If you were in church on Tuesday evening … didn’t you just wish that you had a little more time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ? I know … I know … many of you were rushing to other activities but in retrospect wasn’t being part of an SRO crowd here at St. Paul’s worth a few more moments to take in, your precious time just a few more minutes or even seconds to celebrate and to respond with joy and enthusiasm when I shouted MERRY CHRISTMAS or HE IS RISEN? Sacrificing your time priorities of Christmas pasts with more time to worship God … perhaps singing one added verse of ‘Joy to the World?’
What about your Christmas Day? I wish I could replay all of my 2024 Dax moments again and again … a five-year-old opening his gifts as a new day dawned. Dax is too young to understand the complexities of Christmas and as a young child he perceives that vaunted saint whose name was Nicholas as the essence of his day but boy oh boy I wish I could have magically extended that day’s special moments for me, but they are here… memories.
Jim Croce sang about time in a bottle. And perhaps this morning as we worship God and Jesus Christ and are witnesses to the last days of the year 2024, we would agree with the wish … “[1]If I could save time in a bottle … if I could make days last forever … if words could make wishes come true” we would want to connect the dots to complete a picture of each of us spending more time worshiping God together or just connecting with God individually.
Are you wondering where the moments of Easter worship in the year 2024 disappeared to? Do you wonder why your calendar this year didn’t have enough time to travel to Red Bird on our mission trip or perhaps for you to help out at the Food Pantry or at Vacation Bible School.
If only you could save time in a bottle would you start a new Bible Study here at St. Paul’s or at least join one but then again time steals away the moments doesn’t it … time is the villain … not time itself because we are given 168 hours a week every week and as this year begins its concluding hours we will have watched and lived through 366 days in 2024 … where in the world has time gone; our time … our personal moments … our opportunities … minutes and hours we no longer have to improve who we are as humans … to listen to music … to read books … to pause besides the still waters or to even read the Bible or to pray?
Ironically, a pastor friend of mine in Buffalo has the same sermon title today perhaps because we both celebrate the music of the Sixties and Seventies, which is when a trio from Detroit Michigan made the musical plea to ‘Give Me Just a Little More Time.’ The song is a love song of desperation and lost opportunities. They sing about being in a hurry and that “[2]life’s too short to make a mistake … let’s think of each other and hesitate.”
When I considered today’s Scripture lesson from Colossians those lyrics kept nudging me because I know of too many people who don’t hesitate to think of God and God’s teaching. Paul takes the truths that God showcased in Jesus’ teaching moments to declare that we are to “put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Paul does not say we can use time as an excuse not to …
I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions because I have learned all too personally that what we expect from the 12 months following the dropping of the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, whose countdown takes us into a New Year, rarely comes true. In fact, the unpredictability of life and our lack of control of a significant percentage of our life’s happenstance really gives us a reason to not make resolutions but I would argue as this year closes down that what we need to do is to actually commit to giving God a little more time … to make a choice not a vague promise wrapped in midnight toasting that gets us saying we will exercise more … watch our diets … save more money … or even learning something new in the coming months. Rather to commit to God.
We have been trained to make resolutions rather than commitments. Our desire to fit in with the world perhaps leads us to just saying we will do things we really don’t want to do. But friends we are people of faith … we are individuals who on the last Sunday of December in the year 2024 have chosen to be in church rather than playing with the gifts that Santa left under the tree this past Wednesday. By the way, do you still remember Wednesday or Christmas Eve’s worship service or have they already entered the vagueness of history books because other time realities have taken over?
So, let’s bring some focus into who we are called to be … believe me I clearly am not suggesting that you add these to the dietary resolution you might make this coming Tuesday night. But, I am strongly urging you to consider how fast time flies … how unpredictable life is … and then to consider again what your relationship with God needs to be … or should be since you are living your life claiming the label ‘Christian’ or at the very least you say you are connected with St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of West Deptford.
The song goes, “[3]young and impatient we may be … there’s no need to act foolishly. Just Give me a little more time” but Paul makes a clear statement that is reflective of Jesus’ teaching. “The peace of Christ MUST control your hearts … the word of Christ MUST live in you richly.”
There is the difference … there is the call … there is what we need to reflect on because life is too short, and our futures are unknown. The days are passing by whether you are 14 years old or 95. We get impatient for our stuff … our needs … our priorities and frankly we act foolishly with great frequency.
I always try to include song lyrics written by my friend Paul O’Neill in Christmas Eve services. I pointed them out this past Tuesday but, in his song, Believe, Paul reminds us that Jesus is right there for humanity to connect with. The song carries the Gospel quote from Christ, “[4]I am the way, I am the light” and Paul adds, “I hear your hopes … I feel your dreams … don’t turn away, just take my hand and when you make your final stand I’ll be right there. I’ll never leave. And, all I ask of you. BELIEVE.”
So, in a way this morning’s message is my Christmas Eve message part two because we need to consider our relationship with Jesus Christ … we need to pause to focus in on the reality that we are not in control of time. Frankly, I would like to vanquish 2023 and 2024 from the history books and go back to 2022 but I can’t. Pastor Dave Delaney is not in control of the time on my watch … the calendars on my phone and computer … although I noticed earlier this past week that I apparently control the calendar on my wall because it still says it is October.
Friends, are you able to state with clarity this morning that the essential reality of your life is a truth not a resolution related to something you will do maybe, perhaps or not really in the future … are you ready to demonstrate to yourself, to those around you, and perhaps most importantly since time is fleeting …to God that yes, you BELIEVE?
The words from this letter of Paul to those early Christians we refer to as Colossians. They lived in a major city of what we today refer to as Turkey. They had lived through a major earthquake a few years before Paul wrote this letter so they knew hardships and challenges, but Paul wanted to make sure they understood what God expects, which is still true today.
So, when you consider your time … when you consider the love you have felt for God this Christmas season … we as people of faith owe it to ourselves and to God “whether what we do is in speech or action to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him. The peace of Christ MUST control our hearts. We must be thankful people! The Word of Christ must live in us and we need to sing to God with gratitude in our hearts.”
As we head into the new year, as people who understand God’s call to be difference makers … we need to commit to showing our world that “[5]love is the mountain we must climb and we can climb it together” “putting on compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience while being tolerant with each other forgiving one another just as the Lord forgave us knowing we also must forgive each other.”
And when we give God just a little more time then we will put on love that will surely grow … the perfect bond of unity. A bond of unity that is reflective of God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ who came to teach us and then to die for us and then to leave the tomb because HE IS RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> and that is a good reminder as we move into the new year. AMEN