A moment in time
Text: 2 Peter 3:8–15a
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. As we prepare for Christmas through this Advent season, we are being reminded that our true preparation is for Jesus’ second coming. In our New Testament reading, Peter has some things to say about time—how much we depend on it and how little God does.
We are obsessed with time.
As I was growing up, our family used to go on some kind of road trip during the summer holidays. Sometimes it was the two-hour drive to Perth a few days after Christmas (not for Christmas itself since dad was always on duty as a pastor). Sometimes we went a bit further, even driving across the Nullarbor a couple of times. Some of my favourite memories are from those road trips.
We all love a relaxing family holiday. Road trips did it for us, but others prefer lying low at the same holiday house every year or maybe going on an ocean cruise. We have different ideas of what a truly relaxing holiday is. For some, it’s the quiet and the chance to read a book. For others, it’s an adventure to a new place. I’m thinking of one thing that a holiday must involve to be truly relaxing: letting go of time.
We live every day with an eye on the clock, or at the very least, how much daylight is left. We even turn the clock back an hour to give ourselves more time in the day—to me, that just shows how much we depend on time according to the clock. We feel like changing the time on the clock gives us extra time at the end of the day when we’re really just doing everything a bit earlier than before.
Some of us might try to live each day from sunrise to sunset, but the world around us depends on the clock which means you have to as well. We start worship at 10:30 sharp, by the way, and any service longer than 60 minutes is too long.
Whether you have a busy schedule or not, the way you live each day is based on time. Being constantly aware of the time is exhausting, particularly if your schedule tends to be full, which is why all relaxing holidays involve letting go of the time and just being.
This is all when time moves quickly and we struggle to fit everything into the hours and minutes we have. The opposite is just as bad. If you’re waiting for time to pass—like during a boring sermon—the wait is excruciating. Time seems to do the opposite to what we want, speeding up when we need more and slowing down when we want it to go by quicker.
Spiritually, we can be in either place. We are currently in a waiting pattern while we wait for Jesus to come back. He’s already been once (which is of course what we’re preparing to celebrate) and as he was leaving, he promised he’d be back to complete his work forever. There are two ways this wait can make us feel.
We can be panicked because he could return at any moment, and we need as much time as possible to get our lives sorted.
We can also be impatient while we long for his return and just want it to hurry up and happen. As Christians who have confidence in the Day of Judgment, this is the better state to be in.
We humans are subject to time—it rules over our lives and sometimes it even taunts us.
God is beyond time.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
2 Peter 3:8 (NIV)
While we are subject to time and feel its effects, God exists outside of time. As the creator of time itself, he stands above it and sees everything from a bird’s eye view.
This is not to say that God doesn’t care about time or understand it. A thousand years and one day are not the same, but they are similar in that God has full control and full knowledge of both.
While we are constrained by time, God uses time for our benefit. Peter says that the more time God gives, the more time we have to come to repentance. It might seem like 2000 years is a bit slow to deliver on a promise, but God’s apparent slowness is actually his generosity in giving us time.
When the end of time does come, Peter describes what will happen. Everything that has ever happened on this earth will be exposed. The earth will be burned up and the heavens will melt. Nothing will be able to escape the destruction.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:11–13 (NIV)
None of this is in our control. The world as we know it will end, and everything will be subject to God’s power and will. How should we live in the meantime? “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
A complete renovation cannot take place without some demolition first. Gutting out an old house is a sad moment, but it’s also an exciting time when you think about how much better the renovated space will be. So it will be with the new heavens and the new earth. The destruction will come first, but we can afford to look forward to that day rather than be afraid of it because of what is promised.
For new life to come about, the old life has to end. This is precisely what happens in baptism—your sin is drowned and a new person emerges. John’s baptism was only a ritual for confessing sin—it didn’t have power to forgive. Jesus’ baptism—that is, baptism in the Holy Spirit—has power to kill and make alive.
Christ comes to us in the moment.
We live our lives under the constraints of time, but God is not limited by minutes on the clock. We gather in his presence at the same time every week for our benefit. It’s not like if we changed the time, God wouldn’t be able to make it anymore. Somehow, he’s able to get to every church service where the word is preached around town, even if they’re at the same time.
God does not relate with us in terms of time. He comes to us in moments.
How long is a moment? You can’t really say. What defines a moment? It can be a specific point in time (“at that moment”), an appropriate time for something (“the right moment”), or even a period of significance (“a great moment in history”).
Moments are not about how long they take. They are all about what happens in them.
Jesus is fully aware of time and our limits because of it, but he is not limited by time when he comes to us. Christ comes to us in the moment.
There was a moment when God arrived on the earth as a human being.
There was a moment when the people realised who Jesus was and rejected him.
There was a moment when he breathed his last and gave up his spirit.
There was a moment when the disciples saw that he was not in the tomb anymore.
There was a moment when Christ left this world with a promise.
There was a moment when Christ fulfilled his promise as the Holy Spirit came down.
There was a moment when that Spirit descended on you in water and the Word.
Christ comes to us in moments. Whether you have good time management or not, he comes to you with his purposes in mind. Whether you can make time in your busy schedule, he finds ways to be present in your life wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.
This Advent season is very much limited by time—it goes for about four weeks and we count each one as it passes—but it’s intended to be a moment. Advent is a moment to prepare for Christ to break into our lives. It is a moment to receive the hope and joy that his arrival in this world means. It is a moment to praise the God who exists outside of time, yet chose to enter into it for us. It is a moment to remember that Jesus promises to come again and that we can look forward to that day, too.
As we get nearer to Christmas and everything seems to get busier and time is short, take moments to give thanks to God for giving us his Son and salvation through him.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
