Time After Time

Time After Time

 

John 1:29-42

Christ revealed as the Lamb of God 

 

1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

 

1:30 This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'

 

1:31 I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel."

 

1:32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

 

1:33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

 

1:34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One."

 

1:35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,

 

1:36 and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"

 

1:37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

 

1:38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

 

1:39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

 

1:40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

 

1:41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).

 

1:42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

 

When is the last time you thought much about time? What IS it? In how many ways does it affect me? Can I control it, in any way? We’ve all heard the various cliches about time: “A stich in time saves nine,” “A watched kettle never boils,” “Time flies when you’re having fun,” “Time heals all wounds,” “Time is money.” There are songs about time, poems about time, movies about time and time travel, and Lord only knows how much personal anxiety is raised over time, meeting schedules, and arriving somewhere on time! Why, just the other night, I was heading to a meeting in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, from my home in Southern Butler County, expecting that the traffic South on I-79 and Rt. 376 would be light, because most of it was coming NORTH during rush hour (my meeting was at 6:00PM). I hadn’t counted on it being a HOCKEY NIGHT in Pittsburgh! And while my timely attendance at this meeting wasn’t crucial to its core purpose, I DO like to arrive on time, so I had left my house almost an hour and fifteen minutes beforehand. And while I arrived at almost exactly 6:00PM, my anxiety level was heightened, probably a leftover from my “working days” of ministry when I was often leading the meeting! (Of course, it could have just been elevated by my personal preference to be “on time” at everything I do?)

 

I like those movies or TV sci-fi shows that do something with time, either controlling it, traveling in it, or being trapped by it, in some way. “Time After Time” is a favorite, a reworking of H.G. Wells’ classic, “The Time Machine,” that involves Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, Jack the Ripper, and a stolen time machine. (If that doesn’t get your juices flowing, you need to shock your heart back into sinus rhythm!) Think of all the episodes of Star Trek TOS that involved time and time travel, or the mega-popular trilogy of films around the “Back to the Future” theme. Time DOES entertain us, one way or another. 

 

Dara and I are putting together material for a class we are leading at St. Paul’s UMC on “Native American Spirituality and Heritage,” and as part of this preparation, I was watching a webcast of an interview with a Native American author and commentator. As she was discussing a question about “prophecy,” she related how Native Americans understand time as something that “wraps around” us, and is not just a linear construct. By viewing time as an embracing factor, it means that our ancestors—both past and future—are held close to us, and we are in position to “hear” what they have to teach us. In this “hearing,” Native Americans find prophecy, both to warn them of foolish decisions or remind them of what has blazed helpful trails in the past. To imagine time as something that embraces us is a helpful spiritual component, not just for my own spiritual practice, but as an understanding of time, itself. 

 

The great physicists of the past century (this seems more prudent than always deferring to just “Einstein”) have boggled our minds with theories about the fluid and “relative” nature of time, scientifically. I get that, and will never cease to be amazed with what they tell us. In fact, as an amateur astronomer, I am able to “look back in time” using my various telescopes. Just the other night, I imaged a galaxy that is 30,000 light years from Earth, meaning that the light from it which I recorded had been traveling over 30,000 years to get here. That body may not even EXIST anymore, so I may have actually been looking back in time. As one who loves to gaze at the cosmos, I can clearly see how the physicists began postulating that in space, time is a “relative” thing. (Full disclosure: what people like Einstein and Stephen Hawking theorized about time and space goes WAY beyond not just the realities of “light years,” and way beyond my ability to fully comprehend their wider work!)

 

Why all this talk of time? Well, when it comes to “God stuff,” time is also a quite relative thing. Theologians and Bible scholars theorize that God “has always been”—had no beginning, and will have no end. Isn’t this among the “basics” we believers are all taught about God? So, if we believe in an “infinite” being, how does our temporal nature stack up against this? Today’s text has a very interesting and cryptic statement made by John the Baptist, who may be trying to tie together our existence with the reality of a divine, infinite Creator. In referring to Jesus, who is approaching John to be baptized, John says, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” What in the world is John trying to tell us? 

 

One possibility is that this is John’s way of announcing that the infinite has stepped into the realm of the temporal. Jesus was not just “before” John, but before all of humanity, which we Christians believe he had a hand in creating. This same Jesus, who was born of Mary, was baptized by John, walked among us, was tried, put to death, and rose from the darkness of death to life again, was “before” all that we understand as the created order. Sure sounding a bit “Einsteiny” and “Hawking-like” to me! For we humans, whose experience of the linear passage of time colors how we understand time, this starts to get a bit crazy. It’s quite puzzling from our limited perspective how an eternal, infinite being could step into our temporal existence, be terminated, and then rejoin the infinite. Perhaps this is why we call it “faith”? John, who was no Rhodes Scholar, is possibly describing this tenet of our faith in one compact sentence! Here is what he is saying: 

 

“The man you are about to meet has been around since the beginning of time as part of the eternal godhead. He has been born into our temporal world in order to interact with us, understand our time-locked journey, teach us, heal us, redeem us, and love us. He participated in our creation, was deeply hurt by our selfish response to his goodness, and yet still wants to know us more intimately, and “reconnect” us with his eternal ‘Father.’” 

 

And for this, we killed him. I’m sure it’s another “mystery” of time that we don’t understand how much of the trial and killing of Jesus was part of some plan, or just another violent human response to someone’s best intentions, and whether God wanted it to go down like that, or out of love and grace, “rescued” humanity from their blood-thirsty error. I tend to go with the latter, as I do NOT believe that “everything happens for a reason.” Instead, I believe that in Jesus Christ, God KEEPS intervening in the human condition and KEEPS rescuing us from our selfish folly. In Jesus Christ, the one who was “before” will welcome us into the divine realm “after.” 

 

It should not fall on deaf ears that John’s was a baptism of repentance, and this may be exactly why Jesus chose to be baptized by him—as an example during his temporal experience that, going forward, humans will need to understand both repentance and redemption. We will have many opportunities to “turn our lives Godward” (a definition of repentance) and Jesus will be there to meet us with forgiveness and redemption! When Paul says there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” he is tapping into this great eternal/temporal/eternal “cycle” of God’s redeeming work in Christ. May we not obfuscate it unnecessarily by doctrines, dogmas, and rules seeking to be “gatekeepers” of who is eligible. Please. Let God be God. We have enough on our hands being temporal, human, and trying to live by faith.

 

In this great biblical drama, we have all the time in the world, but are led by the Spirit to “get it right,” day by day. This is the “time riddle” of the Jesus who was “before,” is “now here,” and will be forever after. Accept it, my friends. Learn, live, and love, and let God handle the heavy lifting! Amen.