Adding to the Point

[HKHaugan]

How much money was blown on New Year's parties? How much time was spent on dancing, drinking and getting to the moment of midnight, the cheers, the cascading confetti, the pointed hats, the blaring orchestras and the annual reminder we are another year older and by gathering to sing Auld Lang Syne we can remove the numbing problems we left behind that evening? Perhaps, like some of us, you stayed in the comfort of home, went to bed early and got up the next day to your normal activities. I'm reminded of the opening words to Ecclesiastes which I apply to most secular celebrations, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” Which is why I wrote in the last segment “This is not really a 'new year.' It's a deepening of our roots in the Kingdom of God, our growing awareness of the Lord's presence and the excitement of waking up to see things in this new spiritual dimension. The real 'new' is every next moment awaiting His return.”
The point I was making was the secular 'New Year' is really not a new year at all. It is merely man's attempt to measure his ongoing experience, give it a framework by which he can organize his activity and let his mind, heart and spirit find meaning and purpose even in the nonsensical celebrations that he may devise. Whether there is time at all is not the issue. It is the fact that we exist, that we have a self-consciousness and that we find ourselves in a multiple environment of vast external and internal space both demanding understanding and action. We need to think more deeply about what we celebrate and why.
The culture in which we live determines much of what we conclude about existing, about time and about life and death. Regardless of the quaint speculation philosophers take in squandering our speculative resources on whether or not we exist it only takes one painful pinch to settle the issue. The question is not do we exist but rather what do we do with what is happening internally and externally at any given moment? And that is not about time but about being.
Fascination with time is one of the distracting influences that keeps us from living, being and doing. Jesus is quite clear about this when His disciples asked Him about the exact timing of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. “He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7-8).” It's not about time. It's about being. Forget about clocks, calendars, schedules and itineraries when what and who you are and where you are headed is the major consideration. If there is timing involved in the process of answering those issues then time is a concept to serve you not you to serve it. Preoccupation with 'time' is what will kill being.
Jesus demonstrates this throughout His entire mission. But one chapter in John's Gospel, Chapter 11, really captures this idea of 'being' before 'timing.' Lazarus of Bethany, loved by Jesus (vs.3), was sick. His sisters Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus who was teaching at the Jordan where John had been baptizing. Rather than leave at that moment He stayed two more days and then left with His disciples telling them that Lazarus had died in the meantime but He was going to wake him up. Martha meets Him, disappointedly telling Him that if He had been there earlier, at the time she notified Him, Lazarus would not have died. She will say this again when they come to the tomb.  For her it was all about timing.
Now in contrast to time and timing Jesus tells her three things to solidify what it means to be, to exist, to live which is what Jesus is all about. First, He tells her that her brother will rise again (vs.23) to which she slightly agrees because of her general belief in a final resurrection. Second, He tells her that He is the Resurrection and the life to which she still guardedly responds to His unique presence that He is the Christ the Son of God. Third, comes the clincher.  He repeats to every one assembled at the tomb what He told the disciples back at the river, “You would see the glory of God (vs.4,40).” So Lazarus will arise and be because Jesus is the Person of rising and being which is the glory of God. It's not about time but about Jesus changing the meaning of existence from secular thought to spiritual thought, from lonely physical being to spiritual and eternal being. Eternity is not about time but being a conscious “I am” like Jesus who is the “I AM.” Time is a tool, a thought, a concept, a servant in this temporary world to make 'being' and self-consciousness an experience we can share. It's about relationship, spiritual growth and anticipating each moment as a piece of eternity in the present. It's His Presence in the present.
Jesus is all about being. Every one of His parables, His miracles, His teachings is a lesson in being not time. They are about belief, attitude, faith and trust which cannot be traced in seconds, minutes, days or years. They are heart themes, mind awareness and spirit filling. It's being a believer, a disciple and a witness. Being and doing are the substance of what it means to be human. Relating to God in Jesus by the Holy Spirit is the substance of our humanity, God creating us to experience His glory and be His glory as He was the only begotten Son full of grace and truth. When we believe, trust and act in faith that Jesus is Lord and present Him to the world then we are the praise of His glory (Eph.1:6,12,14).  Then we are being.