There are certain intense situations in which the best answer, maybe the only answer, is to take a “time out”. Time out, to get perspective; time out, to get emotions under control; time out to back off and take a better look. There are certain serious situations in which your instincts tell you it would be best to take a “time out”.
I was standing in line at the pharmacy. The line was getting longer and all of us were getting restless, because at the head of the line a dispute was brewing. The clerk said, “We can’t fill this prescription; your insurance won’t pay for it.” The customer said, “What? My insurance has always paid.” The clerk said, a little louder – have you noticed that people think their arguments are better if they are louder? – the clerk said, “The computer has rejected your claim. The insurance company says you are not supposed to get this drug.” The customer’s temperature went up a notch, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. I’ve been taking this for two years, and they’ve always paid. Take care of this.” That little escalation in the voice got under the clerk’s skin, “I can’t do anything about it. Did you get your medicine at another store?” “So what if I did? What’s that got to do with it. I need this drug, and I need it today.” “You’ll have to call the insurance company.” “Isn’t there somebody here who knows something?” “I know exactly what I am doing. We cannot fill your prescription.” “I want to see the manager. I want to talk with somebody else.” “You’re in the wrong store, and your insurance won’t pay, and there’s nothing we can do.” “Give me somebody else.” “There isn’t anybody else. May I help you now, sir?”. “Wait just a minute; I’m not finished. I’m not satisfied.” “May I help someone else now?”.
We were all getting nervous. Somebody needed to do something. Finally the pharmacist came out from behind his counter, and he did something. He did something that got things moving in the right direction. He just came out with his hands like this: T.
What does this mean? T It means “time out”. It means, “Things are too hot and heavy, take a moment.” Time out. Time out to get out of this mess, time out to back off, time out to get perspective. If you have small children who are getting wound up, time out means sit over here and calm down. If you’re on the athletic field, T, time out means we’re going to stop the game for a few seconds. Somebody needs help. Somebody needs a quick strategy session. Every now and again, we all need “time out”.
I’ll bet I will get no argument from the balcony over the value of a summer time out from school. I’ll wager that it was not a teenager who came up with this notion of year round school. We like time out.
I’ll bet I will get no argument from the workers in the crowd, those who put in long hours and spend tremendous energies getting the job done. I have to tell you I am astounded at how hard people in this city do work! Long days, into the evening hours, six or even seven days a week – the work ethic is alive and well in Washington! But, still, I’ll wager you cherished that week or two of vacation, didn’t you? You needed that time out. Even if you do it like I have to do it, a day here and a day there, it’s precious. One of our members tells me she just takes mental health days every now and again. Time out just to sit and think, or maybe just to sit and leave the thinking to somebody else. Time out is wonderful.
But what if after “time out” there was never any “time in”?! What if the “time out” session never ended, and nobody went back to work? You told little Susie to sit in the corner and take “time out”, and you went back to turn her loose, but she said, “That’s all right, daddy. I like it here in the corner.” So what if after a long, hot summer of freedom, the folks in the balcony decide, “I’m not going back to school this fall. I like it out here better.” What happens then? So what if after Norv calls for a “time out” and the ‘Skins gather at the sideline, the quarterback says, “I don’t want to go back in. I’m happier here on the bench.”? What happens then? What if “time out” never gives way to “time in”? So what if tomorrow morning, you decide, “You can take this job … “. Oh, better not go there.
What if time out never becomes time in? Pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? No time in, no education. No time in, no income. No time in, no game. Ridiculous. Then why is it that many Christians want to stay in the time out mode and never put time in? Why is it that believers feel as though they are really doing something by taking a permanent time out, and never going to time in?
I
You see, the Bible calls us to a full-time, fully engaged relationship with God. It doesn’t call us to an on-again, off-again, time out situation. It doesn’t call us to a job or a task from which we can take a break. The Bible calls us to a relationship. And relationships don’t come and go. They just are. They are full-time, always time in.
Listen to Peter’s language about this, and see if it doesn’t remind you of a certain ceremony that lots of us have been through:
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention … so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God.
What ceremony does that remind you of? “Intention … to live for the rest of your earthly life”. Well, it’s a little ceremony that I have performed probably three hundred times in my career, and most recently with my own daughter. The wedding ceremony. And what does it say? Something frightening: “Forsaking all others, so long as we both shall live.” And even scarier, “Keep you only unto her (or him) till death us do part.” Wow, that’s a big one, isn’t it? Now just about everybody goes into marriage intending to keep that promise. True, things happen and they don’t all make it, but for the most part, they intend to maintain that relationship, with no time outs.
(Oh, I do remember the wedding I did at the University of Maryland, filling in for another minister who had supposedly done all the counseling but couldn’t do the service at the last moment. What a shock when I said the words, “Forsaking all others, so long as we both shall live”, and the young man stared at me and said, “Say what?” I repeated the phrase, and still he stared. His bride poked him in the ribs, and finally, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling, he intoned, “So long as we both shall live.” I’ve often wondered how many years that marriage lasted! Maybe it was more like weeks than years.)
But look at this: when you make a commitment to a relationship, there are no time outs. It’s all time in. If you make a commitment to a job, there is the vacation time out. If you enroll in school, there is the summer break time out. But if you commit to a relationship, there are no time outs, everything is time in. And that makes a huge difference.
Let me keep going with the marriage analogy. Two weeks ago, as many of you know, I had the unique privilege of officiating at my daughter’s wedding. Now Karen and Don had been seeing one another for seven or eight years, and they had been committed to marriage for a good portion of that time. Margaret and I have known Don, been close to Don, done things with Don, for several years. I tell you, that young man was the very soul of politeness. He had it down just right. “Good evening, Mr. Smith! How are you, Mrs. Smith?” Total propriety, immaculate respect. Now: they got married. This week Margaret calls their home and speaks with Karen. What does she hear in the background? This cheerful male voice, “Hi, Mom!” “Hi, Mom”?! What ever happened to “Good evening, Mrs. Smith”? I’ll tell you what happened. A lifelong commitment, and that changes everything! A relationship was enacted, and the distance evaporated! He intends to live the rest of his life in relationship to our daughter, and so also in relationship to her parents. And the very act of commitment changes everything. A committed relationship is a permanent time in, and it makes all the difference in the world.
I’m afraid to call over there myself. Lord only knows what he is going to call me – Pops?!
Peter calls us to intend to live in a committed relationship to Jesus Christ. Peter calls us to intend to live no longer by human desires but by the will of God, close up. Dally all you want, take your time getting there, think about it all you wish; but you will not know what it is to live God’s way unless and until you make a commitment. Until you end the time out and commit to time in, a relationship, you will not understand what it is to live by God’s will.
II
But there’s a problem with this. There’s an issue we’ll have to face. Because we are so accustomed to our old ways of life, sometimes it just feels comfortable to go back there, even when we know it’s destructive. It’s all very well to say that we intend to live in a relationship with Christ, and it’ll just be there all the time. But sometimes we want to take time out and just go back and wallow in the garbage that’s still around, don’t we?
Peter is very clear about what we have to do, when that time out temptation comes. His language is very pointed, very direct, and not very sweet. He insists that we are wasting our time with certain things:
You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.
That’s a laundry list, isn’t it? Licentiousness, passions, drunkenness. Sounds like a college dorm. Or a TV sitcom. Or “Big Brother”. You have already spent enough time. But the astounding thing is that Peter is speaking to Christians. He’s talking to believers, church folks. They have spent enough time in all this garbage.
Now what blows my mind is that Peter really believes these folks can leave all that rubbish and do something better! Peter really thinks it’s possible to get out of the passions and drunkenness and revelry bit. Wow! Doesn’t he know that the leopard cannot change his spots? That’s in the Bible somewhere! Doesn’t Peter understand that if you tell a drunk to stop drinking, you might damage his little psyche? Doesn’t Peter realize that if your mother twisted your big toe when you were three years old, you are damaged for life and can never be any different? Poor benighted soul, this Peter! He really thinks that people can put aside negative behavior and go for something different!
Well, yes he does. And so do I. And so, I hope, do you. We live out of grace. We believe that no mistake is too great for God’s grace to correct and no sin is too deep for God’s mercy to forgive. We affirm that no failure is too horrible for God’s love to overtake, and no wrong too gross for God’s power to overcome. If you’re still living in the time out stage, and you think you’ll never get away from the pull of the past, then hear the good news. Hear the good news. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, all things are become new.”
Some of us have taken time out to deal with the pull of the past. There are issues in our lives that we have had to struggle with. There are personality flaws and spiritual weaknesses that we took time out to address. That’s fine. But there is no room in the Scripture for anyone to spend the rest of his life tinkering with his troubles. There is no room for any of us to excuse ourselves from positive, constructive living just because we have unresolved issues in our lives. When we commit to Jesus Christ, we not only commit to the one who can save us from all our iniquities; but we also commit to walk away from the things that destroy. Yes, of course, take the time out you need to deal with your life issues; but be sure that time in comes, and you put the past in the past. “Forgetting what lies behind, we press on toward the goal.” Time out? Yes, but time in now.
III
Without apology, then, today I must call us to radical Christianity. I must call us, individually and as a church, to a commitment that is serious, disciplined, thorough, and radical. The summer is about finished; the vacations are coming to an end. And as the old song says, “The days draw near … when you reach September.” It’s getting late.
A radical, disciplined, serious, thoroughgoing Christianity, a time-in Christianity. Why? Because there isn’t much time. Listen to Peter:
The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves.
The end of all things is near. If there’s any truth in that, it is a most sobering thought. The end of all things is near. Peter thought that the end of all history might be within his lifetime. It didn’t happen. Two thousand years later, we don’t think that way. We’re busy building up our nest eggs and our 401-K plans so that we can spend a long, long time on the golf course at Leisure World.
But the end may be near. It may be. The end of life as we know it may be near. Weapons of mass destruction terrorize the world. AIDS is on a rampage. The environment is seriously compromised. In the face of that, we can’t take too many time outs. We must commit to time in: peace making and justice building and gospel-sharing. We are called to proclaim the marvelous deeds of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous light.
The end of the Christian church may be near. Militant religions and vigorous ideologies are marching all over the world. Believers are being persecuted today as they were in Peter’s day. In the face of that, we can’t take too many time outs. We must commit to time in: missions and evangelism and witness bearing. We are called to proclaim the marvelous deeds of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous light.
The end of our community may be near. This neighborhood is changing. New people are coming. Some of them are broken people; they are among the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely. In the face of that, we can’t take too many time outs. Others are well off and educated and all that good stuff, but just as lost as the drunk in the gutter. The end of the community we’re used to is near. We must commit to time in work: loving and caring and reaching out and ministry. We are called to proclaim the marvelous deeds of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous light.
The end of our church may be near. We are aging. I’m surprised at this. I can’t figure out what happened to all the fresh, vigorous, middle-aged people who were leaders here when I came fourteen years ago. What happened to you? If we value all we have built here; if we care about our legacy; if we believe that God is not finished with us, then there is absolutely no excuse for time out Christians, time out church members. This is the hour for serious, disciplined, time in Christianity. This is the hour for those who will work, give, teach, build, witness, share, and just plain love. We are called to proclaim the marvelous deeds of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous light.
The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves.
What does this mean? T. T is time out, taking care of me. T is time out, investing in myself, my needs, my wishes, my wants. But move the hands to a new position – this +. But +, the Cross, is Christ taking care of us. +, the Cross, is serious, sacrificial living.
T, time out, taking care of me? Been there, done that. Enough. Remember that there was one who made Himself of no reputation, but took on Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross. He took + Time in.
The time has come to love as He loved. + Time in.
The moment has arrived to serve as He served. + Time in.
The day is here to love Him +, love His church +, love His world +. We are called to proclaim the marvelous deeds of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous light.
+ Time in. + Time in.
