The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 18, 2005
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“Finding Balance at the Speed of Life”
Many of us have a vague “feeling” that things are moving faster.
Doctors and executives alike complain that they cannot keep up
with the latest developments in their fields. Hardly a meeting or
conference takes place today without some ritualistic oratory
about “the challenge of change.” Among may there is an uneasy
mood- a suspicion that change is out of control. [p. 19]
Those words were written in the 1970s by Alvin Toffler for his mega-bestseller, Future Shock. Toffler continues his observations in a chapter he titled “The Pace of Life”, saying,
The average individual knows little and cares less about the cycle
of technological innovation or the relationship between knowledge-
acquisition and the rate of change. He is, on the other hand, keenly
aware of his pace of his own life – whatever that pace may be. [p. 36]
It is the pace of our lives that we will be concerned about today in this first of a series on finding balance in an unbalanced world. . A CNN poll in 2001 revealed that 69% of Americans said, “I would like to slow down. I would like more time to relax.” At the same time, a Harris poll said that we are actually spending 8 ½ hours less time per week in leisure than we did ten years ago. In the words of Pastor Rodney Buchanan, “As a nation, we are driving ourselves at an increasingly frenzied rate that is pushing us over the edge. We are trying to live out our dreams and finding ourselves living in a nightmare.”
Medical Doctor Richard Swenson observes that
Progress has given us unprecedented affluence, education, technology,
and entertainment. We have comforts and conveniences other eras could
only dream about. Yet somehow, we are not flourishing under the gifts
of modernity as one would expect. [Margin, p. 15]
What Dr. Swenson calls “the new universal constant” is “marginless living” (p. 13). He explains,
Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you
were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser’s because you were
ten minutes late dropping off the children at school because the car ran out
of gas two blocks from the gas station – and you forgot your purse. [ibid.]
Swenson suggests that
We feel distressed, but in ill-defined ways. We can tell life isn’t what it
used to be or perhaps not quite what we expected it to be. Then we look
at our cars, homes, and color televisions with remote control and conclude
that our distress must be in our imaginations.
But it isn’t in our imaginations; it is the truth about our reality. Life is moving at a hectic pace and it is difficult to find any sense of balance at the hyper speed of all that we have to do. How can we find balance at the speed of life? Could words written thousands of years ago have any relevance to our lives today? Let’s take a look and see.
At the beginning of our Old Testament reading, we hear, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The first verse of Ecclesiastes introduces the book as “the words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem” (1:1). Old Testament scholar R.B.Y. Scott calls Ecclesiastes “the strangest book in the Bible (Anchor Bible, 18:191). Scott comments, “The author’s mood of doubt and pessimism is one into which many reflective persons fall from time to time, and in which not a few of the more skeptical remain” (p. 193). Life with all its contradictions is one big challenge, and the smaller challenges that add up to that one big challenge can bring us all to doubt or pessimism from time to time.
If there is a season for everything, as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes says, and a time for every matter, why is it that many of us have such a difficult experience finding the time necessary for all the demands placed on us? With our boss telling us what to do, our spouse asking us to do something else, and our kids wanting another something else from us, where do we find the time? We may have school requirements, in addition to what the church is calling for each of us to do, the expectations of our extended family, close friends and neighbors, community organizations… Where is the time for all that life demands of us?
The biggest challenge of all may be to find some sort of rhythm that puts into place all the disparate pieces of our lives. How can we successfully manage the speed of life? How can we maintain our balance with all that our pace of life demands? In a Time magazine cover article entitled, “Stress, Anxiety and Depression,” the author called our condition “The twentieth century blues.” Many of us are over-extended and stressed-out as a result of too much happening too fast in our lives.
And yet, the ancient writer speaks about “a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
In the mind of the Preacher, there is a time for everything. God has ordained an appointed time for all that happens on earth, beginning with birth and ending with death, the boundaries of life. We are born and we die in God’s time. Planting and gathering happens according to the proper seasons. Planting a spring crop in the winter just won’t work. Planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall is the way that works best for most crops.
“There is a time to kill, and a time to heal,” that is, a time for war and a time for peace. There is a time to break down and a time to build up. Tearing down and building up may remind us of the situation in New Orleans and the Gulf. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. The Press and Sun-Bulletin reminded us yesterday of the humor that can come out of the darkest situations. Do you know President Bush’s position on Roe versus Wade? “He doesn’t care how people get out of New Orleans” (D1). I’ve been told that laughter is mentioned 38 times in the Bible (SC: Randy Aly), and it is has a remarkably strong healing power. Weeping and laughing give us the emotional release that we need in tragic times.
In the eight verses of our Old Testament lesson, the Preacher covers the gamut of human experience. God has given each of us an equal amount of time each day and while there are challenges for every day, we have enough time to accomplish all that God desires for us to accomplish in those 24 hours. It is part of our work on earth to discern the proper time for the appropriate action. The problem is that we suffer from a lack of vision that often blinds us as to what is the appropriate action and the right time for it.
Do you realize that in an average lifetime, an American will
Spend six months sitting at traffic lights waiting for them to change.
Spend one year searching through desk clutter looking for misplaced objects.
Spend eight months opening junk mail.
Spend two years trying to call people who aren’t in or whose line is busy.
Spend five years waiting in lines.
Spend three years in meetings.
Learn how to operate twenty thousand different things, from pop machines to
can openers to digital radio controls. [Swenson, p. 150]
Where does our time go? It’s out there at the traffic lights on the Parkway, on line at the Giant, et cetera, et cetera. No wonder it is hard for so many to find personal time or family time, or time alone with God.
I saw a cartoon with three of His disciples interrupting Jesus while He was at prayer. One is carrying an appointment book, saying,
“Sorry to interrupt the Quiet Time, Lord. But we’re due at the well at 8:30,
then the Temple at 9:15 before the Capernaum Rally… We’ve booked you
for a man born blind, ten lepers, and a demoniac this morning, then a
luncheon at Levi’s…”
Another of the three disciples breaks in, saying,
“Let’s go! … Should just make it if there aren’t too many paralytics…
or tax collectors up trees…!”
Do you suppose that Jesus carried a Daytimer or a Palm Pilot? Yet, Jesus maintained His balance, doing what was most important, living by His priorities, until He was put to death.
The preacher of Ecclesiastes concludes this section of chapter three with a question, “What gain has the worker from his toil?” The preacher answers his own question, saying, “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time” (3:9-11a).
In the words of Michael Quoust, poet and priest,
Lord, I have time.
I have plenty of time.
All the time that you give me,
The years of my life,
The days of my years,
The hours of my days,
They are all mine.
Mine to fill quietly, calmly,
But to fill completely, up to the brim,
To offer them to you, that of their insipid water
You may make a rich wine as you
Made once in Cana of Galilee.
How do we find this kind of perspective on life? We find it in a life that is oriented around God our creator and sustainer. To bring balance to our lives, we must learn how to take back the time that God has given us. Dr. Swenson gives us 16 prescriptions. I will briefly mention only six of them. All of Richard Swenson’s prescriptions can be found on a handout at the rear of the church.
First, expect the unexpected and build time margin into your daily schedule. Tasks generally take longer than the time that we allocate for them.
Second, learn to say no. We can’t say yes to everything others want us to do and maintain our balance.
Third, turn off the television. Swenson says that the average adult will gain thirty hours a week by doing this.
Fourth, practice simplicity and contentment. Swenson says,
Recognize unnecessary possessions for what they are: stealers of diving
time. At the beginning of every day we are given assignments that have
eternal significance – to serve, to love, to obey, to pray. Instead, we
squander much of this time on things that very soon will leave us forever.
[p. 156]
Fifth, develop long term vision as an antidote to short-term flurry. We cannot find balance for our lives if we live under what Charles Hummell calls “the tyranny of the urgent.”
Sixth, get less done but do the right things.
Finding balance in an unbalanced world means that we don’t juggle more balls than we can realistically keep in the air. We need to unload our overloaded lives and concentrate on what really is important.
Pastor Thomas Rhodes suggests that we take a walk around this cemetery and look at the tombstones. Each one tells us the name of the person, the date of birth and then date of death. Between the date of birth and the date of death is usually just a dash. Just a dash represents everything that person ever did in their life. Just a dash.
Our life really is just a dash. What are we going to do with it? My suggestion, based on the perspective that God gives us in Holy Scripture, is to focus our lives on the big picture. What is it that really matters most? In the eternal perspective, only God and people.
Orient your life around what really matters most and you will find the balance that you need. Jesus did this, and you can too. It may take some significant effort on your part, but it is worth it. You will find balance for your life when you orient your life around what matters most.
Let us pray.
Accept. O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
Disclaimer: The work found here (including this disclaimer) comes from a multitude of sources including but not limited to Sermon Central, commentaries, personal sermon collections and others. In all cases where similarities may occur I have taken materials and adapted them as (I trust) led by God. There is no attempt to claim sole authorship for anything offered here. Enjoy and may God bless you.
