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Sunday's Sermon
Feb 4, 2007

1058
The Only Time you Own
The Rev. Dennis Posno

 

Those words, just read, are familiar to almost all of us.
We know from experience
that there is a time for everything …
that there is a season for every activity under heaven.

We know from experience
that, having been born, we will all die.
Woody Allen’s character in the movie Annie Hall said,
“It’s not that I’m afraid of dying; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
I’m with Woody.

But it is in that time in between
that the seasons of life unfold:
the times of weeping and laughing …
the times of mourning and dancing …
the times of loving and hating.

We know from experience
that some of those times break us
and some of them mend us …
that some of them we wish would last forever
and some we wish would be over, yesterday.

And often, if not always, as the writer suggests throughout the chapters,
it seems so futile
so meaningless
so pointless.

Time.
It is an odd thing, isn’t it.

Ask a woman, giving birth to a child after hours of labour.
She would tell you that time just drags on mercilessly.

Ask the same woman, holding that baby in her arms.
She would tell you that all the time in the world holding her is not enough time …
that time is too short.

We all have our experiences with time
because we’ve all used the clichés:
there’s time that’s up
and time to spare …
time well wasted
and time well spent …
time on our hands
and not enough time …
time stands still
and time marches on
and time flies …
there’s time to kill
and there’s time that runs out.

Question is: How are you using your time?
Because despite what the author of Ecclesiastes says,
that it is really all quite futile
and we might just as well eat, drink, and be merry,
it really does make a difference …
in many ways, time is all we have …
and the present moment is the only time we own.

Time isn’t just a futile, meaningless, pointless blurring run
of seconds running into minutes
and minutes running into hours
and hours running into days and weeks and months and years.
It is so much more.
After all, it was Jesus who said
“I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full …”
have it in abundance.

What are you doing with the time of your life?
The only time you own?
Are you experiencing it in its fullness?
Or is it empty?
Are you filling up the moments with things that matter
or are you just putting in time.

Let me tell you a story.

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago.
Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic.
He was notorious for
enmeshing the windy city in everything
from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie."
He was his lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good!
In fact, Eddie's skill at legal manoeuvring
kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.

To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well.
Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends.
For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion
with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day.
The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block.

Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob
and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.
Eddie did have one soft spot, however.
He had a son that he loved dearly.

Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education.
Nothing was withheld.
Price was no object.
And, despite his involvement with organized crime,
Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong.

Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.
Yet, with all his wealth and influence,
there were two things he couldn't give his son;
he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision.
Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done.
He decided he would go to the authorities
and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone,
clean up his tarnished name,
and offer his son some semblance of integrity.

To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob,
and he knew that the cost would be great.
So, he testified.

Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire
on a lonely Chicago Street.
But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer,
at the greatest price he could ever pay.

Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion,
and a poem clipped from a magazine.

The poem read:

The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time
For the clock may soon be still.

But, as some may say of time, and of Easy Eddie’s time,
was it too much, too little, too late?
Who knows?

Let me tell you a second story.

World War II produced many heroes.
One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare.
He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington
in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission.

After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge

and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank.
He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship.

His flight leader told him to return to the carrier.
Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.

As he was returning to the mother ship
he saw something that turned his blood cold:
a squadron of Japanese aircraft
were speeding their way toward the American fleet.
The American fighters were gone on a sortie,
and the fleet was all but defenseless.

He couldn't reach his squadron
and bring them back in time to save the fleet.
Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger.

There was only one thing to do.
He must somehow divert them from the fleet.
Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety,
he dove into the formation of Japanese planes.
Wing-mounted 50 calibres blazed as he charged in,
attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another.
Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation
and fired at as many planes as possible
until all his ammunition was finally spent.

Undaunted, he continued the assault.
He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail
in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible
and rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.

Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return.
The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale.
It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet.
He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942,
and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II,
and the first Naval Aviator to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour.

A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29.

His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade,
and today, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago
is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.
A statue honouring his bravery is still there.

For both of these men, time was all they had.
And that in between time,
between the time they were born and the time they died,
was used so differently.

But there is an interesting twist
to these two very different stories
of two very different men:
for you see, Butch O'Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son.

In one of my favourite readings ~
a favourite because of the simple truths it reinforces
and the plain reminders it suggests of living life well ~
the author writes:

This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it ~ or use it for good,
but what I do today is important
because I am exchanging a day of my life for it!
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, and not loss;
good, and not evil;
success, and not failure;
in order that I shall not regret the price I have paid for it.

“Easy Eddie”, even with his death bed attempt at redemption,
and even though at the last he did a good thing,
really did live a life of regret:
of loss, not gain …
of evil, not good …
of failure, not success.

And his son? He lived it, at the end, sacrificially.
Not for himself, but for others.
And in his loss there was gain.
In his life, given, other’s lives were saved.

Henry Ward Beecher wrote:

God asks no (one) whether (they) will accept life.
That is not the choice.
You must take it.
The only choice is how.

As you look at your life,
at the time between when you were born and right now, today, this moment,
how are you putting in your time?
How have you taken it?
And however you’re putting it in,
are you happy with it?
Do you feel good about it?
However you’re taking it,
is your life making a helpful and hopeful difference?
Or is tattered around the edges?
Is it needing, not just an adjustment, but a major overhaul?

Take a look around you.
Take a look within you.
And if you’re needing to
change the direction …
adjust the tuning …
try a new translation …
take a new picture …
set aside the baggage …
do it.

Carrying a rosary and a crucifix and a religious medallion as “Easy Eddie” did
does not make a good life
any more than carrying around a Bible
or wearing a cross around your neck
or shouting “Hallelujah” does.
That’s just window dressing.
It’s not the real deal.

How we live our lives, ultimately,
taking into account that there are many things
that influence and give shape to them,
many things that push and pull them in all sorts of directions,
is how we choose to live our lives.

How we talk,
how we act and react …
how we think and feel …
the attitudes we own and the way we live
ultimately
are the way of our choosing.
And if the present is the only time we own,
we had better choose well ~
for our lives, and the lives of others,
depend on it.

In our affirmation this morning
we expressed through its words a longing:
a longing for a place to go for help and healing and hope …
a place where the best of life is not only affirmed but possible.
And we affirmed that these things are found ~
not so much in a place but in a Person …
not so much in a someplace but in a Someone.

And in our last hymn ~
which in many ways echoes the affirmation ~
we will, through its words,
be committing ourselves again to walk in the way of Jesus.

For it is
in our following Him
in our aspiring to be like Him
in our opening ourselves to His Spirit
in our choosing to strive to live as He lived
in our giving ourselves to the way of love,
that we can live a better life than we are living …
a better life than we dared imagine.
And the only time we own, today, right now, can be transformed
because it is connected with the eternal.

So let’s do just that,
so that it will be gain, and not loss;
good, and not evil;
success, and not failure;
in order that we shall not regret the price we have paid for it.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

SCRIPTURE

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Footnote: