Published in the News Letter, Saturday 5th January
Whilst I sincerely wish you a happy New Year, I am fully aware that the passing of time gets fairly short shrift in my church’s tradition.
Whilst I sincerely wish you a happy New Year, I am fully aware that the passing of time gets fairly short shrift in my church’s tradition. The words used at the graveside which come from the 1559 Anglican Prayer Book are from the Book of Job and they are somewhat chilling – “Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower; he flieth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour but of thee, O Lord, which for our sins justly art displeased.”
And with many of the composers of our hymns, the transient nature of human existence and its very shortness is hammered home as well – even with the use of good hymn tunes!
Isaac Watt’s hymn “O God our help in ages past”, almost the official hymn of Northern Ireland, offers this perspective on time: “A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone, Short as the watch that ends the day before the rising sun”.
For sure in those days when Watt’s was composing, life expectancy was much less than it is today. Few lives then reached the ages they do today. But when you spend time talking with people in their 70s and 80s, you will often be struck by their remarks as to how short life is – even by those who have been gifted with such longevity.
Part of the problem in coming to terms with “time” from a Christian perspective is that the English language has only one word for time, whereas the Bible has several. For the most part it uses two words which emphasise important differences about time. There the word “chronos” from which we get chronology – the measurement of time, of time’s passing. And then there is the word “chairos” – God’s time – which is associated with critical times, times of crises, times when God is present in love and in judgment even though many may not recognise it.
It is this latter sense of time which believers in Christ have to take seriously. How is God present with us? The scripture would suggest God’s presence in every situation is one of love, justice and judgment. As the old wisdom on the embossed cards which were hanging on the walls in many homes in my childhood days stated – “God is the silent listener at every conversation, the unseen guest at every meal…”
I truly regret and am concerned that this sense of God’s presence in the basic exchanges of daily living seems to have diminished in the consciousness and the consciences of people. I believe it brought a sense of personal accountability to God not just for our words and actions, but in our use of God-given time, and our accountability for how we used this gift from the God of life itself.
As another hymn writer, Frances Ridley Havergal, states – “Another year is dawning, Dear master let it be, In watching or in waiting, Another year with Thee.”
It is now 2013 AD – Anno Domini – The Year of The Lord. This New Year is God’s gift to us, and we are accountable for how we use this most precious gift of life itself on behalf of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Saviour, in the Godly purpose of redeeming the world.
Houston McKelvey