Sacred Time

Gordon Kennedy November 27, 2021 0 2

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Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 (NIVUK)

1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
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 from embracing,
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.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure for ever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and God will call the past to account.

From everlasting, to everlasting,

you are God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

You have created all time,

the time which we cannot comprehend,

the time which we cannot grasp,

the time which confuses us,

the time which frustrates us,

the sacred time which blesses us.

Our calendars and diaries,

our time management systems

are our best attempts to control time.

In the smallness of our limited self-awareness

we vainly imagine that we choose our time.

Humble our pride before your gift of time,

    time for birth and death,

   time for tears and joy,

   time for war and peace.

We thank you God of all time,

that our times, all of them, are in your hand.

We bless you that when our times come upon us,

    we also are in your hand,

you do not watch us muddle through our times,

    you hold us in them.

Ah, Lord God,

even our best thoughts,

our deepest ponderings,

our most creative imaginations,

cannot reach the edges of your eternity.

Seconds, minutes and hours,

the matter of particular time,

this is not all there is.

Beyond moments there is always.

A hope for eternity, like a summer breeze,

joy without ending, like an ever-flowing stream,

love which goes on and on, in your ocean–wide presence.

We thank you that you fill our sacred moments of specific time

with the vision of your eternity.

We bless you that in your sacred eternity

all our particular times find a place.

Sacred God,

make sacred all our time.