New Year’s Eve
Time Is On Our Side Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Our God declares in tonight’s Old Testament, “*In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.*” Dear Christian friends: Time was on Abraham’s side. He was seventy-five years old and childless when God first promised to make him a great nation. A decade and a half, and several promises later, Abraham still waited. No assistance was required from Hagar, the Egyptian slave. Eliezer of Damascus would not be needed as a substitute. No matter that Sarah was in her nineties, unable to bear a child. “*She shall become nations*;” declared the Lord, “*kings of peoples shall come from her*” (Genesis 17:16). Wait for it, Abraham. Time is on your side, old man. “*In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength*.” Time was on Joseph’s side, too. Falsely accused by those who had power over him, forgotten by those who could help him, Joseph sat in prison with nothing but an old promise from God. Had those Words been only a dream? Wait, Joseph. Time is on your side. “*In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength*.” Time was on Jeremiah’s side. He crouched in the dark and slimy depths of a well, fingertips against the wall. Jeremiah had been lowered into the well by those who did not wish to hear him preach. Wait, Jeremiah. While you wait, learn from God that faithfulness and forbearance rarely receive thanks. Time was on Elijah’s side. He sat in a cave and cried over his beer, worried that the congregation of Israel had dwindled to nothing. Waiting required Elijah to learn that our God *always* preserves His church. Not even the most committed opponents will gain any ground the Lord chooses not to give. “*And what more shall I say? Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and all the prophets*” (Hebrews 11:32)—all of whom had been given the promises of God; all of whom had to wait. Israel waited during her captivity in Egypt, and again during her exile in the wilderness. Daniel waited in Babylon; Ruth waited in Bethlehem; Simeon and Anna waited in the temple courts with “*all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem*” (Luke 2:38). And what did St. John the Evangelist see? [He] saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Lord, holy and true, how long? How long before You will judge and avenge our blood?” (Revelation 6:9-10). All of these people waited. In each and every case, time was on their side. Perhaps God made them wait so that we would not be quite so lonely in our waiting; so that we may hear these Words of God with opened ears and with the expectation of faith: “*In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength*.” Time is NOT slipping away from you. Time is on your side. The Lord your God has redeemed you, purchasing you with the blood of Christ to be His own, dear child forever. In time, Christ Jesus our Lord shall return to judge the living and the dead. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). I will admit that the Last Day is not usually at the forefront of my mind, especially when it comes to the things for which I wait. There are plenty of other things—lesser things—for which I wait. A certain portion of those things boils down to you. The pastor always has unfinished business with somebody. I have had to learn that time is on my side. Aside from the Word of God, I have nothing better to give you than time. I am not alone in waiting for lesser things. You also have other things—lesser things—for which you likewise earnestly wait. Your actions, your posture and your proximities all make it clear: You are waiting for your loneliness end, or for your body to get back to how it used to be. You are waiting for your children finally to get their heads screwed on straight, but that might not happen overnight. You are waiting to feel less angry, less knotted inside. You are waiting to feel less afraid. You are waiting for your nemesis to challenge you no more. Our fathers in the faith all waited for lesser things, too. They can help us: · Abraham might tell us that, while we wait, we should not attempt to force the situation or try to make things happen before their time. · Joseph would probably assure us that our God may be resolutely trusted, even if prolonged waiting should make all God’s promises seem like illusions and dreams. · Jeremiah might point us to the psalm, so that we also might pray while we wait: “Out of the depths have I cried to Thee, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication.” Elijah, Ruth, David, Simeon and Anna: Every single one of them would tell you that time is on your side; that waiting for the Lord is never time wasted or spent in vain. The resurrection of Jesus announces that not even death will mean that the game is over. So wait. Wait undisturbed. “*In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength*.”
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