For the world says that time first is a commodity, something we own, and can even manage.  As we can with any commodity, time we're told can be measured and weighed, and needs to be doled out carefully and grudgingly, - spent (what an intriguing word applied to "time!") discreetly.  Like some of you, I have a PDA ("Personal Digital Assistant!") - a Palm Pilot, and with it I pretend to manage my time.  It allows me to break down each hour into five minute segments . . . and I can color each morsel of time for various purposes - office, visiting, sermon preparation, personal . . . the possibilities are endless!  I could even, I suppose, create a category called "squander" - but I don't think the Palm people would recommend it.  Time, this way-too-busy world tells us, is short - not enough of it!  So plan it, save it, use it, manage it.

            But our bulletin cover today tells us something quite different!  My times - says the psalmist, (from Psalm 31:15) my times, your times - My times are in your hands, O God.  Not my hands; not yours.  The times of my life, and even the time in my day, is not my time at all, fundamentally.  My time is not mine to own, but God's, ultimately.  Our days - and even our hours, our minutes - are God's, and not ours. And that's a very different view of time; it's a liberating view!

            The world says that time must be managed because - this is the second lie we have believed about time - they say, we don't have enough of it.  And there's not enough of it because the world gives us far too much to do, if we believe them.  And indeed trying to cram three hours worth of doing anything into one hour is first of all impossible, and secondly, deadly to soul, and to body.  I've tried it - many times! - and I bet you have too.

            We kill our souls, don't we, and our bodies running about vainly trying to do more with "our time" than any one person possibly could.  Go there, do this, see that, talk with her, find a hobby, serve the poor, clean the house, balance the checkbook, should I rebalance my portfolio, and if I don't will I be homeless someday? Take out the compost, and coach your daughter's soccer team on the way, take your son to baseball, but do try to get to church more often!  When will we admit that people and institutions and our own expectations ask more of our time than we can give?  Our souls long for balance, for rest, for sanity.

            In stark contrast, my favorite poet says, Squander the day, but save the soul. [Mary Oliver, The Lark]

            Carol and I have a print by Brian Andreas called Enough Time.  It's right by the door where we go out every day - a print we don't look at often enough.   It says this:

Everything changed the day she figured out

there was exactly enough time

for the important things in her life.

            Some of you have traveled to Mediterranean countries, and know that they way Italians, say, understand time is very different - refreshingly different - from how we Americans do.  Italians go to bed late (after enjoying a late evening meal that takes the whole evening), work til noon, and then everything closes down until 3:00, at which time work resumes until about 5:00.  Then they put on their best clothes and join the promenade through town, chatting arm in arm with friends, anticipating the dinner to come.  They have a wonderful phrase: La dolce far niente - "Doing sweet nothing!"  They seem to have, though, time for the most important things in life. 

            "But," you object, "if everybody here adopted that view of time our nation's productivity would plummet, and we'd lose our competitive edge, and our whole economy would collapse . . . " And you are probably right.  But believe me, "the whole nation" is not going to become Italians . . .  But we could a little more, and be a lot healthier for it, and happier.

            I say this Advent season let's try to live more in Advent time, rather than the world's time.  I say let try thinking that our times and our time are in God's hands, not ours.  Let's try believing that God calls us not to "spend time" chasing the false goals of the world, but to receive time as a gift, a gift with no strings attached.  Except maybe to live that time in joy, with purpose, in faith believing there is just enough time - maybe even plenty of time - to do what is most important.

            There is a new worship time being offered during Advent - beginning this Thursday evening, at 5:30 - a half hour of quiet meditation, simple song, prayer, candlelight, and that most rare of experiences these days: silence.  I invite you to give yourself the gift of time by taking part in these services - they will be every Thursday evening, for three weeks.  Come and let your soul be renewed; come and be in Advent time!

            Some of you know that I bought a new watch last summer - I'll be glad to show it to you later.  It's a simple watch - but one that is always correct, and in fact never needs to be wound, or battery replaced.  No, it's not an "atomic" clocks that constantly corrects itself.  But it's always right.  And it's not solar, or self-winding.  But it never stops.

            For my watch has but a simple word: "Now."  What time is it?  Now.  Always.

            With my new watch, I have been more free of artificial time - "Greenwich Mean Time."  Why do the people in Greenwich get to decide what time it is?  And why call it "mean," for that matter?  I prefer to live - as best I can - in the Now time, which is God's time - Advent time.  My new watch has helped.

            But as with anything else in life, one gets used to seeing "Now" on one's watch, and I have not been looking at it enough.  I need a reminder that all time is God's, that all time is a gift, that we have enough time to do what is most needed, really important.  Maybe you do too.