redeeming the time
it’s not a monster — it’s eternity
Time. It has been the subject of artists and scientists, philosophers and theologians. It has been the concern of preparers of food, be it in five-star restaurants, diners, or my wife’s creations!
[On a side note: I’m usually pretty good with dates. For example, it might be the bittersweet memories of our dogs’ births and deaths. Our two Shelties were Duncan (28 December 1996 to 17 October 2011) and Aidan (24 October 2011 to 7 November 2018). Sadly, both were euthanized. Ronan, our Swiss Mountain Dog, was born on 27 October 2018. Unfortunately, all of them seemed oblivious to their birthdays.]
What is time? Is it composed in a way we can identify? We learn from Star Trek time is made up of chroniton particles. So that settles that!
The apostle Paul speaks about time in Ephesians 5. He addresses his hearers by saying, “Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (vv. 15–16). Making the most of the time is how the wise live. Regarding the bit about days being evil, it would make sense to understand that as referring to a certain time, to particular days, as being evil. But could it be something more fundamental, regarding time itself?
In his masterpiece, The Sabbath (which reads almost like poetry), Abraham Joshua Heschel suggests, “Time to us is sarcasm, a slick treacherous monster with a jaw like a furnace incinerating every moment of our lives.” He isn’t saying time is evil in and of itself, rather it’s our reaction to it. “We know what to do with space,” Heschel comments, “but do not know what to do about time, except to make it subservient to space. Most of us seem to labor for the sake of things of space. As a result we suffer from a deeply rooted dread of time and stand aghast when compelled to look into its face.” (5)
Genesis has God pronouncing aspects of creation — that is, space — as “good.” It is only the Sabbath — time — that is hallowed, pronounced holy.
The Greek word for “making the most of” is εξαγοράζω (exagorazō), that is, “redeem” or “reclaim.” We are encouraged to “redeem the time.” What is there to say about it? (Maybe reading the following thoughts and pausing after each would be helpful for one’s mental processing!)
To redeem time — to buy it back. To rescue that which was in the possession of another. To what, to whom, do we give time? In whose hands do we entrust it? What do we expect in trade?
And on that note about trade, here’s a comment from the 1599 Geneva Bible on redeeming: “This is a metaphor taken from the merchants: who prefer the least profit that may be, before all their pleasures.” For we mortals, time is a limited commodity. It’s best to not squander it!
Following that metaphor on trade and merchants and profit, these economic enterprises, one might ask, “Can time be stolen?” When we rob others of opportunities, when we deliberately and maliciously waste their time, and God forbid, when we kill them (literally or figuratively), that is the ultimate in stolen time.
Still, in the great universal order of things, we acknowledge that what comes around goes around.
So, to make the most of time — to redeem it — that is our task and privilege. Rather than robbing time, we can gift it. We can spend it by extending grace, not allowing evil to consume it and us.
Heschel expresses the glorious truth, “One must be overawed by the marvel of time to be ready to perceive the presence of eternity in a single moment. One must live and act as if the fate of all of time would depend on a single moment.” (76)
Friends, let’s do some serious redeeming of time.
