FROZEN TIME! 

Jesus had just finished predicting the destruction of the temple and his disciples asked him when this would take place? He then gave them this rather cryptic response about signs in the heavens and the earth.  In every generation since Jesus, emphasizing every, there have been those who were sure they were seeing in eclipses and comets, raging storms, earthquakes and international conflicts the signs of which Jesus spoke; usually presented in the context of judgment and fear. The fact that they all seem to ignore is that Jesus' forecast of the temple's destruction was fulfilled in 70 AD when the Romans smashed the place to smithereens.  Does this mean that all the rest of this is irrelevant and no longer has meaning for us?  Is Jesus' picture of upheaval meant to be taken literally?  Should we be in the business of trying to "correlate" events around us with what Christians have commonly referred to as the "end times?"

The answers to these questions have always been hotly debated within the Christian community.  So what can we say about this passage.  I believe there are a few things we can say: 

1)  First, the Christian view of history is linear.  Christianity declares there was a beginning and there will be an end.  But that's not what I want to talk about today. That's another sermon.  

2)  The second thing is that the time-table of these events is known only to God, and it is not our business to try and figure it out. In Mark 13 Jesus says no one, not even he, knows the day or hour.  In Acts 1 the disciples asked Jesus a similar question about when these events would take place, and Jesus responded, "It is not for you to know the times of seasons that God has set by his authority."  But that's not what I want to talk about today.  That's another sermon. 

3)  The third thing is that when that awesome time does arrive we need not live in fear and despair, but rather we can "stand-up, (and) raise our heads because redemption is drawing near."  In other words, for the Christian this has nothing to do with fear and despair, but it has everything to do with faith, faith that ultimately God will fulfill His good intention for the whole creation. 

This is what I want to talk about today.  I believe "end times," if you will, occur for each of us all the time, right now in the present; perhaps not in the final way as Jesus describes, but in little ways.  I believe these verses do having meaning for you and me today, especially if we read them beyond the literal and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us. This passage is about a time, when time as we know it will cease to be; when time will freeze.   But I think each of knows a little something about that already. Let me explain.   

I was watching an episode of a favorite TV series, and one of the characters asked another, "Have you ever had a moment of perfect clarity?"  A moment of perfect clarity would be a moment when we could say time freezes, and you see the truth of something like never before. Jesus is saying that there will be times when time will freeze; and the opportunity will present itself to see things as you have never seen them before.  He is suggesting that precisely at that moment when time freezes, don’t be afraid, or succumb to it, or dismiss it, but rather see it as an occasion to "stand up and raise your head" towards God, for you may see something with a clarity the likes of which you have never seen before. 

Remember the story of David in the Old Testament when at the height of his glory and power, the prophet, Nathan, came to him and told him a story.  "Your majesty in one of your cities there is a rich man who had many herds and flocks, and there was a poor man who had this one lamb that he and his children loved very much. The rich man had a house guest for whom he wanted to prepare a feast, but instead of using one of his own lambs he took the lamb of the poor man."   David was shocked and angry at such a thing and demanded the man be punished!  Nathan then said, "David, you are the man!"  The words shook David's heart like and earthquake!  He had deceitfully taken Bathsheba out of lust, and clandestinely arranged it so her husband Uriah would be killed in battle.  For David, time froze! 

A student received a term paper back with a very low grade on it.  Shocked, the student went to his professor with the question why.  The professor quietly said to him, "Because you didn't put in very much work on it, did you, Joe?"   That was 40 years ago, but for me at that moment time froze!  I saw myself for who I was, and I didn't like it – a moment of clarity!   

The parent asks the child, "Why don't you talk to me?"  The child intensely responds, "Because you never want to hear what I have to say."  A moment of frozen time!

There are times when God seems to be silent; the terrible feeling of the absence of God at a time of personal need, grief or despair.  Such a moment can prompt the heart to cry out as Jesus did in his loneliness and pain, "My God, my God, why has you forsaken me?" -  Frozen time!  

A house reverberates with the silence caused by the loss of one with whom that house was once shared.  In the depth of grief and sorrow time seems to stop. 

You find yourself lying awake and you look over at your spouse, and you realize that even though there is great love between the two of you, not even she or he can completely touch your soul and fill your deepest inner emptiness - a moment frozen in time! 

You find yourself staring across the sanctuary, or across the classroom, or across the room at a person whose generosity and courage in meeting life's difficulties makes you ashamed of your own complaining;, or someone whose forgiving spirit makes you reconsider your own tendency to carry a grudge – and time freezes!

You can kiss off moments like these as nothing more than momentary uneasiness that will pass, or you can see events like these are most surely moments of frozen time; pregnant occasions that bring the opportunity to see things more clearly; times that God desires to break into your life in a new way, come with a new perspective, and a new way to live! 

The question for you and me today is what will we do with these unexpected moments of frozen time when the foundations of your life will be shaken?   Will you dismiss them with a shrug?  Will you succumb to them?  Or will you see them as opportunities for the Lord to come in the midst of life to give birth to something new in your life – new life and redemption. 

It might be a frozen moment in time when Jesus can be born into your world all over again.  In your grief and despair it might be a frozen moment in time to see the cross of the suffering Christ is firmly planted in the sorrowing soil of your life and taking hope in that in Christ with the cross comes the promise of resurrection and new life!

When these moments come, embrace them, don't shrug them off or even fear them.  Don't rely merely on your own limited resourcefulness to cope, but receive them as frozen moments in which God desires to break in to do something new and marvelous in your life; see the loving gracious God, who is just beyond the horizon of sight ready to break in and come all over again, just like he once did in the babe of Bethlehem so long ago, and like he will one final last and glorious unknown time ahead.   "When these things begin to take place," says Jesus, "look up and raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near."