What Will You Do with the Balance of Time?

With nine days left in Advent, I recall a word that I spoke earlier this season. That word is busy. If you have not completed your shopping, shipping, card-sending, cookie-baking and caroling activities, get busy because the balance of time remaining gets shorter by the minute. That said, I reserve the word busy for my third point, which is balance. I summarize today’s sermon in three B’s: Benedictus, Bible and Balance. Zechariah’s Benedictus, the Hebrew Bible and the balance of time we have left.

We derive the word Benedictus from two Latin words. The Romans combined the words bene, meaning well, and dicere, meaning to say or speak, and formed the word benedicere, which means to bless, praise or speak well of.

Zechariah’s Benedictus is a short song that begins, “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.” The English translation is, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.”

There is a second benedictus in Matthew. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, “The crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’”[i] We sing or speak that benedictus during the Sanctus when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

The Benedictus is one of the three canticles in the opening chapters of Luke. The other two are the “Magnificat” and the “Nunc dimittis.” We also sing or speak Zechariah’s Benedictus during Matins or Morning Prayer. The other two, we sing or speak during Evening Prayer, Night Prayer and Divine Service.

Zechariah’s words were the first he uttered since Gabriel silenced him for doubting God’s message that Elizabeth would bear a son. At the son’s birth, joyful neighbors and relatives were prepared to name the boy after his father. At that point, Elizabeth insisted that they name the baby, John. Perplexed, they asked Zechariah, who wrote, “His name is John.”

So, while the Benedictus belongs to Zechariah, Luke drew the content from the Hebrew Bible, that is, the Old Testament. Hence, my second point, the Bible.

The Benedictus falls into two parts: vv. 68-75, which ends with “holiness and righteousness before him all our days,” and vv. 76-79, which begins with, “and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High.” Some think the first part was a hymn circulated among the followers of John, and that the second part was a Christian addition that clarified and summarized what John and Jesus did.[ii] Whatever the case, the first part praises God not for sending John but for sending Jesus, the horn of salvation raised up for us in the house of his servant David.

Luke referenced David’s hymns of praise[iii] and recalled God’s covenant with Abraham, which is superseded by the cup of blood offered by our Lord, whose way John prepared.[iv]

Way is a recurring theme in Luke. We know the Emmaus disciples were on their way when they encountered the Risen Lord;[v] and it is the name of the first followers of Jesus. We read in Acts, “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”[vi]

Luke also recorded that when Paul spoke in the synagogue in Ephesus, he encountered resistance. “When some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him.”[vii]

Another Old Testament idea Luke employed in the canticles was the visit. To grasp what Luke attempted to convey, imagine a child announcing excitedly to the family the arrival of a special guest. (“Heee’s heeerrrreee!!!”) That is the tone of these canticles.

The rich biblical idea of visitation best described what God was about to do through the ministry of John and Jesus.[viii] The word visit is from the Latin visitare meaning to go to see or come to inspect. We use visit when we go and stay with a person or at a place for a short time for sociability, business, or curiosity. We visit friends, clients and famous places. It also means to come upon or afflict with sickness or punishment.  So, depending on who your visitor was, you either welcomed or rejected him. Here, through the ministry of John and Jesus, God visited his people and redeemed them or set them free.

Luke recorded visitation reactions. After Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain, fear seized the crowd, “and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’”[ix]

When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he said, “The days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”[x]

As Moses visited his people to bring them salvation[xi], so God visited the people of Israel offering salvation through Jesus. However, in contrast to the salvation and redemption of old, which was a freeing from slavery and an inheritance of a land, this salvation was redemption from sins.[xii] That is why the Benedictus described how God visited his people in the past and will visit them again.[xiii]

The key question becomes: How is the visit received? Who will be hospitable to this visit and find salvation? Who will not?[xiv]

God visits me with the offer of salvation. Am I hospitable to God’s visit? Am I as excited as a little child announcing the arrival of a special guest or do I turn Him away at the door?

Moving to my third point – balance – I turn to the question posed by the people who heard Zechariah. They wondered, “’What does the future hold for this child?’ It was clear that the Lord was with him.”[xv] Zechariah addressed their question within the broader theme of salvation. For with John’s birth, God set in motion the promised messianic liberation.[xvi]

What does the future hold for this child? What does the future hold for me? Christ accomplished salvation. His sacrificial blood poured out for me I drink. So, I know what the future holds for me. The question for me is not will I be hospitable to God’s visit and find salvation or not? The question is: How will I spend the balance of time I have left?

The French gave us the word balance. They actually borrowed it from the Romans, whose term bilanx meant a scale having two pans. In Latin bis means twice and lanx means dish or plate. Hence, a scale of a balance is an apparatus for weighing. Accountants and politicians picked up its use 400 years ago.[xvii]

Today, businesses encourage employees to seek balance. Time Management Ninja posted, “5 Secrets of Keeping Your Daily Life in Balance.”[xviii] Forbes posted, “30 Time Management Tips For Work-Life Balance.”[xix] Ladies, WebMD offers, “5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance: Beat burnout by making more time for the activities and people that matter most to you.”[xx]

My dog, Travis, taught me a lesson in balance. When I place a tennis ball on his head, he balances it. A second later, he whips his head to his right and snatches the ball in his jaws. Balance.

Our time flies as swiftly as that moment I place the ball on Travis’ head and the second he snatches it in his jaws. That is how much time we have between December 16 and December 25. Of course, you must complete your shopping, shipping, card-sending, cookie-baking and caroling activities because your balance of time gets shorter by the second. On the grander scale, what will you do with the balance of time you have left in Advent? In December? In your life? Before Christ returns in glory?

I posed the question of how I will spend the balance of time to several friends and family members. Here are a few responses.

My pastor friend and father of three, simply said, “Sleep.” My friend, Wendell said, “Hopefully with the balance of time left to me I will glorify God more and more - my primary purpose for being here. May this be true with the help of the Holy Spirit.”

Finally, Michael Zabrocki, a musician, wrote this. “Your question came at a very [trying] time. My wife's mom, who has lived with us for around 30 years, is in hospice dying of ALS. I am sure she will not make Christmas. During this time, I have been reflecting on my own last days. Easy to do when you are ‘in the shadow of death.’ …

These days are making me appreciate my family and the gift of life more than ever. While I pray I have many years left, one never knows.

I have been taking stock of what gifts I’ve been given – where I should be spending more time and of course eliminating where I waste time.

My focus is sharper. I find myself seeing God in all – the good and the bad. Seeing His hand in creation, time and eternity. Peace is becoming a paramount concern – or rather – goal. I can't give peace but the Prince of Peace can, and I pray He guides my feet into the way of peace.

 I appreciate my family more and want to serve God by serving Him. Not sure if it's a legacy I want to leave but that is a good word to use. I am learning to trust God more.”

How shall we spend the balance of time? Will we learn to trust God more? Will we glorify God or will we sleep? John the Baptist prepared the way for God to visit us. In the balance of the time we have left, I ask that we welcome our Lord who visits us in Word and Sacrament and follow Him on the way. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[i] Matthew 21:9

[ii] Craddock, 33.

[iii] Psalm 144 and 1 Chronicles 29:10-19. Both begin with blessings in praise of God. See Just, 96.

[iv] Arthur A. Just, Jr., Luke 1:1 – 9:50. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1996), 99.

[v] Luke 24:32-35

[vi] Acts 9:1f.

[vii] Acts 19:9

[viii] Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press (2000), 28.

[ix] Luke 7:16

[x] Luke 19:43f.

[xi] Acts 7:23-25

[xii] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2010), 200. See Luke 1:73-77; Acts 2:38-39.

[xiii] Just, 97.

[xiv] Byrne, 28.

[xv] Luke 1:66 - GOD'S WORD® Translation

[xvi] Byrne, 27.

[xvii] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=balance

[xviii] http://timemanagementninja.com/2013/09/5-secrets-of-keeping-your-daily-life-in-balance/

[xix] http://www.forbes.com/sites/francesbooth/2014/08/28/30-time-management-tips/

[xx] http://www.webmd.com/women/features/balance-life