Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

We proclaim our connection to the God of the past – the God of Abraham and Sarah, of Mary and Jesus, of Paul and Lydia, to the God of the present – who actively participates in the world and in our lives – and the God of the future who “is and ever shall be world without end.”

We know the nature of God through divine activity in time. Our Bible so often carefully lays out time – "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria." 

Time is a gift from God that is subject to the same criteria as other gifts – recognition, respect, stewardship.

God asks us to set aside specific time and to keep it Holy. We call it Sabbath. Some theologians argue that the creation of Sabbath is the climax of creation.

Children are fascinated with time. From the age of 6 to 12, most children want to make sense of time and their place in it.

I can remember watching our black and white kitty cat clock with the swishing tail and trying to understand 4:45 and quarter to five. I timed everything with my first watch – how long I could hold my breath, how long it took me to walk to school – to run the school, did the mill whistle blow exactly at 12 noon?

Children show great interest in trying to figure out God’s time – beginning with creation, animals (dinosaurs of course) people, then Abraham, King David, the birth of Jesus, on and on. More importantly they want to know where they fit in God’s time line. I think that they are attracted to mystery of time just as they are drawn to the mystery of life and God.

Children, more than adults, recognize that time is not in their control. And yet that is exactly what we try to do – to control time. AND our control of time is out-of-control.

Most families live in a scheduling nightmare. Refrigerators sport colour-coded calendars with each person’s schedule distinct from another. Children come equipped with cell phones or beepers in case there is a problem with pick up schedule. My daughter, a lawyer, works in 7 minute increments.

If families manage to make it on Sunday morning, how do
they look? In my experience, often harassed, stressed and late. Right after service they rush out of church to a game or to do the week’s shopping. It somehow seems ironic that, for families, connection to church often adds to the scheduling nightmare, rather than providing Sabbath time and renewal.