If there is something that runs as a thread through this morning's service, a characteristic that keeps reappearing in the various elements of our activities here in worship,
it is time.

Time.
Each one of you took the time to travel here and enter the experience....
.... the time.....
of worship.

We've been able to pray together about some of the times that you've experienced this last week and will encounter in the week to come.

Dan & Melanie have rejoiced in a very special time with the baptism of Arielle.

And you, our new elders and deacons - this moment is the beginning of a period of time when you will be serving the Lord in a special capacity:
servants of Jesus Christ; office bearers, under shepherds, in His Church.
A time and a task for which you will be held doubly accountable by our Lord, and in which God calls us to surround you with prayer and double honour.

Time.
Ah, that very precious commodity. Given to all of us in the same measure - 86,400 seconds per day.
Each day again a new gift.
Can't store it or bank it.
Use it or lose it - this gift of time.

And, like every other gift - we're called to account for how we handle it.

Over the last three weeks we've heard the challenge from God's Word about living as stewards.
A steward is a caretaker, an administrator, one who develops and protects the well being of something that belongs to another.

In our first session we considered our mandate to explore and develop creation. We are stewards of the cosmos.
On June 6^th we were reminded by God's Word about the non-negotiable need to share the good news of Jesus with those around us. We are stewards of the gospel.
Last Sunday the Bible showed us that living as Christians is not a strictly private thing between me and the Lord. Rather, He holds me accountable for the well-being of those around me - we are stewards of each other.

Today, the last in our series, and the challenge to live as stewards of... time.

Which is a theme that appears in the following segment of scripture. Please join me in reading:
 

Time.
Stewards of time.
In verse 2 of our reading Peter talks about someone who "does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires." "Rest of his earthly life" is literally translated "the rest of his chronology" or "the rest of his time".
In verse 3 we read that "you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do...." Literally that is - "You have had enough of a chronology doing what pagans chose to do...."

Time is thought of here in the sense of a timeline - the sort of thing that fills our daytimers and calendars:
the regular events and occurrences of our lives
the stream of activities
the drone of the moments
the days that tumble into weeks, and months, and years -
- one after another.
Chronological time.

It is the stream of time within which we show hospitality and speak and serve and share and work and play and rest and travel and learn and grow.... and die.
It is what Ecclesiastes 3 speaks of when it paints a collage that includes:
"a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to search and a time to give up."

The chronology of time -
Acts 20.18 gives us the example of the Apostle Paul who was aware that each moment he had was a gift given to him by God. And so he was bound and determined to use each of those moments in the absolutely best way possible - serving the Lord to the utmost of his ability.

The chronology is different in length. Some of you are granted many decades - our oldest member in Calvin church is 95. A close friend of my family is over 100, a wonderful Christian man. What stories, what a chronology, they can share! Others of us have buried loved ones before they hit puberty or ever held down a steady job.
We don't have the luxury of waiting till whenever. It may not ever come for us. Life hangs on a very delicate thread.

Chronology - the bible points out in several places that we have this gift of time to build our relationships with each other and with our Lord. Revelation 2.21 describes it as time given to get things set right with our Saviour.
Some will.
And some won't.
How about you?

The chronology of time. It's a little bit like our supply of clean drinking water here in Canada. We think we have a lot. No need to be too careful. There's always a little more to replace it. Until one day we realize that that supposedly great reserve is getting mighty depleted. But we can't get back what's already run through our fingers.

"Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" says Psalm 90.12. That's the prayer of the steward of time. A prayer to the Lord who created the days, the seasons..... our lifetimes.
"The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled" says Peter.

Elders, deacons - you have been given a fresh batch of chronological time, the next three years. How will you use it to serve the Lord? How will you challenge, guide, encourage, lead us to serve?
You are entering a new chapter. May God guide you to use it well.

May He guide you, and each of us to be open to special moments that appear within these larger chronologies of time. Moments that are the times of significant happenings; turning point moments; moments of making choices; encounter moments; trauma moments.
The Bible uses a special word to describe these kinds of moments.
Instead of chronos, the greek word from which we get "chronology" it uses the word kairos.
Chronos time is the marking of the seasons, the turning of calendar pages.
Kairos time is taking a red marker and highlighting certain moments along the calendar way.

Dan & Melanie, you are celebrating a kairos moment in your life - the great miracle of birth; the grace moment here at baptism where God reminds us that Arielle belongs to Him and we, together with you, are responsible for her care and upbringing.
It's a highlight point along the way. One that goes right up there with your marriage.

Kairos moments of time - births, new jobs, trips, encounters, events with parents or children. Today is Father's Day, a chance for us to look back along the chronology that has already swept under the bridge, so to speak, and to consider some of those kairos moments we have encountered.
Your son's first step
Walking your daughter down the aisle
Holding your grandchild for the first time
Celebrating an anniversary
Working together with your spouse to overcome a special challenge
Standing at a graveside.

Dad - a special challenge for you. I don't think I'm saying anything new when I suggest that it's so easy for us to get caught up in the swirl of chronos time, the day to day stuff that swamps our daytimers -
- to get so caught up by it all that we miss those kairos moments, which come only once and are gone in a flash.

Kairos time - the Bible tells us about the greatest moment in the chronology of the cosmos. Galatians 4:
When the kairos - (the time) - had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons.

That's the same moment spoken of in Romans 5.6:
You see, at just the right Kairos - (the right time) - when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

That's the great moment around which all of cosmic history revolves; around which our lives revolve. The eternal path of our existence depends on how we respond to this great Kairos moment; on how we respond to Jesus.
Do we surrender and place him at the centre?
Or do we carry on with our chronology as though Jesus, his death and resurrection never happened?

The great moment in History of Jesus being on earth gives meaning and focus to our seasons and times. It gives purpose and hope as we keep open for those surprising and special moments - the Kairos moments which God sends into our lives.

Dan & Melanie - point Arielle and your other children to that moment.
Elders, deacons - keep us always aware of and faithful to that great turning point of history.
Fathers - one of the greatest gifts you can give your families is that of your example as a man whose chronos is shaped by the Kairos of Christ - whose life and career and home.... whose whole chronology is shaped by the great event of Jesus dying and rising from the dead for you.
That you love Him.
Serve Him.
Have a living, growing relationship with Him.

If you get right down to it, that's Peter's desire and prayer for those to whom he wrote his letter. And that's my prayer for you, for me, for each of us.

For only then can we be truly meaningful stewards of time.
Redeemed stewards who belong to Jesus.
Stewards who carefully handle the seasons He grants.
Stewards who stand aware of and open to special moments He will send.

Stewards who know that all the chronological events and seasons will one day come into the open at the great Kairos moment when Jesus returns to earth as Lord and Judge of All;
Stewards who long for that.
Stewards who handle their time working towards that moment.