"You Know What Time It Is"

“You Know What Time It Is”

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Date: September 10, 2017

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS

SCRIPTURE: PSALM 119: 33

–

40; ROMANS 13: 8

–

GRACE COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ASHEVILLE, NC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

The Rev. Dr. Marcia Mount Shoop, Pastor

Greg and Andrea Smith

had a plan.

Houston had only been their home since

July, so

their plan was the result of asking people who understand hurricanes more than

they do.

Andrea was due any time

now and she had been having contractions off and on for

several days. They would get to the hospital early

—

before

Hurricane Harvey h

Saturday night, there were a few clouds in the sky

and just a little rain. Everyone

agreed, better be safe than sorry, t

hey’d head to the hospital

Sunday morning.

Greg and Andrea are both docto

rs so they were thinking ahead and they were

watching th

e weather. Sunday morning cam

e and instead of the

few inches of rain

they

anticipated

there wou

ld be,

their

ment

was surrounded by 2

–

3 feet of rain.

Within a few hours, Andrea was in full

–

fledged labor, having pretty strong

contractions. It was time

. Greg tried 911 but there was literally no answer

His

mother, visiting from Montana to help with the new baby t

ried calling the

Coast

Guard

and got no answer

. The National Guard answered but

there was no way they

would be able to

get there in time.

Gre

g and Andrea and Greg’s mom

prepare

d for a home delivery. Their apartment

complex was full of medical professionals because it is near a Medical Center.

neighbor put a message on an online

message boa

rd for supplies. N

urses and

medical technicians from t

he neighborhood

brought any medical supplies they

might have.

Greg’s mother

boiled instruments to try and sanitize things.

As floodwaters rose,

a neighbor on the next floor up told them they could move

upstairs to her apartment

for the birth

. An out of

town obstetrician friend of Greg’s

was standing by on Skype to talk Greg through the impending delivery.

Meanwhile a neighbor contacted his father who lived across from a fire department.

The man waded across the street and told the firefighters what wa

s going on. They

were able to get a dump truck through the floodwaters.

When Greg heard the truck

outside he ran out to ask for help. The men in the truck said, “we’re here for you.”

Neighbors

then

lined up to

form

a human chain to get Andrea

and Greg

through the

waist high and

rising water up into the back of the truck. They made it to the

hospital in time for their daughter, Adrielle, to be born.

Adrielle was born with

some health issues and was admitted to the NICU

—

the hospital is where she needed

o be and she is going to be ok.

Natural disasters can bring out the best in our human family. These are the stories

that restore our faith in humanity, that make us feel like there might

some hope

for the world after all.

Touched by angels in our mi

dst.

People pulling together, even forming a human chain

—

skin to skin, arm in arm, not

letting suffering and tragedy have the last word as the rains just keep bearing down.

There is f

reedom

in that

human chain locked together by love, by a shared drea

m of

a world reborn, where each life matters

, and

people move heaven and earth to take

care of the most vulnerable among us.

There is freedom from oppression, freedom

from brutality, freedom from loneliness and isolation, freedom from despair when

the huma

n spirit elevates

into such active, willful love

—

a human chain binding us

together in love, freeing us up for love.

There is urgency in such extreme circumstances that can kick people in to another

gear

—

they know what time it is

—

and they wake up to how m

uch we need each

other to make and keep life on this planet.

That sense of urgency, that intuition and action of our profound connection to each

other, that “being woke and staying woke” way of being in the world

—

that’s what

Paul

is trying to get us to

see, to feel, to embody in Romans.

Paul is writing to a church in

a prominent urban center

—

a place like Houston

—

bustling with all kinds of people with conflicting ideas, practices, perspectives. He

wrote it with a broader audience in mind. His message

of God’s grace could spread

from the Roman church

, so it needed to carry the core truths of what it means to

follow Jesus.

And Paul felt a sense of u

rgency

—

humanity needed to wake up and smell the coffee.

With every day that passed, the world was getting

closer to Jesus coming back. Paul

has no time for malaise, no time for obliviousness or denial. Jesus’ followers must

live each day expectantly

—

busily preparing for the birth of a new world.

There have been a few since

Paul’s time

who have tried soun

ding such an alarm

—

get yourselves together, Jesus is coming back soon. But such a sense of urgency

more commonly circulates

as bumper sticker theology

and something we scoff at

than

it is

a way o

f life Christians embody in our

world.

Maybe you’ve seen th

em:

•

After the rapture can I have your car?

•

Jesus is coming back, look busy

•

Jesus is coming back and he’s pissed

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