2344AFC110523 – Take Time To Be Holy (↔ Music Link)
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1 Thessalonians 2:8 – 8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
Matthew 23:11-12 – 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Malachi 2:10 – 10 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
Psalm 131:2-a –
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today’s title is taken from an old hymn, “Take Time to be Holy” by William Dunn Longstaff (1822-1894). I hope you will take time to listen to the Bowers Family Singers as they sing this beautiful and poignant hymn from the late 19th century. Time is the only resource that is equally accessible to everyone. My late friend Joann Hauler used to say, “We all get the same suitcase. How we pack is what makes the difference.” There are 168 hours in a week. If we suppose that it takes 30 minutes to get dressed and go to church, an hour in church, and 30 minutes to get back home, that’s two hours a week given to God. Two divided by 168 = 1.2% of a week. That’s a pretty small tithe! A true and willing tithe – 10% – would be about 17 hours a week. Seventeen divided by 7 = 2.4 hours per day. Not many of us are able (or willing!) to arrange our lives to put in that much time daily. Still, how can we follow The Apostle Paul’s teaching to “pray without ceasing?” Well, one way is to make our whole day a prayer as described in 2221AFC052722 – Make me an offer(ing)! You can find a suggested format here.
These suggestions are offered as ways to use our time rightly instead of unfruitfully. That’s what the Prophet Micah was writing about. This book of prophecy was written around 730-700 BC – a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea – during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham was a godly king. His son, Ahaz, was a complete opposite of his dad. Eventually, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became a godly king who reopened the Temple built by Solomon. He saw to it that only the True God was worshipped and did away with the abominable practice of setting up idols of other gods inside the Temple! If we apply our theme for today, Ahaz and Hezekiah made time to be holy and saw to it that their “family” – the Kingdom of Judah – had time for that, too.
We can see in our Key Verse from Micah that his declaration was proclaiming Jehovah as the one father of Israel. The priests and other components of the national governance desecrated the convenance established in the Shema: Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. “Hear, Israel, (↔ Music Link) the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” This declaration by Moses is so powerful! The connotation is “hear, listen to this, and obey.” In this “hearing” one achieves consent, agreement, and understanding because what is heard is so undeniably clear it goes straight to our hearts. We know we have heard Truth speak, and when Truth speaks, there is Life. Do you remember what Jesus said about truth? John 8:32 – 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” And Truth? John 14:6b – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That is the Life that comes from the listening. It is Everlasting Life that renews us. That renewal is testified to by God himself during Jesus’ Transfiguration. When we take time to be Holy, when we make our day-to-day lives a prayer, then we are getting a taste of that Everlasting Life – the Good Life. Have you heard this before: “Why would you ever want anything less than that?” Yeah. Me too. That redundancy is one of the reasons we have this weekly study. It might add 10-15 minutes to our 1.2%; listening to the (↔ Music Link) (not this one, though) might add an additional 0.2% so that we end up with (1.45/168) X 100=2.1%, a pretty decent increase. So, that’s part of why these end up in your inbox. But there’s more to it than that. The Apostle Paul gave us a hint.
“So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.” I have absolutely no doubt about the origin of this ministry. It is the accepting of the Gift by accepting the Promise of The Call. That Call was “Preach my Word” when I was a sophomore in high school, but that morphed a bit when I converted in 1969. I understood that Call as “Teach my Word.” That mission started around 1951-52, and I still haven’t finished responding to that Call mainly because there is such JOY in teaching! I agree with The Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Church in Philippi in Philippians 1:3-5-a – 3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with JOY in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. And that’s the Truth! On one hand, it makes me excited to get to the keyboard and letting the Holy Spirit pull things together. On the other hand, it is calming to be in his presence and feel my hands following his leading. It is like the Key Verse from Psalm 131 above – “2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” A nursing baby is fussy and restless, but a weaned child is contented and at rest. It is that kind of contentment I feel as the pages fill up.
Sometimes (last week for example), it’s more difficult; usually, though, I just relax and let it flow in JOY.[1] That JOY is a product of living in Hope. Back at the end of September when we spoke about Nemo, we read about Hope: “It is the Grace of Hope. Godly Hope is the combination of desire (it’s what we want) and expectation – (we believe we will receive it).” Well, just what – exactly – are we desiring and expecting? There’s a really great answer in 1 Peter 1:5-7 – 5 [you] who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. That’s quite a huge Hope! But, wait a minute – what about those different kinds of troubles? Are we experiencing that as well?
According to report from Open Doors Research (↔ Learning Link): North Korea is the most dangerous place for persecution of Christians; world-wide last year 5,621 Christians 
were martyred for their faith; over 2,000 churches were attacked; and 140,000 Christians were displaced. (see the link above for more details). That’s from last year. In 2023 we know it’s going to be much, much larger. These data include only Christian persecutions. They do not include Muslim or Jewish murders and persecutions, or deaths from warfare. That is indeed a heaping heap of “difficulties.” Reports of corporate, governmental, and even inter-religious prejudices, mistreatments, and shady activities are “in the news” almost daily. I put that in quotes because there are maybe only a handful of news agencies that cover “nothing but the facts, ma’am.” How can so many groups be so hateful about so many other people? “I’m offended,” and “You’re a threat” are the go-to accusations in this era of decline in faith, worship, and morality. The resulting decline in real justice and corresponding need for constant, efficacious prayer leaves one breathless. How can the Body of Christ aspire to holiness under all this persecution (even if we in the US of A are not in the top-50)? Our Gospel Key Verse points the Way.
Matthew 23:11-12 – 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. During his ministry, does it seem to you that Jesus might have been persecuted – not just during his Passion, but during the long, circuitous path he and the Apostles traveled while delivering the Gospel. What is the greatest way to be great? It is to be humble which is why we use this as a reminder: Be Humbe Like Jesus. How does that work, anyway?
Once again, we can turn to the first letter of The Apostle Peter. 1 Peter 1:14-16 – 14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” OK, how do we start on that. Let’s check out The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 5:18c-20 – … be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s an example of one I found recently – although it’s not the one by Thurlow Spurr and the Spurrlows. It’s called Happy Am I (↔ Music Link).
In closing (finally), I’ll just say I’m recommending that instead of “make time” to be holy, just be holy. I know, that’s a big ask, but we have a Big God, and and he created us so he could Love us and then we can Love him in return (See 1 John 4:19 again because it’s the core of the Absolutely Perfect Plan. YOLO-F! Seriously, look it up, now). It can seem hard at first, but if we start at the beginning of each day, we’re off to a good start of a good day! Knowing that all the praise we can offer to God for his goodness is never really enough, we can humbly try to do just a wee-bit more each day to BHLJ, and then pray and sing like only God and all his Angels and Saints are watching. Believe me, with them as an audience, we never need to feel nervous. Next time we sing the Goria at Mass, remember that the Angels (including our guardian angels!)are also singing with us. Try listen. It’s always holy, humble, and heartening. GBUA!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Why do I capitalize JOY? It’s an old “formula” I learned in Vacation Bible School – probably about 4th grade. The formula describes an easy way to arrange our time and interactions, even our giving: J is for Jesus. O is for Others. Y is for You. When we make that ordering of our priorities, we truly do TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY.
