"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is one of my favorite books. With broad characters and fanciful scenarios, Lewis Carroll highlights the neuroses of society. The ever-curious Alice happens upon a tea party set for many more than three. Yet as she approaches she is told that there is no room for her at the table. Alice pulls up a chair at what she is soon to discover is a mad tea party. The Dormouse seems to be narcoleptic and the Hatter and Hare very peculiar. The reason for all the tea things is that the Mad Hatter has had a falling out with Time. When he sung at the Queen's concert, she cried out "He's murdering the time!" and since then it's always six o'clock. Never able to wash the tea things, they simply go round and round the table. The Hatter explains to Alice that if you are on good terms with Time, you can simply whisper to him and the clock will go round to the hour you choose.

In a whimsical way, Lewis Carroll brings into focus the idea of objective and subjective time. Although we generally view time as linear, our experience of and attitude towards time, greatly influences how we live. Like in the poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez:

If you hurry,
time, like a darting butterfly,
will flee before you.

If you linger,
time, like a gentle ox,
will trudge behind you.

Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend in New York City, which is a place that I love to visit several times a year. This time, I took Amtrak. I enjoy the comfort of the train, the gentle rhythm of the ride, and the opportunity to watch the scenery pass by my window. I boarded in Kingston, Rhode Island and the train came into Penn Station. For the return trip, I got to the station early. My ticket listed the time and number of my train back home. However, the tracks are announced just as the trains pull into the station. In the central concourse, there is a large digital sign with the destination and status of each approaching train. One of the things that I love about New York City is the variety of people. It was fun to watch people of so many different ethnic backgrounds and styles stand around transfixed by this central sign, many of them also talking on cell phones and with bags on wheels. As the train approached the station, the track number would flash on the screen and many people would suddenly move in a great rush toward the escalator that would take them down to the correct platform. I felt a bit like Alice myself thinking "Curiouser and curiouser!" as these swarms of people dashed madly wheeling their bags behind them. When my track was announced, there was no time for reflection I was swept up in the same mad dash!

Of course, there was nothing else to be done I would have missed my train! However, this type of rush especially if it is a daily activity can lead to what physician Larry Dossey terms "hurry sickness". He writes in his book Space, Time and Medicine: "Our perceptions of speeding clocks and vanishing time cause our own biological clocks to speed. The end result is frequently some form of hurry sickness-expressed as heart disease, high blood pressure, or depression of our immune function leading to an increased susceptibility to infection and cancer."

Since the discovery of fire, humankind has sought to manipulate the time. Having a source of illumination meant having the ability to influence light and dark. Hence, being able to manage time, to stay awake and function long after the sun has set. Time has often been viewed as a commodity with a multitude of time-saving devices advertised to make our lives easier. The paradox is that although the invention of electricity, plumbing, telephones, telegraphs, automobiles, airplanes, computers, microwaves, fax machines, the internet, palm pilots, and cell phones certainly has increased the ease and speed of food preparation, travel, and communication, instead of creating more time, we seem to have less. Our lives are filled with more activity at increasing speeds but we are often unable to enjoy the time saved. Instead, like the mad tea party, we can feel harried as we simply go round and round the table following the demands of time.

Technology is not the only reason for the press of time. Philosophers and theologians have long examined the function and meaning of time. In general, Western society views time like an arrow. Minutes, hours, years, decades, centuries progress like a train in a linear fashion. The assumption is that modern developments are improvements of the past, supposedly moving humankind onward and upward forever.

Whenever we reach the end of December, cartoons appear depicting the New Year as a baby and the old as an elderly man. These images are a remnant of the mythical Father Time who was the Roman god Saturn and the Greek god Chronos. He is depicted with a flowing beard and carrying a scythe. Around Halloween, a similar figure appears wearing a dark hood and carrying a scythe who is known as the Grim Reaper. This demonstrates how our concept of time has shifted. Saturn or Chronos carried a scythe as the God of the Harvest, connected to the changing seasons and the abundance of agriculture. The abundance of life carried along with it a knowledge of mortality, that like the harvest, each human life will come to fruition. Instead of this positive concept, in contemporary times, death is viewed as something to be feared and denied with all sorts of products to reverse the signs of aging.

The invocation which began today's service was a call for us to re-inhabit time, to reconnect with the beings of the past, present and future in order to break out of the "temporal trap". By re-inhabiting time, we will be able to become a true world community and stewards of this earth. Buddhist scholar and activist Joanna Macy wrote the invocation. When I was in seminary, I had the honor of studying with her. In her book World As Lover, World As Self, Joanna Macy asserts that speed and haste are inherently violent. Through lifestyles of increasing speed, humankind has become disconnected with the natural rhythms of life. This leads us to live lives out of balance not only with our own biological rhythms of activity and rest but to be out of tune with the environment.

One of the most powerful lessons that I learned from Joanna Macy's class was the realization of the psychic numbing and feeling of powerlessness that I carry with me. With the invention of atomic and nuclear weapons, humanity has the ability to destroy life on this planet. Nuclear waste is disposed of in ways that have a disregard for future generations. We are increasingly aware of how industry and pollution is changing weather patterns and damaging ecosystems. Knowledge of the threat of nuclear and ecological crisis is deeply painful not only for ourselves as individuals but the implications for the future of our children, grandchildren, and all beings born and unborn on this planet we call home.

The only way that we will reverse our current path toward destruction is through our moral imagination. In order to find the strength and compassion to heal the earth, we must first recognize our connections. Our very existence this moment is influenced by those ancestors and teachers who came before us; our lives no matter how solitary are informed by other beings with whom we share this brink of time, and in the same way our lives are not ours alone to spend but influence the generation to follow.

So, how do we reinhabit time?
We can re-inhabit time by attending church. Time spent in worship helps to reconnect us to the deeper meanings of life and inspires us to live our values through out the week.

We can re-inhabit time by spending time in Nature. Surrounded by the beauty of the earth, we are reminded of the rhythms of the seasons and changes of light.

We can re-inhabit the present by pausing from the rush of activities for silent meditation. Just a minute, two-minutes or maybe a half an hour set aside from the demands of a busy schedule can help to remember that instead of being a slave to the clock, life is a precious gift each moment.

We can re-inhabit the future by forming relationships with children. Like in today's Child Blessing ceremony, children reawaken our sense of wonder and we have so much to offer of our own perspectives and wisdom.

We can re-inhabit time by moving past our feelings of powerlessness to discuss world events with others. The Open Forum and Social Justice group that are listed in your order of service are opportunities to engage with what it means to share this brink of time. Through discussion, people are moved to action and together we can do so much more than is ever possible alone.

It's About Time