a thought for the new year
you too can redeem time
“All is quiet on New Year’s Day / A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you / Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year’s Day / On New Year’s Day”
I always think of this song when the new year begins. In the video we see the boys of U2 (and they were young back then!) in the snowy landscape, interchanging with the boys of war, “under a blood red sky.” And there’s the sense of longing: “I will be with you again.”
Other people have their own memories or practices when January rolls around. This year there is the realization of that song being released forty years ago. Forty years ago! In 1983, I was a freshman in college. Tempus fugit.
I’m forced to wonder, what is time itself? It has been the subject of discussion and debate by philosophers, scientists, theologians, and artists for millennia—since the beginning of “time”! Of what is time composed? We learn from Star Trek time is made up of chroniton particles. So that settles that!
The apostle Paul speaks about time in Ephesians 5. He addresses his hearers by saying, “Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time [redeeming the time], because the days are evil” (vv. 15-16). Making the most of the time—redeeming the time—is how the wise live. Regarding the bit about days being evil, it would make sense to understand that as referring to a certain time, to particular days, as being evil. But could it be something more fundamental, regarding time itself?
In his masterpiece, The Sabbath (which reads almost like poetry), Abraham Heschel suggests, “Time to us is sarcasm, a slick treacherous monster with a jaw like a furnace incinerating every moment of our lives.” He isn’t saying time is evil, rather it’s our reaction to it. “We know what to do with space,” Heschel comments, “but do not know what to do about time, except to make it subservient to space. Most of us seem to labor for the sake of things of space. As a result we suffer from a deeply rooted dread of time and stand aghast when compelled to look into its face.” (5)
Genesis has God pronouncing aspects of creation—that is, space—as “good.” It is only the Sabbath—time—that is hallowed, pronounced holy. The word in Hebrew has to do with being sanctified, being set apart. It is set apart from all we can see.
We so often want to grasp time, as if it were an object. We want to stop it, or at least slow it down, and just take a breath. We want that fire-breathing monster consuming every moment to be held at bay. Time flies, like a dragon.
We stand at the threshold of 2023. The 20s have gotten off to an alarming start. One cause for concern is that over the past couple of years or so, we’ve become used to accepting ever increasing levels of control and surveillance from the government and from big tech.
Still, we can laugh with joy and beauty, a serene and holy defiance of those monsters of fear and compliance. Those who would manipulate others have a poor and hurtful sense of humor. Perhaps they fear the passage of time more than do others.
What does the coming year hold in store?
Maybe we can work to infuse within our pursuit of technology a greater sense of humanity. That is, the humanities themselves. We too often deprive ourselves of the wisdom that philosophy, literature, art, language, sociology, theology, and other areas bring. That wisdom can help shape us into better human beings.
Can we work to redeem the time?
“Under a blood red sky / A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few / The newspaper says, says
Say it’s true, it’s true / And we can break through
Though torn in two / We can be one”