When Is the 'Opportune' Time? Reflections for the 1st Sunday in Lent

 

RCL Lent 1C

9 March 2025

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

         In the autumn of 1990, Paula and I were given the gift of new neighbours in the apartment across the hall from ours.  Cyril and Marjorie Powles were retired Anglican missionaries who had spent a considerable time serving in Japan and elsewhere in the world. They were a wise, hospitable and generous presence in our community at Vancouver School of Theology.

 

         Paula and Marjorie occasionally had tea with one another – Paula at home with an infant, a two-year-old and a four-year-old, Marjorie at home with wisdom and a listening ear.  During one of their conversations Paula mentioned her desire to begin theological studies.  When Marjorie asked what Paula was waiting for, Paula said, ‘The right time.’  Marjorie looked at her and said, ‘There is no such time.  There is only responding to what God calls us to do and then we figure things out as we go along.’  By the end of the week Paula had applied for and was accepted by VST for the fall term.

 

         When is the ‘right’ time or, as the evangelist Luke writes, the ‘opportune’ time?  How often have we heard people talk about something that they would like to have done or to do, but the ‘opportune’ time, the ‘right’ time, didn’t present itself?  How many times have we promised to ourselves to do x, y or z when the ‘right’ time, the ‘opportune’ time comes around?

 

         As we hear in today’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke, even the devil waits for the ‘opportune’ time, the ‘right’ time, to renew an assault on Jesus.  Jesus may have successfully resisted the devil’s temptations in the desert, but the devil is patient and knows that another opportunity will present itself.

         The opportunity comes at the end of Luke’s gospel.  Jesus is in the garden after having broken bread for the last time with his disciples.

 

[Jesus] came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.  When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”,  Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.” . . . . When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” (Luke 22.39-42, 45-46 NRSVue)

 

Jesus is fully aware of the consequence of his actions.  He has aroused the anger of the religious authorities who are willing to use the fear the Roman imperial authorities have of rebellion to use the power of the Roman occupation to bring Jesus to death.  For Jesus, this time in the garden is a time of temptation, and it would be fair for us to hear in his words doubt, fear and just a little hope that God might re-arrange things.  But in this ‘right’ time, this ‘opportune’ time, Jesus chooses to follow through on what he believes God has called him to do.  

 

         I remember a discussion I had with my classmates in seminary about the question, ‘When are we saved?’  We went around and around and around, but at the end we agreed that it is Jesus’ acceptance of what is to come, his obedience to God, that is the moment of salvation.  Everything that follows from this point on is almost inevitable – the trial, the torture, the crucifixion, the death – and the resurrection.

 

         When is the right time?  When is the opportune time?  The right time, the opportune time, is whenever we face the choice between doing what we believe God is calling to do or not doing what God is calling us to do.  Often it is not as clear as we might wish it to be, but we feel something speaking to us from deep within us that leads us in a direction we had not anticipated.  We recognize that there is a risk in travelling this path, but we cannot ignore our intuition that, despite the risk, it is the ‘right’ thing to do.

 

         We know that this Parish is called to be a place of help, hope and home for our neighbours, for our members and for those who may not even know we exist.  To be a place of help, hope and home, we recognize the need to re-develop our property and our buildings even as we undertake to renew our life as a congregation.  After many years of thoughtful consideration and some disappointments, we have reached a point in our journey where we have to decide what to do.  At Vestry we decided:  we shall take the next step in the path towards re-development.  We have a roadmap in the feasibility study that was completed in November of last year.  

 

         Some will ask if this is the ‘right’ time, the ‘opportune’ time.  That’s a fair question.  But, as Marjorie Powles once said to Paula, ‘sometimes you just need to begin what you’re called to do and work on things as you go along.’  That’s what we’re going to do in the coming months.  The future will have its trials, but I am hopeful, even confident, that we will discover our strength, our resilience, our vision for the work ahead of us.

 

         As we begin our Lenten journey towards the cross and resurrection, let us pray for one another.  Let us listen closely to the words of the Scriptures to discern what God is speaking to us.  Let us grow closer to one another as we share in the bread broken and the wine poured. Most importantly of all, let us be thankful for this journey and for the gifts God has given us to undertake it and for all the people with whom we journey.