Haggai 1:1-8 / Luke 9:7-9
Time can be understood in its various aspects. There is chronological time, there is scheduled time, and then there is the appointed time.
Whenever we look at the watch or the clock, we are looking at "real" time or the current time that almost everyone is synchronized with.
Then there is the scheduled time, a time that is planned for an event or a task. It is something that will happen soon or in the future and it needs planning.
It is with this scheduled time that the prophet Haggai had issues with the people. Because the people were saying that the time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of the Lord.
But the prophet Haggai took them to task by saying that while they had planned and scheduled the building of their own houses, they procrastinated when it came to rebuilding the House of the Lord.
And through the prophet Haggai, the Lord is telling His people that more than just having to schedule and plan for the rebuilding of God's House, the appointed time has come for them to do it.
And when they do a reflection on the state of their lives - what they sow, what they earn, what they eat - then truly God is saying something in that appointed time.
So it was with Herod in the gospel. He heard about Jesus, he had heard about what others say about Him, and he was anxious to see Jesus.
His appointed time had come. He only needed to respond to it and to make time for it.
May we too have time for God when the appointed time comes for us. Otherwise we will not have time for anything at all.