Anyone who has ever tried to fit one more thing into a carefully choreographed, packed to the gills kind of day, understands puzzling over the clock. Many of us feel as though we have little give in our day to day. There are things we must do – we must sleep – although statistically, very few of us get the recommended 8 hours – most are closer to 6 hours, 40 minutes. We must eat. The average American spends 67 minutes a day eating and drinking.1 We work – some of us inside the home, some outside the home. Some of us are paid for part-time work and others for full-time work. Many of us bring work home outside the established working hours. There are homes to clean and children to care for. There are pets to attend to and projects to accomplish. It can easily feel as though the hours are filled to the brim. And yet, in the stillness of this place, we find ourselves wondering what time have we set aside for God?
As we continue our series on stewardship, I call us to reflect today on how we offer to God our service. How does the ticking of our clock, filling of our appointment books, and our smart phone calendars reflect God’s call for us to number our days that we might have a wise heart? God calls us not only to give of our financial resources, but also our time. I wonder which feels easier.
Psalm 90 is a lament from after the Babylonian exile. The psalm calls the listeners to contrast the time of God with the time of humanity. God, who is the creator since before the mountains were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting, and for whom “a thousand years are … like yesterday … or like a watch in the night”. Famously, the psalm impacted the heart of Isaac Watts who wrote Our God, our help in ages Past, from its inspiration. And Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech references fourscore and seven years ago with an eye to verse ten – from the King James: “threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore.” Most interestingly, the psalmists calls us to count our days that we might gain a wise heart. The way we spend our time matters. What ought we to do?
In the Gospel lesson, we find Jesus gathered with the disciples and the crowds on the mountain teaching. Jesus went ahead of the disciples and the crowd. He found a place from which to teach and began to share some of the most profound wisdom. Jesus tells the crowds that they are salt and light, right now – not at some distant point in the future when they have it all figured out. But they have everything right now, needed to serve God and God’s people. We have often used the term saltiness to describe someone who stands to their convictions, loyal and honest. This does not describe someone who suppresses their own feelings and convictions to make others content.
When I was a little girl, there was very little salt in my home. My mother and Dad did not cook with it. They became quite convinced that any salt was dangerous to one’s health and felt the best way to keep my family healthy was the elimination of all salt. Whether or not that is true, for a while this was true in our larger family. There were times in which not sharing one’s heart in order to keep the peace was highly valued. I am not sure that my family got it right in those days. We missed the fine line that we are called to walk as disciplines in which salt in and of itself is not bad. In fact, it is the seasoning that is necessary, and the mineral that is required on these icy days. However, the overabundance, thereof causes the troubles that my parents had such fears of – high blood pressure and heart troubles.
However, we are the tastiness that adds salt to lives around us. We are light that makes plain the justice way of the kingdom of God. Jesus says we must be tasty and lit up in order to serve God and God’s people in the world. Neither salt nor light exists for themselves. They only fulfill their purpose when used, poured out. Light is often taken for granted in a post-Edisonian world. All it takes is a loss of power in the evening to remember that we depend on the availability of light to accomplish the majority of our tasks. All it takes is a saunter down a dark spiritual path to remember that we need the light of Jesus. It is so often the actions of others that remind us of God’s light shining in us.
The way we serve one another matters. The time we take to care for one another shapes the light we shine, the saltiness we offer, and the ways in which others come to know God. As we puzzle over the clock, determining how we should best spend our 168 hours week, we are reminded that each of us is given the same amount of time regardless of commitments. Each of us, regardless of position, has 168 hours with which to eat, sleep, work, care for loved ones, enjoy ourselves, and take care of any business. No more, no less.
In that conundrum, Jesus calls us to spend some of our time looking beyond ourselves to the goodness of the world around us. I want to suggest that serving God and others is not just about changing others, but also about changing ourselves. When we commit to serving others, we might find our expectations are turned upside down or right-side up towards God’s way. Melissa Jones, our small group and new member coordinator, sent me this video after a staff meeting in which we were discussing how serving often rights our faulty perceptions of who is serving whom. Take a quick look.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=729249973800883&set=vb.140809269311626&type=2&theater
Jesus said we are all salt and light. We are all called to share God’s message of love. We are all God’s children. On this World Communion Sunday, let us consider that the body of Christ, here and around the world are called to live as disciples of Jesus. To puzzle and struggle over how we use the gift of time we have been given in order to serve God and God’s people. Let us also consider afresh God’s call in our own lives to dedicate time to serving God and God’s people, here in this place.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/How+much+time+do+Americans+spend+eating%3F-a0190462486