The Best Use of Time

We can discern what we can do in a new and different life-situation, or we can complain because we can't do what we once did in a different situation.

There are blessings, fresh every morning, which we can pick up and use, or we can leave them sit,... and grumble.

Twelve years ago this week, another of our Shirley's buried her husband, and Frank said that he wanted a funeral just like that one.

So today we are using the same lessons and hymns that we used that evening, and more than that, I hope we catch that same spirit of thankful rejoicing in God's gifts that have been received and used in Frank's life, and which are now available to the rest of us as well.

Time is the first of the blessings.

Frank talked about various infirmities that laid him low over the years, but from which he recovered and kept on going until this last problem proved to be too much.

He was blessed with 84 years of time,

time to tackle so many things,

to raise a family,

to see grandchildren,

to serve his nation in wartime,

to travel in peacetime,

to have adventures with that old parade band truck and his banjo,

to be a 45 year member of the Lions club,

to try to describe emergency procedures to the ushers...

and on and on goes the list.

Time is a bit like the manna of the Hebrews of old, in that it, too, cannot be hoarded; it can only be used, either well or poorly.

Until I looked at my notes, I had forgotten that when Ray Kinney could no longer paint and asked me one day” What can I do now?” I asked him to describe to me what he would be painting that day if he could have managed the brushes.

Ray painted a beautiful canvas just for me using words as his brush.

He thought he had nothing to give, but he used his time well, and gave me a special gift that day.

In my first parish there was a dear elderly lady who lost one leg and then the other, and so she was bed-fast.

“What can I do now?” she asked, “what good am I?”

And so I suggested to her: “You have the gift of your good mind, quick wit, a congregational directory, reasonably good eyesight, and time.

Pray for us.

Pray for the sick....and the well.

Pray for those who think that they are too busy to pray, that they may see the foolishness of their ways.

Pray for your family and caregivers, that they do not weary in well-doing.

Pray for your neighborhood, community, and nation.

Pray for your congregation and its leaders.

Pray for your pastor.

And she smiled and said, “Well, I guess I had better use my time well and get busy!”

Where and when did we learn about the best use of time?

It was when God extended the promise of Holy Baptism to us.

That was when time became meaningful!

No more is time a gaggle of aimless events,

but instead it is the infinite variety of opportunities to praise God and the wondrous assortment of persons whom we can accompany in their faith and life.

Said a little more simply, because we are baptized, we worship God and help one another.

They are the profoundly meaningful ways to use the gift of time.

Although he never said it that way, Frank learned that a very long time ago, and lived it.

And Jesus reminds us, “You did not choose me but I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last....”

So on this day as we are thinking about Frank and thinking about ourselves and the days to come in the context of the scriptures, there is a bit of good news for us to digest.

None of us from youngest grandchild to oldest grieving friend or relative will ever need to say “there is nothing to do”,

because we know that God has blessed Frank and all the baptized with meaningful time,

time for worship, love, and service, now and forever. Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.