Time Well-used

In the reading from Exodus, we note that it only takes three verses for the Israelites to move from the singing and dancing for joy in the great victory over the Pharaoh and his army … to whining and complaining about the lack of food and drink when they get into the wilderness.

Three verses after the victory dance, the moaning starts!

“What are we going to do?”

We can easily imagine how it went.

“We just walked away from the watered gardens in the Nile Valley.”

(They neglect to mention that they were slaves when they were in the Nile Valley.)

“We carried some food with us, but now it is gone; what are we going to do?”

And it was not just complaining in general; it was addressed to God in prayer.

But surprisingly it turned out to be time well-used.

For God did respond to their prayer, to their prayer of complaint.

God sent quails and manna, food that could not be stored but had to be gathered had used and shared that very day.

It is a wonderful story

about the goodness and perseverance of God no matter what the difficulty in or around us, and no matter how hard-headed or ungrateful we sometimes are.

God still gives good gifts, sometimes in spite of how we have treated him!

What a wonder!

Of course there is a choice.

We can pick up the blessings and use them,

or leave them and keep on grumbling.

Which would be the better use of time?

When I was sitting with the family the other day, they were telling me about Dwayne's skill at carpentry and general handyman tasks.

They are blessings than can be used or ignored, and it sounded as though Dwayne was happy to use them for the joy of a number of folks, and not only family members. How wonderful!

That is a good use of time.

It is one of the things that pulls a family and a community together, when a person takes the time to care for the needs of another.

It is not the whole of the Gospel message, but it is one portion of it.

Listen to what Jesus says to us:

You did not choose me but I chose you.

That is what happens at Holy Baptism: Jesus gets hold of us and promises never to let go, no matter how much we squirm and try to get away from him.

And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Dwayne's love of nature and his helpfulness to others fit inside Jesus' wishes for us.

For that we say Thank you, Lord.

We grieve over the power of the cruel disease that ravaged his body and the untimely accident that snatched away his son years ago;

but this night we commend them both to the greater power of the Lord Jesus who will take everything that they have been and do something more with them that we cannot.

The challenge is now for us to make the best use of our time:

to sing,

to pray,

maybe even to dare to complain in prayer,

to look for God's answers to those prayers

to care for one another,

to let someone else know that Jesus is a power greater than death,

to anticipate that God is up to something with us,

and in the context of all of this, to remember Dwayne. 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.