Making the Most of Time

Sermon

So, how’s everyone’s week of the third heat wave of the summer and the Delta variant been? Don’t you just love changing plans? Isn’t it great to be reminded of our climate crisis in real time?

And this Delta variant. The back and forth, masks, no masks, masks again. Being annoyed at unvaccinated people or the CDC or just like, everyone. Oh, if you want to make any parent of an unvaccinated young child freak out, just ask them what their plans are for their kids in the fall.

I heard from multiple people this week who define this time with “uncertainty.” That’s a nice word. I have a couple of words that describe my feeling about our time, but they aren’t so sermon-appropriate.

It’s been a lot. How are we supposed to know what to do with all of this?

Well, here we are as 21st century people coming to a first century text, hoping that it will help us encounter a God with wisdom even older than that.

It’s a text that beckons us to “make the most of our time,” because, and I quote, “the days are evil.” See, even Paul, the writer of Ephesians, wanted to curse at the bad stuff happening during his time.

This early church community too was dealing with uncertainty. They were dealing with persecution for their beliefs, the general violence of the Roman Empire, and the uncertainty of this strange new movement called The Way and of tiny communities with conflicts tearing them apart.

So what words of comfort and challenge did this early church planter Paul have for a community dealing with uncertain times? How do we “make the most of the time we have, especially during these days”?

I would like to summarize some of the insight of this text using a short mantra that I’ve put together. And at my last church in NYC, it came from a tradition that did more call-and-response to help remember and engage in the text.

So I invite us to try out this little mantra; repeat after me here:

Stay grounded… Stay grounded. Stay grateful… Stay grateful. Again: Stay grounded… stay grounded. Stay grateful… stay grateful.

First, stay grounded.

When I say, “stay grounded,” I mean that in multiple ways as evoked by our Scripture text.

The text starts with an exhortation to “be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise.” “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Paul is borrowing heavily from the Wisdom tradition of the Old Testament here. Coming to the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it says. Be rooted and grounded in love, as Paul said earlier in the letter, specifically God’s love.

We would be wise to heed this in our troubled times today. It’s like a ship in a terrible storm that can’t do anything besides throw the anchor out. So that, as the waves crash and the wind blows, the boat even in all its swaying is still anchored. Our relationship with God anchors us in our uncertainty. That Spirit that holds us in love and care gets us through the storm.

That anchor also grounds us in purpose. No matter what is happening around us, we still have a basic mission – Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Do you have a time in your life where a lot was happening around you, and finding your grounding in God helped you have some direction? Gosh, there were so many times last year especially when we were super locked down, when I said to myself, I literally can’t control anything else, but I can do these small acts of love, love my kids, love my wife, try to do some good deeds for God.

This text also reminds us, though, of another type of grounding – being grounded in reality. When you read the words about not getting drunk in debauchery, it might come across like, “oh, those tee-totaling Christians who don’t want to have any fun again.” But in context, I read it almost like, don’t get drunk off of escape, of not dealing with the reality in front of you. Aren’t there a lot of things in life that intoxicate us and let us escape the realities of life, whether literally or otherwise? I’m not against the occasional disengagement pleasure activities so we’re not ALWAYS so wired, and I’m not against the type of coping mechanisms like stepping away from being emotionally overwhelmed when needed. But I’m talking about the habitual escaping from reality, from responsibilities, the habitual getting away from what’s happening in front of us.

Has anyone else here felt the intoxication of the idea a few weeks ago that “the pandemic is finally almost over!”? It’s that feeling of, OK, I get to let go of this ongoing worry and trauma of this past year and a half; I’m gonna chuck this mask to the ground!

But we have to be grounded in reality by accepting the reality in front of us. Please, don’t shoot the messenger here, but acceptance is the first step to being able to do something about it, so hear these words: We are not “back to normal” yet. We are going to have to figure it out.

And in that acceptance, we can accept the present by BEING present. Being grounded in the here and now, and just the step of accepting its presence without judgment. The thing about wisdom is that it’s not fortune telling. We don’t make decisions absolutely certain of the outcome. All we can do is be grounded in God, be grounded in reality, take our experience and reason and emotions, and make a decision in faith.

So, that was stay grounded. But I didn’t just say “stay grounded.” I said “stay…” what? Stay grateful. Say it with me: Stay grateful…

Text: Giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some folks might say, how can you? But I suspect many of us have experienced how being grateful can help us precisely in times where it takes more effort.

It is, in many ways, a grounding exercise. To give thanks amid uncertainty and suffering is an act of resistance against evil.

Psychology and sociology seem to be backing up this ancient wisdom. Renowned psychologist and researcher Dr. Brené Brown talks about the power of gratefulness in her research of resilience. Some people think it’s best not to get too happy if things are going well, because you have to prepare for when things get bad. But apparently, research suggests that the best way to have resilience for when things get bad is to be grateful for and fully experience the good of the joys in life. Resilience is literally fuel for bad times.

It might be helpful for us to find fuel for our sense of well-being not just in the future that is uncertain but in being grateful in things we do know. I can be certain in the way my son smiled at me as we swam together in the water, and I can cultivate that gratefulness even as I worry about what school will look like in a month.

There is a power to, as the text says, sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord in our hearts when our hearts are weary. Finding things to be grateful for can be a healing in and of itself.

And there is a special strength and comfort from directing that gratefulness toward the divine Creator of all things. So not just being grateful in the abstract, but giving that thanks to God can fill us and fulfill us in a way that almost feels like this is what we were meant to do.

That we in our deepest parts of our being, a way that perhaps connects us to our ancestors, can be caught up in the grand chorus of creation—past, present, future—giving thanks to the divine Sacred that connects us all together.

And it is this sacred offering of ourselves to something beyond ourselves in gratefulness that can conversely keep us grounded in all our uncertainty.

So let’s try this mantra again. Stay grounded. Stay grateful. Stay grounded. Stay grateful.

As I was saying this mantra, trying it out, sometimes I would say it to myself and go, “OK, voice in my head, you’re just being obnoxious.” But you know, many times, it was just what I needed to not spiral into a total doom thought-cycle, or at the very least, to be like, “OK, there’s a lot going on, but these trees are beautiful, and these birds are singing, and I am grateful.” And maybe sometimes, being grounded and grateful can be enough to at least get you through the day, and ultimately be rooted and grounded in God’s love. Amen.