PENTECOST IV
June 28, 2020
“Day After Day . . . After Day . . . After Day”
Do you find that your clocks and calendars are operating on “virus time”? You may not have heard of this term before, but feel free to use it any time you need to explain yourself when you’re not functioning as efficiently as you did pre-virus. The hours, days, weeks, and now months seem to be merging into one big, murky dream-like event. So how do we go about giving our days substance and meaning? If you read a newspaper, online news/feature articles, or watch television, you’ve probably seen more than enough suggestions on what to do with all your “extra” time. Besides those endless possibilities, there’s the old tried and true method that a lot of us turn to — when feeling stressed, get going on a project and burn up all that nervous energy! Let’s stop, or at least slow down, for a bit, and consider the many references to days in the Bible. We can logically start at the beginning, reading the story of creation in the Book of Genesis. The creative activities progress in orderly fashion, and at the end of each day, we read, “And there was evening, and there was morning, the (first, etc.) day.” Also, as the day’s work ended, we read “And God saw that it was good.” The concept of time, of days and nights, isn’t a human invention — it’s built into all creation. We are blessed to live in a world filled with the amazing beauties of nature and the richness and diversity of the environment. As we consider the gift of the natural world, we should also include the other gift that’s been ours since creation. Evenings, mornings, and days have been accumulating in the lifetime of every one of us. No one knows how many of these God-given days we or those we love and care about will have. Every now and then we’re brought up short, becoming aware of that uncertainty. It’s a real balancing act, isn’t it? We live in faith, trusting that God will lead us on the path to which we are called. Yet we also need to have a sense of urgency, as we are reminded that we know neither the day nor the hour when Christ will return. The letters of Paul and other writers in the New Testament encourage all believers to share the Good News that has come to all people through the ministry of God’s own Son, Jesus. Writing to the church of Rome, Paul says:“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?” (Romans 10:13, 14) Each of us has the opportunity to be in ministry, even as we feel restricted and limited. The smallest stone dropped in a pond sends out ripples to the very edge, and who knows where the ripples from our stones will go?
Valuing all the days,
Your friend in Christ,
Mary Rogers