Probably the best-known song from the Broadway musical Rent is Seasons of Love. The lyrics include: five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes—how do you measure, measure a year.
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes how do you measure a year in the life?
Well I can tell you how you don’t—by looking back, by waiting for the right time—you know, waiting to get out of debt, for the kids to grow up, for the next promotion, for things to calm down. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Jesus is telling his would be followers: the time is now…every single moment of life is important and vital and above all else, precious. So no, don’t bury your dead, don’t turn your head with your hand on the plow….don’t wait “until,” for until is not guaranteed.
Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem….he’s laid the foundation and now all has been unleashed and the conclusion is no longer in question. Jesus had the ability to turn his face toward the end.
My friends, we don’t know our end, we don’t know how many of those 525,600 minutes will be ours.
What Jesus is saying we must know, we must remember is this:
We have right now, this moment, this time, this day, this hour, this minute, to spread the singular message of Jesus, the core of all things sacred and holy and good:
Love.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you shall respect the dignity of every single human being—the black human being, the brown, the white, the democrat, the republican, the straight, the gay, the transgender, the cisgender, those we like, those we don’t, those we agree with, those we don’t.
Love.
As Jesus turns to face his fate, as the darkness of this world descends upon him, one hateful comment, one violent act, one intolerant judgment at a time, Jesus knows that we only have so many moments and that every moment—-every single one—-needs to lead with, be infused by and end with a lingering taste of Love. Because it’s by loving—really loving——that creation will reach its fullness.
So exactly what does it mean to Love in this God way, this Jesus way, this faithful way? What is this Love we are to live into for every one of the 525,600 minutes which make up a year, the 10, 080 which make up a week, the 1,440 which make up this very day?
It’s the love Jesus speaks of in today’s reading from Luke—it’s the Love that doesn’t get caught up in “getting back” at those who don’t agree with us. It’s the Love that doesn’t get de-railed when things don’t go the way we want them too, or thought they would.
James and John are incensed that the Samaritans weren’t rolling out the red carpet for Jesus . Now this was ridiculous—-who welcomes—-sincerely welcomes— a person who’s telling you that what you believe must be turned upside down and inside out in order for you to live a true and authentic, a Holy and Blessed—Life?
Nobody, right?
But there’s no one as zealous as those Sons of Thunder—James and John—so they’re ready to lay out the Samaritans for their refusal to welcome Jesus. What John and James don’t realize is that the lesson Jesus wants to teach in that village is not just —or even especially—for the Samaritans. No the lesson Jesus wants to teach, the message he’ll be teaching for the next ten chapters of Luke is that to be his disciple, to Follow Him, to be a Christian, requires more than walking alongside Him. It means picking up our own crosses and truly following him.
Sounds daunting doesn’t it?
And it is. We get all this stuff in the second part of the gospel about let the dead bury the dead, don’t turn your head around with your hand on the plow….about foxes and birds having a place to call home, but the Son of Man needs to keep moving because people can’t take it—-they can’t tolerate this love everyone message, it’s too difficult.
Because folks being a Christian, following Jesus is, FROM THE OUTSIDE a seemingly difficult task.
But from the inside? From the inside when we have taken Jesus fully and completely into our hearts and our minds and our souls, when we’ve realized that without God our existence signifies nothing but that with the love of God, the teachings and the example of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit infusing every single one of our 525,600 minutes, the task is no longer difficult, the journey is no longer long, the belief is no longer too demanding…for when we begin and end every single one of our moments on this earth with the Love that is God, when we let every single one of our moments on this earth be formed by, directed through and lived into the teachings of Jesus Christ, then our moments, these moments, will be filled to overflowing with peace, filled to overflowing with abundance and filled to overflowing with joy.
How do we do that? By not dwelling in what was or in what you wish could be again, but rather in facing the future in the faith and the hope and above all else, the Love that is our Lord, our Savior, and our hope, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Observation: I think Cindy is as scared shirtless as the rest of us, but her psyche can not tolerate admitting that. She is sooooooo defended. Hard to move through life that way, I hope today brought her closer to trust and faith.
No Time
to Waste:
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