Proper 8 c June 26, 2022 (St Luke's Jamestown)

 No time to waste... we have 525,600 moments....

    
Remember the broadway show Rent? There was a live tv production of it a few years back.
The iconic chorus from one song reads five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes—how do you measure, measure a year.
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnight 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?
    In today’s gospel Jesus says: spend those minutes living…don’t wait for the right time—you know how we do—as soon as we get out of debt, as soon as the kids are grown, as soon as I get this next raise, as soon as things get better. Time’s too precious, life to unpredicatable for us to wait to do what it is we’re called to do.         
As if we needed any reminders the events of the past 6 weeks—the massacres in Buffalo, Uvalde and Birmingham—have made it clear: we don’t know how many of those minutes we have left.
We have 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.
    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-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.
    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?
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?
It is. Living in Love isn’t easy because the world is so frightened of it. Things haven’t changed. Living a life of God loves everyone, everywhere, no exceptions is incredibly threatening to people. Remember last week when, after Jesus healed the man with the demons the townfolk begged Jesus to LEAVE? Unconditional love is scary.
To love unconditionally means that we really need to be like Jesus—we need to love everyone, even, especially, those who hate us.
Years ago I was running in a breast cancer 5k run. It was the same day as the Pride parade in Buffalo. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon and I had attended church at the Cathedral that morning. As I was running a woman with a bull-horn screamed at me: “Jesus hates faggots.” I stopped and possessed by someone other than myself, I replied, “I was just talking to Jesus and he told me he loves everybody. Including you.”
Then I kept running. At that moment, something inside me changed. I no longer hid who I was (the irony that I wasn’t even running in a Pride event wasn’t lost on me) I knew that no matter what hate was spewed at me for being a lesbian, or a woman, or a liberal, or a Chicago Cubs fan the only faith-filled response was love.
That hasn’t been easy. But at that moment, some 15 or 20 years ago, I knew the truth—-the moments of my life would not be hijacked by hate. I’ve fallen off track at times over the years but this reading from Luke, harsh as it sounds, is my north-star—-I will not linger in what was, I will not linger with the perpetrators of darkness, I will continue to move with the light. I don’t want my life measured by how many arguments I have won, I want my life to be measured by how many people felt loved after an encounter with me. Even those—especially those—-who don’t love me back. That’s my wish for all of us because, to paraphrase Jesus; “don’t linger, there’s work to do and time is wasting. Let’s go!”