Making the Most of God's Time (with picture postcards from Rwanda!) Pastor Peg's Sermon on Ephesians 5 & John 6  August 20, 2006

Today’s Ephesians reading includes: “Be careful then how you live, making the most of the time, so do not be foolish.”  It is good that we were not appointed that reading as we embarked on our 43 hour trip home from Rwanda.   We made the most of our time on the flight to Rwanda as we were fresh and eager to read as much as we could about the country.  But on the way back, we were tired and on information overload.  

It was also on the trip back home that we had a 12 hour layover in Nairobi.  My good travel partner, Macy, graciously volunteered to watch our luggage and make the most of her time reading the most mindless novel she could find.  But Stacy, another pastor on the delegation, and I were tired of sitting.  Since there was nothing else to do, Stacy did not argue when I suggested we go on a warthog hunt.  A warthog hunt meant going through every store in that large airport to find which store did the best job depicting warthogs. 

Warthogs were on my mind because out in the wild, from a safe distance, a warthog had looked me in the eye – gazed at me.  Once you have been gazed upon by a mother warthog, you do not easily forget her, or the four babies who lined up behind her, or the father who had not spotted me yet – which was perhaps a good thing.   

The store who won the contest for best warthog depiction was the one that had a large mask in the shape of a warthog and an ashtray balanced on the tusks and head of a warthog.  Reg was relieved that I did not bring either home.  But Pastor Stacy was so moved by my suggestion of how to make the most of our time that she bought me my own warthog.  In return I bought she and Macy warthog spoons. 

I brought home spoons for our staff and Church Council.  But there was only one warthog spoon left.  The others were of giraffes, zebras, elephants and gazelles. So they had to barter over who got the warthog spoon.  Dave Evans won because we could see by how he leveled the ground for our basketball court that he, like a good warthog, likes to play in the dirt.  Don’t you wish you were on our Church Council?   

But so much for foolishness!  Today’s Ephesians text has something more serious in mind when it calls us to “be careful then how you live, making the most of the time.”  Time matters because God’s ways are startlingly specific, concrete, in the flesh, in context and in time.  Like in bread and wine, water and word, God comes in ways we can see, feel, touch, taste, hear and keep track of. 

Jesus says, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”   It’s not ethereal or abstract, but concrete, specific, in the flesh.  God comes down somewhere – like Jesus came down into the place called Bethlehem and at the time of the first century.  

When the Ephesians writer says, “be careful then how you live, making the most of the time,” he is writing as a Christian who has discovered that God comes in concrete places and times.   

I think the youth who attended the National Youth Gathering glimpsed this concreteness.  Something unique takes place in the specific time of early July and, this year, in the concrete place of San Antonio .  It isn’t always in Texas .  Next time it will be in New Orleans .  But it is always some place at some planned time where 1000s of youth and adults gather around the cross and something incredible happens.

The incredible happens every Sunday, or whenever we gather at the foot of the cross, for God comes to us in every specific time and place that we open the Word and break the bread and splash the waters of grace.  It is all concrete and embodied.  And so are God’s actions in the world. “The bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. “

God acts in concrete moments and places, calling us to be full of care in how we live, making the most of the time – even if, at times, that means foolishly hunting warthogs in the airport, or wasting time, so to speak, doing nothing as we sit silently in prayer, or using our time to listen to our children or a grieving friend, or riding a bike to work instead of driving, at least on Fridays which many are trying to make ‘low car use’ days, or making dinner for a neighbor, or digging dirt in the church yard so a basketball hoop can emerge, or working for peace and justice at home and aboard, or taking Communion to a homebound person.  Making the most of our time often means investing time.   

Today we have opportunity to reflect on how we are making the most of this time of God’s gift of deepened companionship with our Rwandan brothers and sisters.  Never before have we had the opportunity to look them in the eye and hear them tell us their hopes as a church.  Never before have we been able to walk around on the land that they purchased with the first moneys you sent them four years ago.  Never before have we been able to sit in the pastor’s home and drink hot fresh milk and eat goat.—whether we have ever eaten goat before  – and bless the newly built home that they worked hard to complete in time for when we were in that place and could offer a house blessing. 

I say “we” because I brought you with me.  Every where I went I spoke of this concrete place of the greater Chico area and these in the flesh people called the people of Faith.  Jesus says, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” – my concrete presence in time and place.  It is all concrete and embodied – limited by time and place.  For Jesus to be born in Bethlehem means he was not born in Kigali , or West Virginia , or Nepal , but we can be born as his body in all the other places.  We are blessed to be in time and place, here and now, somewhere, in the flesh for the life of the world.

What a kairos opportunity we have to reflect together on what it means to “make the most of this time of God’s gift to us of being companions with the smallest country in Africa who has a rich yet terrifying history where they are witnessing to the world about the challenges and potential of reconciliation and forgiveness after a horrible genocide. 

How far can forgiveness go?  Are we capable of forgiving someone who hurts our daughters and sons, our mothers and fathers, ourselves?  How about forgiving someone who kills everyone we love in the world?  That’s what’s facing some of the Rwandan Christians.  What does reconciliation look like that’s not just cover up or stuffing down – but real transformation?   

Transformation is one of the things we can learn from them.  We are also learning a new approach to mission. Bishop Mullen made it clear that the ELCA’s model for mission is now accompaniment.  “A primary reality of accompaniment is the mutual respect of the companions with whom mission is shared, where we listen to our companion’s interpretation of their vision of mission and reality.”

The words accompaniment and companionship have something in common.  Both words have the little word “pan” in them.  Accompaniment!  Companionship!   Pan, in its base root means bread.  To accompany or companion, means to break bread with.  That is what Jesus calls us to.  It is a concrete act in time and place. 

In order to be with these whom God has blessed us to learn so much from, we will have to let go of some of our assumptions about what is normal – like how long it takes to receive a returned email or letter.  We will have to slow down our expectations of communication.  They only have email or even snail mail in the big cities.  It sometimes takes three months to get an email back. 

But having been there to see with my own eyes, I can tell you that everything we had hoped was happening with what we have sent them – I saw confirmed.  It is all happening!  It is all real and concrete and as specific as the many wonderful gifts they sent home for us.  And they sent us their love in this woven container.  They gathered their love up and put it in here, closed it up and gave it to me to bring to you. 

Jesus says, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”   Jesus feeds us with the gift of his life that we might become his body in the world and so we are.   May we make the most of this gift and calling!  It is for the life of the world. 

Amen.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California