Ezekiel 31:1-6, 10-14
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Mark 4:26-34
Psalm 92
In 1960, expert testimony concerning time management was presented to a Senate subcommittee. The experts said that because of advances in technology, within twenty years or so, people would be radically cutting back on how many hours a week they worked, or how many weeks a year they worked, or else they would have to start retiring sooner. The great challenge, according to the experts of the sixties, was what people of our decade would do with all their free time.
And where are we today? I work in a foundry here in St. Cloud usually averaging any where form 55 to 60 hours per week. Working most weekends. I been a foundryman for over twenty years and I really thought that maybe things would start to slow down a little bit, maybe get a little less stressful. Quite the opposite. I work harder and longer with little hope for change in this industry. As a superintendent, I am responsible for a complete department including 3 supervisors, 40 employees and all of their problems.
I carry a pager and a radio and am in constant contact with virtually everyone in the department. I even carry the pager off site, just in case something comes up. If all these communication devices weren’t enough, I am also required to respond to the dozens and dozens of E-mails I receive each day at work and at home. The tether just keeps getting shorter and shorter. More and more of my life is dedicated to work than it ever has been in the past. As a young man just starting out, I begged for all the overtime I could get. Now I try to beg out of it. Whatever happened to the predictions of the sixties?
Last week had been an unusually bad week. Lots of mechanical breakdowns, employees grumbling about working too many weekends, too hot, people grumbling, people quitting, too much to get done, line running poorly, customers unhappy, bosses unhappy, crew unhappy nothing-I mean nothing had gone right. I was beat.
But this weekend was going to be different. We were heading up to Isle, Minnesota for a rendezvous. As we were loading up the trailer that day after work, we commented on just how hot and sticky the day had been. The kind of a day that made it almost too hot to do anything outside. The kind of a day that made your clothes stick to you and made it real easy to stay inside in the relative comfort of the air conditioning with a nice cold glass of lemonade or ice tea. But not us, not today. We were going no matter how hot or miserable it was.
After a long drive, we arrived at the rendezvous and started to unload the trailer and get the large canvas tent set up. It was a miserable time setting up, nothing seemed to go right. All I wanted to do was get set up, get a fire going and cook supper. Well nothing was going to go easy today. I had a problem getting the fire going and after it finally took off, I put the pot of chili on to cook. We finished up with the lodge and I smelled something burning-the chili got too hot and burned and the sun was setting and we still didn’t have everything done. I was hot and sweaty and dirty and just plain mad at the tent the weather and supper.
Why’d we even come up here? Nothing went right. As I sat down by the fire to eat, the sun went down and it started to get dark. Why not? Nothing was cleaned up or put away and now it was too dark to get it all cleaned up and stowed properly. Why did we come up here anyway? We just wanted a little break from all the hassles and requirements of work and this was just as bad. As I sat there mad at the world, I happened to look up from my dejection and look across the field. What I saw was a sight I’ll not soon forget. On the meadow danced an ocean of thousands of fireflies. Glistening and undulating like a sea of diamonds. I had been given a gift. A glimpse into the glory of what heaven must be like. I was so focused on the here and now I almost missed the split second of the sheer awesomeness of God’s glory. Given to me at a time of need. And then they were gone.
I imagine this is somewhat how the twelve felt as they returned from their job. Jesus had sent them out to heal and perform miraculous feats. I’m sure they worked more than 60 hours a week on their journey. I’m sure they were hot and sticky and dirty and just plain tired as they returned. They just wanted to go away to be with Jesus and relax and eat. But to their chagrin, thousands of people followed them. Things were not going well at all. Send them away they told Jesus, send them away. But this Jesus would not do. He asked them to give him what little food they had. A few loaves of bread and a couple of fishes. With these meager provisions, Jesus fed these thousands of people with food to spare. With this miraculous act, the disciples were given yet another glimpse into the power of God and the compassion of JESUS on his flock. They got beyond their own concerns and looked at the bigger picture. Jesus was teaching them again.
In this day and age when we have all these things that are supposed to save us time, why are there so many hurried and restless people? If these computers, cell phones and pagers are supposed to save us time, why do we have so little time for the things that matter? Why do we end up where we’re going faster but more tired and frustrated? Where is all the time we were promised from those statisticians from the sixties?
Well, we can’t change the times in which we live but we can change the way in which live in these times. We need to take just a few minutes each day and look for these lightning bugs of grace that are everywhere around us and following Jesus’ example, feed these little morsels to those who are hungry.
We will have lots of leftovers.