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September 30, 2012

Fruitful Use of Time

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Series: Stewardship 2012: "Bearing Fruit for Jesus" Category: Biblical Scripture: Psalm 90:1–90:17

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Fall Stewardship Series: “Bearing Fruit for Jesus”
September 29-30, 2012

Psalm 90

“Fruitful Use of Time”

Across the generations, the words of Psalm 90 speak to our hearts – about God, about us, about time, and about eternity. This psalm is subtitled, “A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God.” Moses’ words, his prayer, tackle the problem of the relationship between God and man from the point of view of God’s eternal being and man’s transient nature. How do we understand God’s gift of the days and years of our lives? And how do we make fruitful use of the time God gives to us on this earth? That is what’s before us today as we begin this 4-week series on Christian stewardship entitled, “Bearing Fruit for Jesus.” This theme is rooted in Jesus’ words from John 15, part of which we read together as a response to the Scripture lesson from Psalm 90. These words of Jesus from John 15 were chosen as our theme Scripture verse during our congregation’s fiftieth anniversary celebration six years ago: “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16). Of all the things that God places into our hands, time is arguably the most valuable commodity we have. When it’s gone, it’s gone. We cannot reclaim time that is lost or squandered. So we turn to the Word of the Lord in Psalm 90 for guidance on “Fruitful Use of Time” – that is the theme for today’s message. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

We live in a world and in a particular culture where time is vitally important, and there’s never enough of it, right? We measure time not just in hours, days, and years, but in things like how long our commute to work takes. Note the electronic signs around the Beltway that advise us how long it takes to get from point A to point B – not just in distance, but in the minutes it will take to get there. And when those minutes start to increase, so does our blood pressure. Being stuck in traffic is probably the single most unfruitful use of time most of us can imagine. It is frustrating, maddening, and often there is nothing we can do about it. How we measure time has also changed. This is my grandfather’s pocket watch, something which most men wore 100 years ago. But the pocket watch gave way to the wrist watch, something I’m wearing right now. But for the next generation, they no longer wear watches at all. They rely on electronic devices like Blackberrys and smart phones to tell time. So technology in how we tell time has changed, but has our use of time changed? Technology that enables so many things to happen so quickly is surely a blessing – or is it? We’re wired wherever we go, and that means we can work wherever we go – home, coffee shop, vacation. Expectations have changed about work and staying connected when we’re not at work. Can we ever really get away? I don’t think anyone wants to go back to the past, but have we lost something about time – about life – as we look to the future?

Some years ago, a survey was done with people in their eighties who were asked: “What would you do differently if you had live to life over?” Their response was threefold: Risk more, reflect more, and leave a legacy - something that would last beyond their time here. What did they mean by “risk more”? Invest more in the stock market? Live with reckless abandon? Drive like there’s no tomorrow? For the child of God doesn’t it mean using our time to live boldly, confidently, and openly for Christ, willing to risk ridicule and rejection in order to share the love of Christ? We are here today because our fathers and mothers in the faith were willing to risk it all for the sake of Christ to share Christ. Will we do the same?

Reflect more. To reflect means to pause and think; to consider and ponder. To reflect can also mean to mirror an image, like the moon reflects the sun’s light. This is probably where most of us have trouble today. We simply don’t do much reflection in our lives. We’re too busy, and that is a problem. As branches connected to Christ the true Vine, part of our connection involves slowing down, taking that time to reflect on what an awesome and amazing God we have, and how we are connected to him through Word and Sacrament, and how He is at work in our lives to help us bear fruit. And through this reflection, we mirror and reflect the light of Christ who is the Light of the world out into the world: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Jesus doesn’t want us to hide our lights. He wants the world to see His light shine through us.

Leave a lasting legacy. “Begin with the end in mind.” That’s counter-intuitive, but our use of time – how we prioritize and live our life each day – sends a powerful message to others regarding what we value the most. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel awoke one morning to read his own obituary in the local newspaper. It read: “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in a war than ever before, and he died a very rich man.” Actually, it was Alfred’s older brother who had died; a newspaper reporter had bungled the epitaph. But the account had a profound effect on Nobel. He decided he wanted to be known for something other than developing the means to kill people efficiently and for amassing a fortune in the process. So he initiated the Nobel Prize, the award for scientists and writers who foster peace. Nobel said, “Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.” Few things will change us as much as looking at our life as though it were finished. (“Is It Real When It Doesn’t Work?” Doug Murren and Barb Shurin; quoted in Leadership by Rex Bonar, Summer 1991.) Fruitful use of time involves risking more, reflecting more, and leaving a lasting legacy.

In the midst of our hurried and harried lives, the Word of the Lord calls us back to this timeless truth: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:1-2). Fruitful use of time begins with this truth: that God is eternal and we are not. Despite all of our technological, biological and medical advances, the truth remains: “The years of our life are seventy, or even by strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Life expectancy has doubled here in this country over the last 100 years, and people are living longer. Still, on average across the globe, our span of life is a little under 70 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy). And the older we get, the more time seems to fly by. As the psalmist points out, it’s not just the brevity of life that weighs upon us, God’s anger over sin is at the root of our transient human life: “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed… For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh… Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” (Psalm 90:7, 9, 11). We stand under the same condemnation of Adam and Eve, and like them we, too, shall return to the dust from which we were first created (Psalm 90:3; Genesis 3:19).

Our understanding and use of time is usually chronological – a linear progression of days and years. But there is another understanding of time – not chronological, but something much bigger and grander. God’s Word tells us: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). This is the right time, the God-appointed time, when God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to redeem us who stand under his righteous anger and condemnation. In the fullness of time, Jesus came to redeem us through his cleansing blood, setting us apart for his gracious purposes in the world, setting us free to use time in ways that will glorify our Father and be a blessing to others. The psalmist’s prayer: “Have pity on your servants!” (Psalm 90:13) has been fulfilled in Jesus, through God does indeed have pity, mercy, and compassion on all who turn to him. Fruitful use of time begins with God and flows out of all that Jesus has done for us. In Jesus, we cry out to our Father: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). “God, teach us how to live – not just for ourselves, but for you! Move us beyond the tyranny of the urgent to what is truly important and what ultimately matters. Help us to see beyond what is temporal to what is eternal.” Connected to Christ as the true vine, we are his branches, and we take our life from Him. As branches we will bear fruit as long as we stay connected to Jesus, the Vine. Fruitful use of our time begins now, but continues on into eternity. In Jesus the true Vine, even when we die, the end of our earthly is only the beginning of our eternal life with God in heaven.

Rooted and grounded in the one eternal God, forgiven and restored through his Son Jesus who was sent in the fullness of time, called to faith and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are stewards of God’s gift of time. May the Lord guide and bless us to make fruitful use of time, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

other sermons in this series