A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. on Sunday, September 10, 2023.
This morning, I want to see if you can finish this sentence from an old, well-known tune from the band Chicago.
As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me
What the time was that was on my watch,
And I said…
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(Care about time) does anybody really care?
Both of our texts this morning are blinking large letters on broadside billboards that read, “YES!” Time is vital. Time is precious and not to be wasted. The time is now!
Our reading from Exodus 12 with its description of the first Passover describes how the Hebrew people are to eat their dinner their final night in Egypt. The Lord tells Moses and Aaron to share with the people that, “You shall eat it fully dressed and ready for a road trip with your car packed, your napkin tucked into your collar so as not to spill on your shirt, your shoes are on, your car keys are in one hand and you’re scarfing down dinner with the other. You’re to eat it hurriedly as though an unwanted guest was about to knock on your door!”[1]
The Apostle Paul is focused on time as well. Turn in your Bible to Romans 13:8-14. His words express a sense of urgency that in light of what God in Christ has done for us, we are to shed the past and focus on the present and fast-approaching future. He talks about how we are to get dressed for this present and impending time. Paul reminds us how we are to invest in the time we have. Hear the Word of the Lord.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.[2]
As we wade into our texts this morning, we are provided the essential reminder of how we are to live our lives in this crazy world of conspiracy theories, self-indulgence, and devastating earthquakes. Sadly, this one thing is often lacking in our churches as well as in the halls of Congress or State houses.
You and I have one job to do and that’s it; yet, more often than not, we fail miserably at it. It’s like looking at a picture of a Department of Transportation worker painting new lines on fresh asphalt. The driver drops his cigarette on the opposite floorboard and bends over to grab it. As he does so, his left hand turns the steering and the line skews hard left for several feet before he steers it back to the center of the road. We can hear the supervisor telling the line-painter: You had one job, and you blew it! All you were to do was paint a straight line! This is what Paul is reminding us. It’s what Jesus tried to bring home with the disciples.
What’s the one job we are asked to fulfill? Love. Love God and love each other. Pretty basic. Pretty simple. Jesus collapses the 613 Jewish laws that are prescribed in the Old Testament and boils them down to two: Love God. Love neighbor.[3] Pretty basic. Pretty simple. Or is it?
We might think to ourselves, “Well, I’m no axe murderer, am I? I’m not cheating on my partner! God has blessed me richly, so I don’t need to steal anything from anyone!” It’s relatively easy for us to say we don’t cheat, kill, or steal but can we really say it’s easy to love? I think not, at least not in the sense Jesus outlined and Paul reinforces in today’s text.
It’s easy not to go kill someone. It’s much harder to demonstrate love towards a person you believe has hurt or wronged you even if they are a fellow church member. It’s easy not to steal something but it’s harder to love that person who committed a home invasion and stole your grandmother’s antique gold watch. It’s easy to not cheat on your spouse but it’s harder to love the partner who has cheated on you and has trashed your trust through a tryst. Love is flat-out difficult!
Remember beloved, the love Paul and Jesus are talking about is not wrapped up in sentimentality; it’s not some gushy, sweet emotion about how we feel towards each other. Biblical love, agape, is a sticky and at times prickly love because it’s an active verb that demonstrates an act of our will. Love is inconvenient. Lord is hard. Love costs us something. Love sacrifices something. Love is purposeful. It’s volitional and at times may not even be very enjoyable. Love is often hard but yet, it’s the bar that we each must clear if we call ourselves “Christian.”
I want you to take a moment and reflect with me. Look around this room at all the faces of people gathered this morning. I bet you like and love every single one of them, don’t you? Isn’t that right? I mean, we’re a church! Of course, we love and like everybody in it! We’ve never had disagreements or shown angst towards each other, have we? We always get along with each other and agree with everything the other believes and does, don’t we?
Right. Of course, we don’t! It’s yet another reminder of how difficult it is to hear Paul’s words today. It’s a reminder to us that sure, we hear Jesus remind us to be like the Good Samaritan and love the stranger, but Jesus doesn’t have to go to church, go to work, or go to school with Milly or Tim like I do! Loving the stranger is one thing; liking, much less loving the people I know is totally different; oh, if Jesus only knew them like I do!
The deal is, he does. He also knows you and me. He knows how hard it is for us to love each other. His first disciples didn’t get it and he knows we won’t or cannot either. But this is what Jesus does expect of us. He expects us to imitate the way he lived his life among people who both adored him and those who hated him. This is what Paul means in verse 14 when he literally says, “Get dressed in the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are to try to imitate Jesus’ love for and towards others. The demand is to pick up our crosses and follow him, imitate him. Sometimes those cross-bearing acts are outward and obvious. Sometimes, those cross-bearing acts of love are more subtle.
Let’s not kid ourselves; it was hard for Jesus to verbally express love to all the people. As he was beaten and interrogated in the presence of the self-righteous religious leaders, he showed his love through his silence. When interrogated by Pontus Pilate and others in the Praetorium, he expressed his love in silence. As he was nailed to the tree and heckled, mocked, and spit on, he showed his love by quietly praying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
This morning, we experience the most paramount expression of Jesus’ love: The Lord’s Supper. This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat. This is the cup of salvation given for you, sealed with my blood. Take and drink all of it in remembrance of me.
Are we to simply remember what Jesus did? Oh my, no. We are to imitate what Jesus did. Jesus does not ask us to do anything that he hasn’t done. Himself: We are to break ourselves for others like Jesus did. We are to give our life-blood to others like Jesus did. In so doing, we actively love God and love our neighbors. In so doing, we put on and get dressed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Does anyone really know what time it is? Does anyone really care? It’s time to get dressed in our Lord Jesus Christ and love those we meet every day.
In the Name of the One Who Is, Was, and is Yet to Come. Amen.
© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 400 Glen Street, Glens Fall, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, NY, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.
[1] See Exodus 12:11.
[2] The New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[3] See Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
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