1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word today is taken from the Bible lessons that were read a moment ago. It’s entitled, “Managing God’s Gift of Time,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Have you ever noticed how so many people are trying to catch up with their “busy schedule”? It’s as though their schedule were a New York City subway train that has just closed its doors and is starting to leave the station. And there they run, coffee in one hand and briefcase in the other, trying to catch the speeding train and hop on, but to no avail. Maybe your schedule makes you feel that way. Yet God has given each one of us the very same twenty-four-hour day and the same seven-day week.
3. In this installment of our Managing God’s Gifts stewardship series, we look at God’s gift of time. First, we looked at managing God’s gift of His created world, receiving it with thanksgiving, taking care of it, and using it to benefit other people. Then, we looked at managing God’s gift of other people by loving and serving them in our God-given vocations. Now, we look at time. God created time, and He has given it to us. As with His other gifts, our gracious “lord of the manor” wants us to manage time to His glory. Wise King Solomon writes of time in Ecclesiastes 3. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). He then sings of many things that we do and endure during our days and years on planet Earth—maybe more things than we ever dream of cramming into our already crowded schedules. But notice where Solomon leads us: “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man” (Ecclesiastes 3:11–13).
4. Not only does God give us time—our hours, days, months, and years—as a gift, but He also gives a purpose to our time. You may not find this purpose mentioned in the time-management books of your local bookstore. God wants you to find “everything beautiful.” He wants you to be joyful and do good as you manage your time. He wants you to eat, drink, and take pleasure in your toil as you practice good stewardship of His gift of time.
5. But, how can we find everything beautiful when we try to keep up with the speeding subway car of our overcrowded schedules? How can we be joyful and do good when we’re running late, have to shuttle the children to school, and then rush to work for another long day? Oh, and fit in a trip to the grocery store? What about those trips to the doctor’s office? How can we possibly take pleasure in our toil, let alone in eating and drinking, when we only have time for the McDonald’s drive-thru for supper? How can we possibly receive our labor as God’s gift when keeping the frantic pace is standard operating procedure?
6. When we can seem to fit some rest and relaxation into our hectic schedules, does it truly restore and refresh us? Maybe we pack our vacations just as full with activities as we do the rest of our time. Maybe we fill our one or two days off per week with so many chores and “honey dos” that we feel the need to return to work just to rest up a bit. Maybe we just “veg out” in front of the TV, binge watching our favorite show on Netflix, for hours at a time. But have you ever noticed that doing nothing in this way doesn’t always refresh?
7. We really are like Martha in our Gospel. When Jesus came to visit, Martha busied herself with the dinner preparations, while Mary merely sat at Jesus’ feet listening to Him teach. “Distracted with much serving” is how Luke describes Martha (Luke 10:40). Then Martha worried that Mary was not pulling her weight, and she tried to triangulate Jesus to her side of the conflict. But Jesus would not have it. He answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). Our Lord might as well say that to us as well. Then Jesus gives the better way: “But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42).
8. What is that “one thing necessary,” that “good portion”? Jesus lets us figure it out from Mary’s action, which Martha thought was inaction. It was sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His teaching. Let’s call it regularly attending the Divine Service or reading our Bible at home or praying at home together with everyone in the household or taking time to be fed on the bread of life Himself.
9. “But, Pastor, I don’t have time for daily devotions. Haven’t you heard how busy I am? Don’t you get just how many things I have to do? And come to church every Sunday? Sundays are my only days to sleep in.” And there lies the problem. We’re anxious and troubled about many things—things not related to the Word of God, things that do not, and cannot, give us the real rest we need.
10. This is the reason God gives us the Third Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” This is also the reason Martin Luther tied God’s Word to this commandment in his Small Catechism: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” Let that meaning change your view of life. Let it shape you and how you manage God’s gift of time.
11. In his Large Catechism, Luther says that God gives us this Third Commandment for both physical and spiritual rest. Speaking of “holy days”—from which we get “holidays”—Luther says, “We keep them first of all for bodily causes and necessities, which nature teaches and requires. We keep them for the common people”—that’s us—“who have been attending to their work and trade the whole week. In this way they may withdraw in order to rest for a day and be refreshed” (LC I 83). Managing God’s gift of time includes withdrawing from the hectic, busy, pace and being refreshed in the body.
12. It also includes being refreshed in our soul and spirit. Luther continues: “Second, and most especially, on this day of rest (since we can get no other chance), we have the freedom and time to attend divine service. We come together to hear and use God’s Word, and then to praise God, to sing and to pray” (LC I 84). Managing God’s gift of time starts with and circles back to hearing and learning His Word, not only in personal Bible reading but also, and especially, in the Divine Service.
13. Luther’s catechism hymn on the Ten Commandments teaches us to sing this meaning this way: “You shall observe the worship day, That peace may fill your home, and pray, And put aside the work you do, So that God may work in you.” Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581:4) When you actually push pause on your busy routine and your overcrowded schedule, and when you attend Divine Service and gladly hear preaching and learn God’s Word, God Himself works in you. God Himself gives you the rest that you need. God Himself works so that you may manage His gift of time, find everything beautiful, be joyful, and do good.
14. God works in you by giving you His own Son. Jesus knows how the body wears out and needs physical rest. He also knows how the soul needs spiritual rest in His Word. When He took His rest, He did so by observing the worship day and praying. For all of us who neglect His Word, for all of us who frazzle ourselves with our frantic, workaday pace, our Lord Jesus did His greatest work by suffering and dying on a cross. Consider how that wore Him out! Then He rested in His tomb of death on the Sabbath to restore the day of rest for our benefit. Then He rose victorious on the third day to restore us to proper Sabbath-keeping, to proper management of His gift of time. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:9–10).
15. Managing God’s gift of time is a lot like putting big rocks, medium stones, pea-size gravel, and sand into a gallon jar. All of them will fit into the jar. If we start with the small stuff—the sand—put it in the jar first, and then put the gravel on top of that, and then the medium stones on top of that, then, no, there will not be room for the big rocks. But when we begin by putting the big rocks in first—the most important things—followed by the medium stones, followed by the pea-size gravel, and finally the sand, then, yes, it all will fit. You see, the big ingredients—the important things—go in first, and the smaller ingredients work around them to fill in the gaps. And on top of that, we just might be able to squeeze a bit more into the jar. Pour in some water to fill in the rest of the gaps.
16. When it comes to managing God’s gift of time, learning His Word, attending the Divine Service, receiving the Lord’s body and blood—these are the “big rocks.” If you try to fit them into your busy schedule last, then, of course, there will not be room. So put them into your schedule first. Then put in the medium stones of other obligations, such as family, work, and so on. Then put in the less weighty stuff, such as social activities or outings with friends or reading a good book or a favorite hobby—the “gravel” and “sand,” if you will—to fill in the gaps. And you may just find that your “busy schedule” still has gaps to fill as you so choose.
17. God gives time as His gift, not so that you will feel frazzled or feel like you are chasing the departing subway. He doesn’t want you to be “anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). Instead, He wants you to spend your time on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.” So, “if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8), and make them the “bigger ingredients” in the gallon jar of your schedule.
18. In managing God’s gift of time, our gracious Lord wants you to find “everything beautiful.” He wants you to be joyful and do good as you manage your time. He wants you to eat, drink, and take pleasure in your toil as you practice good stewardship of His gift of time. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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