Genesis 49-50, Psalm 17, Matthew 17
Time is such a precious commodity. We all seem to realize that as we get older the faster time slips away. And time, unlike the resources of our treasures and talent, is never replenished. When it is gone, it is gone. As far back as I can remember, I have always had a fundamental passion to make the best of time, hoping and praying that opportunities were never forsaken that I would regret passing up to do as God would will it. I also wanted my time and moments to generate a sense of God’s will in my life and the beauty it can and will generate for me as well as others.
Jesus in our passage from Matthew is aware how time is passing as he for a second time reveals his impending fate. There is so much to teach the disciples, but so little time remaining. There is a need to cultivate faith within his followers that God’s presence may always be evident. And there is an urgency to enable the disciples to simply be agents of God’s grace in all that they say and do. Christ’s engagement in our lives raises the same concerns and urgency as we are asked to examine how we utilize our time: learning from the past, making the most of the present, and preparing for the future. How are we utilizing the precious commodity of our time for God’s purposes?
Enlightened further by the Genesis text, we may even be asking how would our life-long passage of time be remembered? What words would be said about us as to how we used our time? How did it impact the people who have crossed our paths and touched our lives? The consequences of what we do, good or bad, impacts the future. Likewise, our faithfulness and service to be as God desires will create a ripple of goodness for many generations to come.
The Very Rev. Dr. William L. Stomski,
Chaplain and Sacred Studies Educator, St Joseph’s Episcopal School, Boynton Beach,
Dean of The Diocesan School for Christian Studies, Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida