Sermon for July 20th, 2025

Readings:

Genesis 18:1-10a
Psalm 15 
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42

I didn’t have time to write a sermon this week. I’m sure most of y’all won’t mind.

I was busy. A church doesn’t just run itself you know. There is a lot to do. There were about three different contractors in and out this week working on one thing or another. There should have been four, but one stood me up. I had several administrative meetings. I was making plans for next year. I had another meeting about several folks who feel called to the priesthood. I spent some time sorting through some of the fair stuff on the stage. Updated the website. Lots of stuff. There’s always just stuff to do. I was busy.

I meant to read the bible this week and study the lessons for this morning. I had the texts all laid out beside me, but everytime I looked at my computer there was another email I needed to answer. Or worse, there was a very carefully worded email that I needed to send. You know. Who has time to write a sermon when you have to think of ways to politely tell someone off? I was busy. 

Yes, I prayed this week. I always pray, but sometimes my prayers are just another window open on my desktop if you know what I mean. It’s going on in the background. I’m praying while I’m doing something else. I’ll think “Lord help this person,” or “Lord heal that person,” while I’m driving or running around. Or I might remember to pray as a last resort when everything else I have tried fails. I know better than to do that, I should always pray first, but sometimes even I forget. There is just so much to distract me, so much to keep me busy, so much to do. I wish I would have taken the time to pray more this week, I could have prayed for help with writing this sermon, but I was busy. 

And of course, I’m a human, and a husband and a father, and a child, and a brother, and lots of things to lots of people, so I have a life of stuff outside of this place too. That keeps me busy. And speaking of praying when everything else fails….nobody ever told me how hard it would be to potty train a toddler. All I have ever had experience with is dogs and cats and I assure you…it’s not the same. This is so much harder. Do you know how hard it is to write a sermon when you and squatting down next to a toilet and praying “Go! Just Go!”? Well neither do I actually, cause I didn’t write a sermon. I didn’t have time. I was busy. Busy cooking, busy shopping, busy cleaning, busy working, busy living. Just busy. I was busy. 

Now if I had had time to come up with a sermon, if I were preaching, I know I would be preaching to the choir this morning, because y’all are busy too. Work, kids, sports. I know how busy y’all are. Those of you who are from an older generation may remember when work was mostly a 9-5 sort of deal. Clock in, clock out, go home. But it’s not that way anymore. We all carry our office in our pockets now. Email, text, phone, work is always right there at our side begging for attention. You can’t get away from it. This is the world we live in now. And I gather from those of you that are retired, that it’s not that much better for you either, because I watch and y’all are always up to something, or going somewhere, or doing something. Y’all are busy too. All of you. We are busy people.

And we are busy doing important things. Not everything is important, to be sure, but lots of things are. People need to eat. Dishes need cleaning. Bills need paying. And the church does important work too. Keeping ministries going is important. Keeping the business side of church going is important. We all have important things to do. I’m not special in that regard. We all have such full lives that it can be very hard sometimes to know what has to come first. What needs to happen and what can wait? In a world full of important things, what things are the most important? That’s what I would like to know. That’s what I would fine helpful, not just in some philosophical sort of way, but in my day-to-day life. This is one of those areas where we could really use some guidance from God. Tell us Lord. Give us a sign.

I mean, if God wanted us to take time off to rest on a regular basis (like every seven days or so), I would expect him to tell us so. Is that so much to ask? God, if taking a day off every week to just pray and worship and be with our families is important, please just tell us. Don’t make us wonder. Better yet Lord, give us a little list of behaviors just to remind us what sort of things we should and should not do. That would be so helpful. Some of y’all may be mourning the Late Show this week. I must confess that I never really watched it, but I seem to recall that once upon a time it was famous for having top 10 lists. Well if God could just give us a top 10 list, that would be great. Think of how helpful it would be. I mean, if you had a list that said something like “don’t commit adultery” then you wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught on the kiss cam with your mistress at the Coldplay concert? Am I right? Wouldn’t that kind of guidance make life easier? Help us out Lord.

As I said, I didn’t have time to write a sermon this week. I was busy. But if I had written a sermon, I probably would have poured over the bible looking for some guidance from God on what things are more important than others. I would have looked for examples in the Old Testament of patriarchs like Abraham just stopping what they were doing and paying attention to something. People in the ancient world never left the office either. There was always work to do. Grain to grind and sheep to shear and Lord knows what else. What made people like Abraham stop what they were doing and pay attention? If just being in the presence of God was truly important for our ancestors, then I am sure that there must be an example somewhere in the bible, of someone like Abraham just stopping…putting the busyness aside and spending time with God. If I had had time to look for it, I think that kind of story or example would have been helpful.

And if not in the Old Testament, then surely in the New Testament I would have found help. I believe that Jesus is God, the creator of the universe, in the flesh. I am sure that he has powerful, wonderful things to say about which things are more important than others. I didn’t write a sermon this week, I was busy. But if I had written a sermon, I would have poured over Jesus’s words to see what he had to say about all this stuff that we have to do. Maybe there is a concrete example there of someone just working and working and working and along the way losing sight of what the work was all about. That sort of story, that kind of guidance might be helpful for people living in this day and age. I know I would find it helpful. 

If I had written a sermon this week, if I had had the time, I would have looked for an example of someone who could, at least for a moment, push their busyness aside and just be in the presence of the Lord, listening to his words, without guilt and without the shame of being unproductive. I would have looked for someone who understood that there is a difference between doing things for God, and spending time with God, and that one is actually more important than the other. I would have looked for permission to stop, permission to rest, permission to just let things go now and then. Anyways, that is probably what I would have preached on if I had had time to read the lessons this week, or study the scriptures, but as I said, I was busy.