11/02/2022
Pastor's Weekly Message
Saving Ligh
How much fun it this??? Getting back to StandardTime. The bane of everyone who has a houseful of clocks, a microwave oven, stove, watches, and an old VCRflashing "12:00, 12:00, 12:00..."in bright red numbers.Our world is saturated with timekeeping. Our species ishappy knowing the timebutit has to be precise. You can get the accurate time online at www.time.govwhich was helpful in telling me that my MacBook Pro internal clock is 3/100ths of a second too fast. Sheeesh.Time is important. Time is relevant. Time is relative. Interesting that Time only goes forward. God doesn't really care or mindbecause God is beyond time (He created it, BTW). Yes, God created time and it moves forward. In Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, time is subject to dilation, that gravity can alter time. On our moon, you are older by 629 millisecondsbut at the Dead Sea you are younger by 44 microsecondsbecause gravity changes time. I'm opting for younger and floating in the salty water.Back to our reality. The adage, Spring Forward, Fall Back, is to help us to remember when StandardTime exchanges with Savings Time.We get giddy when we recallwe're "getting an hour back" that we lost it in the spring. It mostly throws everybody off for a week or so.Farmers and ranchers mostly just manage by the sun, getting up early and working late. The animals don't seem to notice unless they don't get fed or milked.I love that God invented time and physicists don't have a good explanation of why it only moves in one direction. Books, TV shows and movies love time travelmostly because we are fascinated bychanging something in the past to fix the future.Lots of interesting ideas here but they mostly involve our interest in getting an advantage over something or someone.Kind of human, isn't it?We want the advantage.There are no Daylight Savings Accounts at the bank, or store, or rental storage facility. You can't bottle it, freeze it, dehydrate it, or keep it in a drawer somewhere. It's an ideaas much as anything.It's supposed to be helpful but many people are thinking of getting rid of Daylight Savings and Standard Time. Certain states in the USA do not change their time, choosing to ignore it.In the creation accounts of the book of Genesis, light was the first change to the Creation, having existed as a formless voidbefore that day.Light is vital to our health and the health of the Earth.When we speakof the many names of Godand of Jesus Christ, we hear the cry: 'Jesusis the Light of the World'.The Light that illumines our path, the path to righteousness and life itself.Rather than trying to preserve light and save it in a jar, Jesus is our Light which saves-saves us from ourselves,our sinfulness, our demise.On the Public Library building in downtown Rochester, NYthere are sayings carved into the stone, one which has always struck me in my heart: "When you walk toward the Light, all the shadows are behind you." All the shadows of our life, normal and super-normal, exist but are behind us if we choose to walk toward the Light. Thisis a powerfulimage, metaphor, anda distinctly Christian philosophy.Walking toward the Light is a choice.We have many ways of seeking the good in the worldand multiplepathways, some easier and some harder.Choosing the correct path is not simple nor easy. We maychoose what we think is the right path only to find out it's a dead end or taking us in the wrong direction. Moving toward the Light, to have the path lit, to find it well-worn and clear with few places to stumble, is a true gift.As we finish Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary and our 'walk' through the Gospel of Luke, we have heard many messages of hope and warning. This Sunday we hear Luke's version of the Beatitudes, the Blessings andWoes.It gives us pause as we contemplate the impossible goals that Jesus sets out for his followers. Impossiblebut for God.Rather than discourage us, Jesus sets us on a path that He has walked, clearing the way for our salvation.This Sunday, we honor ourancestors by celebrating All Saint's Day, reading the necrology,special prayers,andsingingtreasured hymns. We sit and remember all those who have gone before us, who helped to lay the paths, wear down the weeds and stones of life, and give us a gift. They formed our congregations, built our buildings, made our presence in the communities we serve possible.We are literally 'nothing' without our ancestors.This week, let us remember our ancestors andallow ourselves to follow the Light of Christ which will never be diminished or extinguished.(and remember to set your clocks back on Saturday)
