Psalm 40:7-10; January 18, 2026; Second Sunday after Epiphany
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“In your day of wealth and plenty, wasted work and wasted play, call to mind the word of Jesus: You must work while it is day.” – lyrics from the hymn we just sang, All Who Love and Serve Your City
The amount of hours we waste is just incredible, isn’t it? On our phones. On our drives in and out of work. In our routines. It can feel like we’re back in bed after just waking up, watching the life we should be living disappear.
But Jesus doesn’t want this for us. He’s longing to set us free. He lived and died so that we could be free. Free from all this waste: the waste of routine; the waste of “entertainment”; the waste of scrolling; the waste of neutrality. Free, my friends, from the waste of sin and death.
And so, we know what to do, don’t we? Yeah, we do. For we know we can’t remain here, stuck in neutral, letting this version of society stretch us out thin before we die.
No, we know where to go – to Him – turning our hours, our days, our life into something new; into something undoubtedly brave and true. Amen?
I shared a bit from this letter last week, but it bears repeating this week, especially on this day and weekend: “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” Because… “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. For whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail
As always, brave words from a brave man, who when called, didn’t waste his breath saying neutral, vague, ineffective, words… from a man who didn’t waste his calling, his opportunity, or time, but who jumped into action, organizing others to do the same, for the words of that hymn burned in his heart… “you must work while it is day.” While there is still light. For Christ set us free from fear and shame to do just that!
Like the Psalmist, King said, here I am… I won’t restrain my lips; I won’t hide your saving help within my heart; for I have a dream and I won’t waste time sharing it; I will speak of your faithfulness and your salvation; not concealing your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation, from the nation, from the world.
And so should we. For make no mistake, Jesus was ALL about this. Loudly announcing his ministry with the skies parting and a dove descending; not retreating from the devil in the wilderness nor the authorities who would question his kingliness. He challenged every status quo and put into question the old interpretation of the law.
He was brave. And he didn’t waste his short life here on earth. But in his time, he upset the apple cart while it was still day, so that the darkness of night could not conceal his ministry or message.
One of the reasons I think that I was drawn to his story, to him, was because his message was so subversive. It seemed to challenge everything and everyone! Perfect for a kid like me who always talked back to his father, and risked detention with his teachers.
As a child of the 90s growing up with bands like Radiohead, and Rage Against the Machine, and the idea, strike that, the truth that we all have a voice to use against the powers that be, these systems of control… I read the gospels and I was like, man, Jesus was ahead of his time! Or, better yet, he was a man and a voice for all times!
So, that we each might see in our time the power in which he spoke and the power with which we should act. For we are all servants of God! Called to not retrain our lips, nor hide Christ’s truth in our hearts for only us to see, but bravely and courageously revealing it for all the world to know and believe.
Know Christ and Make Him Known, right? I’m not perfect at this, mind you. I still retreat when I should be bold and I still am quiet when I should be loud.
But, I had a recent moment of boldness, on New Years Eve in fact — [recount story with Sean and friends, talking politics, religion, life, etc.] — I said, I feel closer to JC now, his message resonates more. It’s powerful and countercultural. In a world that is increasingly individualistic, narcissistic, IMAGINE a world where the poor were looked after, where peacemakers were celebrated, where the meek were tended to. Imagine a world where communities looked after and helped each other, where they rallied around each other in sickness and in health, in life and in death. The world would do well with the church, a better church, helping to foster these aims. I said all this, or at least some version of it.
And, I could have kept these comments hidden and concealed in my heart, but I felt compelled, by God, to reveal Christ’s truth to me and his redeeming subversion to my friends.
For there is no shame in being a Christian, my friends.
Yes, though the name has been stained by nationalism, and drug through the mud by those who seemingly wouldn’t know agape even if it defibrillated their heart… it’s not our shame that we believe the gospel, it’s theirs, that they pretend to, and claim to, and behave contrary to.
So maybe you’ll help me, and join me, and together stop wasting time and opportunity waiting on someone else to say and do it for us.
After all, we have good news and God on our side, who is fighting next to us, and always and forever for us.
Amen
