14/8/22 homily
In praise of the God who never sleeps.
Time is a wibbly wobbly old thing. I’m actually typing this week's reflection before Jeanine and I go on our adventure but it will magically and mysteriously pop up while we are in New York. At least that is the plan and that is what the computer confidently says it will do for me.
Before they left in 2020, Jacky and David kindly organised a thing called a Google nest. If you ask it nicely it can play your favourite song, set the alarm and tell you a joke.
But the most important thing it does is allow us to have a video/sound/screen conversation with our New York family. It’s been an odd experience. It’s like Jacky & David are kind of there, but not there. It’s been a slippery old time because while it is our Thursday morning it is their Wednesday night. So while Jeanine and I are in our morning glad rags having just finished breakfast with the sun coming up, Jacky and David are winding down at the end of a long hard day, sipping wine and getting ready for dinner
As the months have flicked away daylight, savings at both ends have played their tricks and the seasons have also warped our minds. So while it has been blitheringly hot here in the summer they have shown us the torrential and relentless snow outside. Minus something or other is the order of their day. Then of course when it is dark and frigid in Hamilton, as it has been, big blue skies and humid on the streets of Manhattan. It’s all a bit peculiar and very wibbly wobbly. I’ve never actually managed to get my head around it. Instead, I’ve just accepted whatever the climate happens to be, when it happens to be.
This brings us to this space of 5 weeks when you and I are in different time zones. I can’t be with you at the altar and over the cuppa and in your homes etc. While this will be a good thing in the long run, in the short term it is a wrench. It would be grand if I could just duck back home to Hamilton for the weekends.
A thought came to me in the middle of the night (Eastern Standard time) which helped, and my thought was this. That while it is night time and I am snoring under the air conditioner in New York you will be gathered around the altar in daylight trying to stay warm. Being the prayerful pilgrim people I have come to know, I will rest securely knowing that your support continues. And vice versa. When you are safely tucked up in your bed and I am at an altar somewhere in New York I will certainly be thinking of you and praying for you.
As that splendid hymn put it:
As o’er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.
The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ’neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high
So our loving God is everywhere including Manhattan, Hamilton and every place in between. But He is also the God of all time and in all time and there is no time zone and no moment where He is absent. There is no millisecond where God is not present and active and loving.
God does not suffer from jet lag, or knock-off for 10 minutes at 10:30 am each morning for a smoko. Nor does he take annual leave, Long service leave, personal leave, parental leave, sick leave, compassionate leave, maternity leave, or family leave; even though with His heavy workload he would be more than entitled to do so.
Nor does God have 40 winks, a snooze, a siesta or a cat nap. We worship, love and give thanks that our God is the one who never sleeps. When you’re God you don’t need to sleep.
So even though you and I are on other sides of this very precious little planet we are always one in God. We are still united in a way that is both incomprehensible, mysterious and lovely.
And no matter which time zone we are in, or what we are up to, or whether we are awake or asleep, God is inseparable from us both and always watching over us.
The Psalmist put it for far more eloquently than I and their words conclude this homily for you today… or… whatever day it is… was… will be.
Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore