Daylight Delayed

Matthew 25:14-30
14For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 

19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20The the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you haves over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master. 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 

24Then the one who had received one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master replied, ‘you wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not cater? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

Psalm 90:1-17
1A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.
2Before the mountains came into being, before you brought forth the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity You are God.

3You return man to dust; You decreed, “Return you mortals!”
4For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that has passed, like a watch in the night.
5You engulf men in sleep; at daybreak they are like grass that renews itself; 
6at daybreak it flourishes anew; by dusk it withers and dries up.
7So we are consumed by Your anger, terror-struck by Your fury.
8You have set our iniquities before you, our hidden sins in the light of Your face.

9All our days pass away under Your wrath; we spend our years like a sigh.
10The span of our life is seventy years, or, given the strength, eighty years; but the best of them are trouble and sorrow. They pass by speedily, and we are in darkness.

11Who can know Your furious anger? Your wrath matches the fear of you.
12Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart.

13Turn, O LORD! How long? Show mercy to your servants.
14Satisfy us at daybreak with your Steadfast love that we may sing for joy all our days.
15Give us joy for as long as you have afflicted us, for the years we have suffered misfortune.
16Let your deeds be seen by Your servants, Your glory by their children.
17may the favor of the Lord, our God, be upon us; let the work of our hands prosper, O prosper the work of our hands!

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Saints and angels join in concert, singing the praises of the Lamb. The echoes of his name rebound across the seats of heaven, joining in a triumphal chorus of Hallelujah! We sinners here can only imagine the divine cacophony of joy at the opening dawn of Easter Sunday, and the glimmering beam of the Spirit as the sun crept over the horizon of a creation made new.

Yet we poor and needy sinners are stuck in the darkness, our daybreak is delayed as we wait at the closing of the church year. In the distance we can barely make out “He rules the world…”

We are like Moses at the end of his life, looking out over the promised land, but knowing he will not enter it. We may not see the restoration in our lives, but we know that our people will get there regardless. Our psalm begins, ”A prayer of Moses, the man of God.” We locate ourselves on the edge of promise, proclaiming that our redemption is won in Christ, and the promise is at hand. We make that proclamation through the same voice that asserts in Exodus 2 that “God heard the groans of the people and remembered his covenant…”

The saints and angels join in concert, and we poor and needy sinners groan, In our groaning, however, we read, remember, and rely on the promise of Psalm 90. ”O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.” Amid all the darkness, all the struggles that may try and pull us off course, promising that ”[The LORD] is the speaker's home... affirms that the speaker is not homeless. There is a center to prevent fragmentation. This is a belonging to preclude isolation.” We may not have the voices to sing, but we do have a home amid the hardships of this life that threaten to pull us apart in the night.

We start with home where we are rooted in God. The only way this poem can hold together; is to assert that WE are held together by God, who is eternal. “Before the mountains came into being, before you brought forth the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity You are God.” As this prayer of Moses, the man of God, moves forward, acknowledging the struggles of life and the neediness of sinners, we most hold to the starting point: "O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.” This Psalm is speaking in the midst of disorientation so that we can remember that God, and Christ, are at the center not only of our lives, but of all creation.

I think that much of sin is rooted in the idea of human mastery, whether it is the human masters of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, or the myth that we can master our own lives and do not need others to be fulfilled. "Any human attempt to be certain of God's presence and to speak of his eternal being is bound to remain always a mere stammering and necessarily leads once more to the realization of the futility and insignificance of everything that is human.” When we are faced with an eternal truth, such as “O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation,” the myth of human master falls apart in favor of the true master: God.

We, of all people, should know better. “You have set our iniquities before you, our hidden sins in the light of Your face.” We benefit from injustice from buying cheap clothes made in unsafe conditions in Bangladesh to worshipping on land that was taken from Native Americans hundreds of years ago. We may not see the injustice done, but it’s so much easier to look the other way when it makes our life easier.

This poem acknowledges reality is full of suffering. “The span of our life is seventy years, or, given the strength, eighty years; but the best of them are trouble and sorrow. They pass by speedily, and we are in darkness.” It's not the end that troubles us, it's what the end is going to be like. Are we going to decline for years in a nursing home? Are we going to go peacefully in our sleep? We have a beginning and an end, and we struggle for most of the between.We don't dwell on it because it's better to live in hope and preparation. Even in hope, the question remains: How do we keep moving forward in the face of tragedy and grief?

The Psalm does not let suffering overwrite the foundational truth of the people of God: ”O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.” We are often surrounded by darkness, sin, and death. God is our eternal refuge, but we have to acknowledge that we are refugees. This is not the way we were intended to exist in the world. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, but we live in a world that resists God reign.

One of the Lunch Bunch pointed out that we see and do evil, but we are still assured of God's love. We also know that our trouble and sorrow will come to an end. The psalm speaks of God’s wrath and anger, and how we cannot conceal our sins, but all of that is grounded in "O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.”

God's wrath is a personal, hurt, response to the brokenness of the world.a

A wise heart remains rooted in the LORD. Rooted in the word of God, the law of God, the steadfast loving-kindness of God. "O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation." A wise heart trusts God’s providential grace even in the face of sin and death.

"May the favor of the Lord, our God, be upon us; let the work of our hands prosper, O prosper the work of our hands!" We asked for God to prosper the work of our hands, to make our efforts more effective, more lasting. God chose not to act in that way. The favor of The Lord came as an infant, a blessing beyond our imagination. The powerful connection we have with God is not forged with our hands, it is forged in the love of our eternal God. Rather than giving us prosperity and effective action, God gives us himself, as ultimately revealed in Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel - God with us."The thirst for place is resolved in the gift of communion.”

With confidence in God, our refuge in every generation, the work of our hands will prosper in ways of righteousness, rather than profit.

The Gospel of John promises that a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not extinguish the light. Even though daylight may be delayed, and the night extended beyond our coping ability, we know that there is still hope shining in the darkness. “O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.” We face the powers of darkness knowing that Christ has broken them, and made our peace eternal. Daylight may be delayed, but heavenly light is breaking forth, and ushers in a morning of boundless joy.