Making Hay when the Sun Doesn’t Shine (Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

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“Make hay while the sun shines!”  That was an expression I learned as a kid.  And it was kind of odd, because none of us lived on or near farms.  It was only later that I realized that “make hay while the sun shines” referred to taking advantage of sunny days to dry out hay so that you could store it in the barn for later.

But as kids, we somehow learned what that phrase meant anyway.  It meant take advantage of good times to do things.  If it was sunny, go out and play!  If you were near the playground, use it!  And even – although we liked it less – if you had time to do your homework, do it now!  Make hay while the sun shines.

And often, as adults we like to focus on taking advantage of good opportunities.  If we’ve got time off from work, we can catch up on projects around the house.  If we’re on vacation, we often try to make the most of the time by having as much fun as possible.  And financial planners appropriately tell us that if we’re making money now, be sure to save for later.  Make hay while the sun shines.

Yet in today’s second reading, the writer tells the Ephesians to make “the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  That is, to focus on doing things right now precisely because the sun is NOT shining.  It’s almost like saying, “make hay now while it’s raining.”

It sounds backwards.  Often, when things are bad – or even evil – in our lives, we duck and cover.  We try to bide our time until things are better.  And often, the actions we do take are centered on trying to protect what we have until the rain passes and it’s a sunny day again.

Now we don’t really know why the days were evil for the Ephesians.  Ephesus, in the first century, was a pretty nice place to live.  It was the second largest city in the Roman empire and most people there were pretty well off.  Why were the days evil?  Perhaps the Ephesian Christians were facing some kind of persecution.  A plague may have been going around.  Maybe there was in-fighting in the congregation – we know that happened in other early congregations.  Maybe it was something else, or a combination of several things.

But whatever it was, I think this is the point: when days are bad – or even evil – that’s when it’s most necessary for Christians to show up and live their faith.  That’s the beginning of the reading – “be careful how you live.”  And that doesn’t mean “be careful you don’t commit some horrible sin”, but rather, “remember that how you live shows your faith in Jesus and what that faith means to you.”

And often, and perhaps even paradoxically, it’s when Christians are willing to act in bad days – even evil days – that it makes the most difference.  That’s the way it often was for Christian communities in the first century.  And indeed, that’s often been the case for us here at Prince of Peace as well.

And while we naturally don’t like to dwell on the bad days, it’s often important to remember that it was in the midst of some of those bad days that people here made a huge and positive difference when we were willing to live our faith even when the days were evil.

For example:

It wasn’t too long ago that we suddenly had to shut down for Covid, and for over a year we couldn’t gather in-person inside the building.  Nothing like that had happened in any of our lifetimes, and none of us were really prepared for it.  Days were bad, and we didn’t know how long they’d last.  But in the midst of those days, we quickly figured out how to stream worship; and we figured out how to meet on Zoom; and people actually showed up online, and they watched and helped in ways that didn’t require physically being together.  Many other congregations did, too, but lots DIDN’T…

But because we acted in those bad days, we learned to do things we wouldn’t have otherwise, even if we still might not be big fans of Zoom…! And because we acted in those bad days, we reached people who today we wouldn’t still be reaching… (I am still amazed at how many people we reach online); we made hay while it was raining, and we were able to live our faith in ways that we wouldn’t be doing now if we hadn’t acted in those bad days…

And a few years before Covid, our neighbors at Shaare Torah woke up to find that vandals had painted Nazi symbols all over the wall of their synagogue.  It was shocking for all of us, because we like to think that that kind of evil and racism doesn’t happen around here.  But it did.  And at that point, we realized that we were clearly living through some evil days.

But in the midst of those evil days, a bunch of folks at Shaare Torah and Prince of Peace and few other faith communities realized that when stuff like this happens, we can duck and cover and complain, or we can rise up and live differently.  And that’s how the Interfaith 5K came into being.  We all decided to come together and walk together as neighbors of different faiths; to build relationships; and to help needy people in our community.  We lived differently because the days were evil. 

And since then, there have sadly been more incidents of graffiti and attacks against people of all faiths.  Some days are still evil, and that’s why continuing to show that as Christians, we’ll live boldly and differently in midst of evil days continues to be important…

And over and over again, we’ve rallied together when members of our own congregation have faced their own personal evil days.  When I first came here 22 years ago, Prince of Peace had, during the interim, been caught up in big congregational fight…

But in the midst of that fight, a teenager in the congregation became ill with an incurable disease.  Folks here had the energy and bandwidth to continue the fight, or to rally around the kid and his family.  And they chose to rally around the kid and his family, because people here realized that Christian community and care and love aren’t just abstract ideas – they’re ways you live when people are living through evil days.

And actually, that was one of the reasons I knew this would be a great congregation to serve with – alongside people got their priorities straight and who knew how to live like that when the days were evil.

And that actually is a characteristic of our congregation. People here have continued to rally around individuals and families facing evil days.  And some of those days have been our finest moments, not because they were fun or happy, but because we lived our faith when the days were evil.

And we should remember all of these things now, because for the moment, it feels like the days are pretty “sunny” right now.  Of course, there are always problems we need to face, but most of them seem manageable…

But sadly, more evil days will come.  And we should take the opportunity now to remember that it’s not just when the sun shines that we should make the hay of our faith.  We should be prepared to act precisely when the days are evil, because that’s when Jesus most needs us to show up and live our faith.

So, make hay while the sun shines!  But also remember to continue to make the hay of faith when the sun isn’t shining.  After all, Jesus came in the midst of evil days and saved us.  And even now, Jesus wants to work through us to make the most of all the days, especially when the days are evil.

Amen.