Fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 14th, 2019

Fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 14th, 2019

I was recently in a restaurant enjoying a meal.  It was mid-afternoon, I believe, and as such there were not many people there.  In fact there were only two tables occupied at the time.  My table was one of them and the other table was occupied by a father along with a young woman and a young man.  The girl and boy (I presume they were brother and sister) were around 15, 16, 17 years old?  I am not good at guessing ages but around this age, I would imagine.  As I was sitting there waiting for my food to be brought out, I could not help but notice that the brother and sister were pre-occupied with their cell phones.  Now this is not really unusual, I am sure you will agree, in this day and age.  But this is what I  noticed as I sat there.  The boy and girl were fixated on their phones.  But the father did not have any cell phone with him.  If he did, it was put away.  Anyhow, as I mentioned the boy and the girl were constantly looking down gazing at their phones.  The father was trying to make small talk with the two of them.  In other words, he was trying to make conversation.  At first, he would talk about the menu choices.  He would ask what they wanted to eat.  After the food was ordered, the father was making more small talk with his children.  Now, I didn't really catch what the "small talk" was because I really was not trying to listen in on their conversation.  But, honestly, at this point I was more interested in observing the reactions of the father and his two children.  The father for his part was trying to speak with his children.  He was trying to interact with them.  For their part, the children were so focused on their phones they were not paying attention to their father at all.  They were not paying attention to each other, now that I think about it.  The only time the boy or the girl would look up from their phone is when they wanted something or needed something from their father.  "Dad, will you order me a Coke?"  "Dad, can I have a piece of pie?" 

Watching this interaction  . . .  or lack of interaction, depending on how you look at  . . . . it made me think of how we treat God sometimes.  Like the two young people at the table, they did not pay attention to their father because they were too busy paying attention to their phones.  They only looked up long enough when they wanted something or needed something from their father.  And then they went right back to gazing at their phone.  The father was being very patient with his children.  He tried to make small talk.  He tried to interact with them.  But the more he tried to speak with them, the more they paid attention to what was capturing their attention:  their phones. 

How often do we treat God like this?  How often do we keep busy with our lives and only go to God when we need something?  In this story I just told of my experience in the restaurant, I could not help but notice how rude the children were to their father.  They were not paying attention to him because they were too busy focusing on their phones.  But even though their phones seemed to hold the most interest for them, this did not stop them from going to their father when they needed something or wanted something.  But don't we, in essence, do the same exact thing with God?  Don't we stay busy with our lives and ignore God completely until we need Him?  We live our lives by going to work; taking care of our homes; going shopping; socializing; relaxing; etc.  We keep busy with everything which affects us.  We take care of our family.  We take care of ourselves.  We keep busy with all the things which occupy us on a daily basis.  And more often than not, our busy schedules include everything except time for God.  Time gets away from us, we tell ourselves.  We don't pray.  We don't read Scripture.  We don't spend time with God.  All because we are "too busy" and "time gets away from us."  But then when we need God, all the sudden we find the time to call on Him.  When something goes wrong, we turn to God when we need Him.  When nothing else has worked, we run to God because we need Him.  When we find ourselves at the end of the rope and have nowhere else to turn, we turn to Our Heavenly Father because we need Him.  Just like those two children in the restaurant.  They were too busy focusing on their phones to spend time interacting with their father except when they wanted something.  Only then did they look up from their phones to speak to their father. 

How many of us do the same exact thing as these young people?  We keep busy with life.  We keep busy with our interests.  We keep busy with, what I like to call the "busy-ness" of life:  working; taking care of the house; taking care of the family; running errands.  But the problem with keeping "busy" is that often it also means that we are too "busy" for God.  As devout, committed Christians we need to spend time with God.  We need to dedicate time to God.  We need to make time for God.  And if we are so busy that we find we do not have time for God, then we need to make time for God.  We need to prioritize our tasks and put things in order.   And this means that we put God first in our life and make time for Him.

Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Join us as we join together as God's family and worship Our Heavenly Father.  Join us as we come to the altar to be fed the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time.  And, finally, please stay after Mass for some fellowship at our coffee hour.

St. Margaret Anglican Church worships at the beautiful Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.  Mass begins at 9:30 AM.