Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
June 29, 2025 Third Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-62
“Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes”
Courtney Chandler
Things my grandmother used to say:
“You should always wear clean underwear when you leave the house…in case you’re in an accident.”
“Get up, you’re sleeping the day away and you might miss something.”
“The early bird gets the worm.”
Car trips were often met with, “Look up and look out the window..look around. Look how beautiful all this is…”
Then there were quotes like this, “If you can’t visit me when I’m alive then don’t come see me when I’m dead.”
And my favorite/least favorite because it’s really unhealthy, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
My grandmother was one stubborn, hard head woman who liked to do things herself. Even as I speak that sentence I am well aware of the similarities. She would ask us to come over to help her do things, like take the really heavy folding table down to the basement. I would say, “Ok, my laundry will be done in 5 minutes and then I’ll head over,” 15 minutes later I showed up and that table was in the basement. She would say, “I decided to just do it myself.” It was a good thing I lived nearby. That is just one example of her very strong will.
My grandmother was also one of the most influential people in my life, especially when it came to my faith. I have shared with children over the years and some here may remember this story, of the time my grandmother and I took a walk in the woods and I asked her what God looked like. She gave me a great answer, “No one knows because no one has seen God. God could look like a man or maybe like a woman. God could look like these trees…"About that time a squirrel ran in front of me and she said, “God could look like that squirrel for all we know.”
I spent a large part of my childhood convinced that God looked like a squirrel.
I listened to my grandmother and took her words seriously. The part about not visiting her when she was dead if you couldn’t visit when she was alive always struck a nerve in me. One summer when I was home from college I spent every Friday night with my grandmother. We watched movies and ate dinner together. I always cherished that time. She was extremely sick with cancer before she passed. She was the matriarch of the family and so many wanted to visit her when she was sick, but she was often not up to having company. At that time she was in Georgia and I was in northern Illinois so she and I talked all the time on the phone…until she didn’t have the energy so I then began writing her letters and mailing cards and sending her flowers. As I continue to grow older I understand that desire to see and do and be in the moment. I understand the need to visit and listen and to look around at how beautiful all of this is in this life. Time is fleeting. And I believe that my grandmother had a desire to be present and fully alive in this world as long as she possibly could. And, as much as I know I got her stubborn streak, I’d like to think I inherited that from her as well.
I think that’s what Jesus is trying to convey to those he is speaking to in this passage. I never liked that Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead…” I struggle with that as one who spent time and energy burying my own mother. In the south, open casket visitations in the days leading to the funeral still take place frequently. My mother and I would often go to the funeral home for visitation and in her lovely southern way would say, “When I die, do not let these funeral home people do my makeup.” So I didn’t. Instead I went to the funeral home and spent that time talking to my mom and applying her makeup. A precious gift that reminded me of the women at the tomb anointing Jesus’ body. I found all the photos for the photo slide show shown at the funeral home. I met with the funeral home director and the pastor and helped plan the service and I picked out the clothes for her to wear and even bought a birthday cake since we always celebrated her birthday with family and since the day of her visitation was her birthday. I gathered up all her siblings and nieces and nephews and we sang and had cake in her honor one last time. It was an exhausting 4 days! But I would have done it all again and again and again for my mom. So to hear Jesus say, “Let the dead bury the dead, I find it unsettling. But, I guess the bigger question is, why did Jesus say this? What does he mean?
Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem. He knows the time is drawing near and along the way they come to an unwelcoming Samaritan village. We know that Samaritans and Jews did not get along so it’s not all that surprising that the Samaritans were not hospitable towards Jesus and the disciples. And we see the loathing between the two based on the disciples' request for fire to come down and consume them all. And Jesus’ response to this desire for violence was to rebuke them. After all, Jesus knows that violence is coming for him and that violence is not the proper response. Shortly after this text in Luke, Jesus will share the parable of the Good Samaritan, reminding those around him that good people can be found in any context and those we consider to be “good” sometimes don’t show the love that God commands of us.
As Jesus continues on his journey he is met by someone who offers to follow him and Jesus provides a warning: following him may lead to alienation. He wants the others to know that this calling is radical and requires commitment.
Then comes the man who wants to go bury his father before embarking on this journey with Jesus. And I am sure, that this man in his grief, was left with a lump in his throat and a sinking feeling in his chest as Jesus says to him to let the dead bury the dead. Does Jesus feel the Samaritans are among the spiritually dead? Perhaps he is referring to those who did not allow him a space to lay his head. No matter what Jesus meant, I am sure it hurt to hear those words.
Finally comes the man who wants to follow him but also wants to return home to simply say goodbye and Jesus responds with, “Nobody who has put his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” A plowman would not be looking back or his work won’t be straight. And to look back, means that you’re not looking ahead.
Jesus knows his time is short. He knows he is going to die soon. He knows this and when I think about that, I cannot help but wonder if Jesus is trying to say to those wanting to follow him, “I don’t have much time left. Every minute is precious and how we spend them matters. What we do matters. What we say matters. We have to do this now. There is no time to waste.”
In this same way, Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminds the reader that how we spend our time matters. He reminds us that we have been set free, but that with freedom comes responsibility. This freedom is not to live our lives in a way that is out of control and self-indulgent, but rather this freedom leads us to love one another through the gifts of the spirit. The command to love your neighbor as yourself trumps everything else. Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock write that love is not one “virtue” or “ideal” among others, but the care for others expressed in concrete acts of unselfishness, the mainspring of all other activities.”
For Paul, the thing that counts is faith working through love.
When I read these texts together, I am reminded of the urgency to act swiftly. How we live our lives matters, and as long as what we do and say is wrapped in a blanket of love, then we are participants in the Realm of God, just as Christ has taught us. We only get this one shot and it goes by quickly.
The song, “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway show Rent reminds us that we have 5 hundred 25 thousand 6 hundred minutes in a year.
The song asks the question: How do you measure a year?
“In daylight? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee? In inches? In miles? In laughter? In strife?” The song goes on to suggest that we measure a year, all 525,600 minutes, in love.
How often do we show God our love? How about our neighbors? How do we show ourselves we are loved? We only have so much time. The things we say and do matter. The way we treat one another and ourselves is a reflection on how we feel about God. If we treat others poorly, we are treating God poorly. When we treat ourselves poorly, we treat God poorly. When we hate ourselves we are hating part of God’s beautiful creation. When we hate on our neighbors, even those who are difficult to love, we are approaching God’s creation with hate.
As I say this, please know that part of loving ourselves is creating boundaries with those who disrespect us and cause us harm. We can still love those who hurt us and we can hold them in our prayers while loving ourselves enough to maintain boundaries that protect us. And, when and if the time comes, forgive them and move on. Just as Jesus moved on when the people were inhospitable to him in that Samaritan village, we are allowed to move on when people treat us in the same manner.
As we go through this very short life, I challenge you to think of how you spend our time. Celebrate the life and beauty that surrounds you. Look out the window, as my grandmother would say in the car, and see what God has made. Use your gifts to help others, to be Christ’s hands and feet and heart in this world. Pay attention. We don’t have an eternity. We get this one life with our families and our friends and we get one opportunity with people we meet.
One of my favorite mission trips I ever went on was with a group of youth and their leaders from about 4 different churches. We went to Lynchburg, Virginia and worked in a soup kitchen. I had the youth spread out after they served food. Two to a table. The buddy system is always best. It was a small, intimate, homey space. I asked them to spend time getting to know the people they were serving. That evening those youth shared stories about the people they served and had a better understanding of how sometimes life can give someone a whole basket of lemons. Those teenagers listened. They began to see the unhoused population not as something to be feared, but as God’s people who need to be shown love and help. That night we prayed for every person they met and on our way home they talked about things they could do to help those in need. Why? One said, “Sometimes bad things happen and if that ever happened to me or someone in my family I would want someone to help.” Another said, “Because it’s what Jesus would want us to do. We are supposed to love everyone.”
Yes, we never know what will happen, but we know Christ calls us to live a life of love and to follow him. We know we are called to help those who need help and to be a light in times of darkness. We know that to follow Christ means using our gifts and skills to be his hands and feet in the world. We know that with freedom comes the responsibility to love as Christ has loved us. We know that we are to look forward and we are to participate in the Kingdom of God. Life is too short to hide away. Life is too short to make excuses. We only get this one shot. We only have 525,600 minutes in a year. So let’s take off our blinders and look around and live out Christ’s mission here and now. Live a life of love like there is no tomorrow, because we may not get another chance.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-62
“Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes”
Courtney Chandler
Things my grandmother used to say:
“You should always wear clean underwear when you leave the house…in case you’re in an accident.”
“Get up, you’re sleeping the day away and you might miss something.”
“The early bird gets the worm.”
Car trips were often met with, “Look up and look out the window..look around. Look how beautiful all this is…”
Then there were quotes like this, “If you can’t visit me when I’m alive then don’t come see me when I’m dead.”
And my favorite/least favorite because it’s really unhealthy, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
My grandmother was one stubborn, hard head woman who liked to do things herself. Even as I speak that sentence I am well aware of the similarities. She would ask us to come over to help her do things, like take the really heavy folding table down to the basement. I would say, “Ok, my laundry will be done in 5 minutes and then I’ll head over,” 15 minutes later I showed up and that table was in the basement. She would say, “I decided to just do it myself.” It was a good thing I lived nearby. That is just one example of her very strong will.
My grandmother was also one of the most influential people in my life, especially when it came to my faith. I have shared with children over the years and some here may remember this story, of the time my grandmother and I took a walk in the woods and I asked her what God looked like. She gave me a great answer, “No one knows because no one has seen God. God could look like a man or maybe like a woman. God could look like these trees…"About that time a squirrel ran in front of me and she said, “God could look like that squirrel for all we know.”
I spent a large part of my childhood convinced that God looked like a squirrel.
I listened to my grandmother and took her words seriously. The part about not visiting her when she was dead if you couldn’t visit when she was alive always struck a nerve in me. One summer when I was home from college I spent every Friday night with my grandmother. We watched movies and ate dinner together. I always cherished that time. She was extremely sick with cancer before she passed. She was the matriarch of the family and so many wanted to visit her when she was sick, but she was often not up to having company. At that time she was in Georgia and I was in northern Illinois so she and I talked all the time on the phone…until she didn’t have the energy so I then began writing her letters and mailing cards and sending her flowers. As I continue to grow older I understand that desire to see and do and be in the moment. I understand the need to visit and listen and to look around at how beautiful all of this is in this life. Time is fleeting. And I believe that my grandmother had a desire to be present and fully alive in this world as long as she possibly could. And, as much as I know I got her stubborn streak, I’d like to think I inherited that from her as well.
I think that’s what Jesus is trying to convey to those he is speaking to in this passage. I never liked that Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead…” I struggle with that as one who spent time and energy burying my own mother. In the south, open casket visitations in the days leading to the funeral still take place frequently. My mother and I would often go to the funeral home for visitation and in her lovely southern way would say, “When I die, do not let these funeral home people do my makeup.” So I didn’t. Instead I went to the funeral home and spent that time talking to my mom and applying her makeup. A precious gift that reminded me of the women at the tomb anointing Jesus’ body. I found all the photos for the photo slide show shown at the funeral home. I met with the funeral home director and the pastor and helped plan the service and I picked out the clothes for her to wear and even bought a birthday cake since we always celebrated her birthday with family and since the day of her visitation was her birthday. I gathered up all her siblings and nieces and nephews and we sang and had cake in her honor one last time. It was an exhausting 4 days! But I would have done it all again and again and again for my mom. So to hear Jesus say, “Let the dead bury the dead, I find it unsettling. But, I guess the bigger question is, why did Jesus say this? What does he mean?
Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem. He knows the time is drawing near and along the way they come to an unwelcoming Samaritan village. We know that Samaritans and Jews did not get along so it’s not all that surprising that the Samaritans were not hospitable towards Jesus and the disciples. And we see the loathing between the two based on the disciples' request for fire to come down and consume them all. And Jesus’ response to this desire for violence was to rebuke them. After all, Jesus knows that violence is coming for him and that violence is not the proper response. Shortly after this text in Luke, Jesus will share the parable of the Good Samaritan, reminding those around him that good people can be found in any context and those we consider to be “good” sometimes don’t show the love that God commands of us.
As Jesus continues on his journey he is met by someone who offers to follow him and Jesus provides a warning: following him may lead to alienation. He wants the others to know that this calling is radical and requires commitment.
Then comes the man who wants to go bury his father before embarking on this journey with Jesus. And I am sure, that this man in his grief, was left with a lump in his throat and a sinking feeling in his chest as Jesus says to him to let the dead bury the dead. Does Jesus feel the Samaritans are among the spiritually dead? Perhaps he is referring to those who did not allow him a space to lay his head. No matter what Jesus meant, I am sure it hurt to hear those words.
Finally comes the man who wants to follow him but also wants to return home to simply say goodbye and Jesus responds with, “Nobody who has put his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” A plowman would not be looking back or his work won’t be straight. And to look back, means that you’re not looking ahead.
Jesus knows his time is short. He knows he is going to die soon. He knows this and when I think about that, I cannot help but wonder if Jesus is trying to say to those wanting to follow him, “I don’t have much time left. Every minute is precious and how we spend them matters. What we do matters. What we say matters. We have to do this now. There is no time to waste.”
In this same way, Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminds the reader that how we spend our time matters. He reminds us that we have been set free, but that with freedom comes responsibility. This freedom is not to live our lives in a way that is out of control and self-indulgent, but rather this freedom leads us to love one another through the gifts of the spirit. The command to love your neighbor as yourself trumps everything else. Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock write that love is not one “virtue” or “ideal” among others, but the care for others expressed in concrete acts of unselfishness, the mainspring of all other activities.”
For Paul, the thing that counts is faith working through love.
When I read these texts together, I am reminded of the urgency to act swiftly. How we live our lives matters, and as long as what we do and say is wrapped in a blanket of love, then we are participants in the Realm of God, just as Christ has taught us. We only get this one shot and it goes by quickly.
The song, “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway show Rent reminds us that we have 5 hundred 25 thousand 6 hundred minutes in a year.
The song asks the question: How do you measure a year?
“In daylight? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee? In inches? In miles? In laughter? In strife?” The song goes on to suggest that we measure a year, all 525,600 minutes, in love.
How often do we show God our love? How about our neighbors? How do we show ourselves we are loved? We only have so much time. The things we say and do matter. The way we treat one another and ourselves is a reflection on how we feel about God. If we treat others poorly, we are treating God poorly. When we treat ourselves poorly, we treat God poorly. When we hate ourselves we are hating part of God’s beautiful creation. When we hate on our neighbors, even those who are difficult to love, we are approaching God’s creation with hate.
As I say this, please know that part of loving ourselves is creating boundaries with those who disrespect us and cause us harm. We can still love those who hurt us and we can hold them in our prayers while loving ourselves enough to maintain boundaries that protect us. And, when and if the time comes, forgive them and move on. Just as Jesus moved on when the people were inhospitable to him in that Samaritan village, we are allowed to move on when people treat us in the same manner.
As we go through this very short life, I challenge you to think of how you spend our time. Celebrate the life and beauty that surrounds you. Look out the window, as my grandmother would say in the car, and see what God has made. Use your gifts to help others, to be Christ’s hands and feet and heart in this world. Pay attention. We don’t have an eternity. We get this one life with our families and our friends and we get one opportunity with people we meet.
One of my favorite mission trips I ever went on was with a group of youth and their leaders from about 4 different churches. We went to Lynchburg, Virginia and worked in a soup kitchen. I had the youth spread out after they served food. Two to a table. The buddy system is always best. It was a small, intimate, homey space. I asked them to spend time getting to know the people they were serving. That evening those youth shared stories about the people they served and had a better understanding of how sometimes life can give someone a whole basket of lemons. Those teenagers listened. They began to see the unhoused population not as something to be feared, but as God’s people who need to be shown love and help. That night we prayed for every person they met and on our way home they talked about things they could do to help those in need. Why? One said, “Sometimes bad things happen and if that ever happened to me or someone in my family I would want someone to help.” Another said, “Because it’s what Jesus would want us to do. We are supposed to love everyone.”
Yes, we never know what will happen, but we know Christ calls us to live a life of love and to follow him. We know we are called to help those who need help and to be a light in times of darkness. We know that to follow Christ means using our gifts and skills to be his hands and feet in the world. We know that with freedom comes the responsibility to love as Christ has loved us. We know that we are to look forward and we are to participate in the Kingdom of God. Life is too short to hide away. Life is too short to make excuses. We only get this one shot. We only have 525,600 minutes in a year. So let’s take off our blinders and look around and live out Christ’s mission here and now. Live a life of love like there is no tomorrow, because we may not get another chance.
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