Counting Our Days by Counting on Christ

Grace, mercy, and peace …

Today we’re going to talk about Counting Our Days by Counting on Christ.

Today we celebrate the Last Sunday of the Church Year, and our readings are about the events of the Last Day.

This is the day that all history is moving toward in a great countdown of years and days.

There are days that we look forward to, and days that we dread.

Children might look forward to Christmas or to a birthday with so much excitement that they can hardly contain themselves.

The day you make your final mortgage payment or final payment on some other some other kind of loan, might be a day you look forward to.

The last day at your job might be a day you look forward to if you’re retiring, or possibly dread if you’re losing your job.

We might count down the days until we will receive our last chemo or radiation treatment.

Counting down the days before a loved is deployed and sent to serve overseas can be a dreaded countdown, but counting the days until they come home, especially as that day gets closer, is an exciting countdown; we can hardly wait for the day to come when we’ll see our loved one again.

We might count down the days until a baby is born, or until a wedding, or another joyful occasion.

Or we might count the days until the Vikings win the Superbowl…

There are all these different situations in life that involve a countdown of days. We can count them with anticipation and hope, or with dread and resignation.

Living in the Gospel, the countdown of the days in our lives is a countdown of hope. The Last Day we count down toward is a day of joy for those in Christ.

There have been two great countdowns of days and years in the history of humanity. Let’s say two great countdowns with a prelude and an interlude.

The prelude is the countdown of days that began at the first moment of Creation, and lasted until creation was completed. Each day, 1-6, God made something new to add to His Creation, crowned by the creation of man and woman in the image of God. Then on Day 7 it all came to rest.

Then came a number of days, we don’t know how many, as man and woman lived in a perfect paradise, until they fell away from it. God confronted them with their sin, but He also assured them that one of their offspring would be their Savior.

That very day they were cast out of the Garden, and that first long countdown of days began; years and centuries and millennia waiting for that descendant, the Messiah to come and save them from their fall. It was such long a time that some gave up hope that He would ever come. 

But then on that joyful day we celebrate every year, Christmas, Christ was born. And the first countdown was complete.   

Before the second great countdown would begin, there was an interlude, the life of the Messiah.

He lived his childhood days and years in Nazareth, and then the day came for Him to be baptized and begin his ministry. The day he was baptized, the countdown began until the day he would redeem the world.

His ministry must have passed by like a whirlwind; He was so busy.

He came to the last week of his life. On Thursday he instituted the Sacrament of His body and blood for our forgiveness, and the next day, Friday, was the appointed day for Him to redeem the world. He died on the cross and was buried in the tomb.

And a three day countdown began. On the third day, Sunday morning, he rose for our salvation.

Then began a 50 day countdown. After 40 days Jesus ascended. Then after 10 days more, a total of 50, He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,

and the age of the Church began, the second and final countdown of days and years until the day Jesus comes again.

We’re in the midst of the final countdown for humanity until the day Christ comes again and ends this world, and starts the next.

Before Jesus ascended, the disciples asked him when this day would be. Jesus answered them, It is not for you to know the times or dates.  That’s for God to know. Ours is to be faithful and do his will today.

It’s been about 726,000 days, give or take a few hundred, since that day on the the mountain of Olives, when Jesus ascended into heaven.

There may be another 726,000 days left until he comes again, or maybe far more; or there may be only 726 days left for the Church to count until Jesus comes back to us, or 726 hours or minutes or 726 seconds.

During this final countdown, we live every day like it’s our last day here, because that means we believe, and that we’re trying to live our lives in the right way.

If a person lives to be 80, he or she has 29,220 days to count. That sounds like a lot, but the first 28,000 go fast, and then they go even faster after that.

So let us live our lives counting our days aright.

Psalm 90:12 says, Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

A paraphrase would be, help us to be smart enough to know that life is short.

The final countdown may end for me today, so let me live today the right way.

Ephesians 5:16 says, make the most of every opportunity, for the days are evil.

Make every day count. The way to make every day count is to count on Christ.

If I spend today believing Him then today is not a wasted day.

1970s teen idol, David Cassidy, from the Partridge Family, passed away recently. In his younger days he had got caught up in the Hollywood and Rock and Roll culture, and it caused a lot of problems throughout his life. His daughter said his last words were, “so much wasted time.”

If I spend today selfishly serving my sinful impulses, then I’m discounting today, as if today doesn’t count, just throwing away the time I’ve been given today.

If I spend today in the fruit of faith, trying to treat others as Christ treats me, then today counts as a good day; then I’m counting my days right.

If I go to sleep tonight, repenting of the wrong I’ve done today, and resting in God’s forgiveness, under the protection of his guardian angels, then it’s a good day and a good, peaceful night.

In this life there are good days and bad days. There are those days when everything seems to go right, and those days when nothing seems to go right.

We’ve all had those days. But they don’t last forever. God turns things around for us; it may take awhile, but better days come.

Only because of God’s mercy do we have any good days at all in this fallen world.

The day you were baptized was a great day for you, because it set you on a course, where, remaining faithful, you could have God’s love and joy in your life every day, no matter how everything else is going that day; it’s always a blessed day with Christ in your life; then it counts as a good day. 

As God’s children, every day we live on earth, we’re counting down to that day when everything and everyday will be made good and right for us in Heaven.

Living apart from Christ, without our faith and life in Him, we’re counting down to that day where every day will be bad and wrong, filled with suffering forever.

In our Gospel Jesus makes clear the terrible fate of those who stray like goats and don’t follow him, and the blessed fate of His lambs who do.

So count your days aright in Christ; count your days with joy, not with dread, because He’s coming to forever subdue all the evil that would hurt you. All the bad days will be over for His children, and the good days will be endless.

So do your best to make today count as a good day by trusting God and treating the people around you as Christ treats you, helping even the least of these, as Jesus said, those who need your help the most.

As we count the days until our Lord comes again, let us count our days right by counting on Christ, and doing His will on earth. For as we do, the peace of God…