at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

I spent way too much of my time last Monday trying to find the date of National Procrastinator’s Day. I was sure there was such a “holiday,” and I wanted to know the date of the one day of the year I could feel OK about putting off to tomorrow all those things I should be doing today. After spending about 10 minutes googling, I couldn’t find the date of National Procrastinator’s Day. And then I suddenly realized, “Silly me; National Procrastinator’s Day” is tomorrow; it’s always tomorrow.

Tomorrow. You know, the day the sun will come up. The day Scarlett O’Hara will start to think about things. The day I will fold the laundry, clean the house, organize my office, straighten my desk. Tomorrow.

Now thinking about tomorrow doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a procrastinator. Maybe you’re the kind of person, as I am, who likes to have things well planned out, who likes that sense of being able to look ahead and mark down what the future holds. The positive thing about planning and scheduling is that it provides a certain amout of security and stability. The shadow side is we can be focused so much on tomorrow that we forget about today.

Sometimes we think we will start to live at some future date. But while we are barreling toward our mythical future, we can forget to savor the present. When that happens, our todays have no meaning on their own but serve only as steps on the way to tomorrow. I will admit that for many, many years, I lived my life for tomorrow. “When I finish school, my life will begin,” I remember thinking. Or when I get a job or a raise, or when I get married or start a family… Well, to paraphrase the great 20th century philosopher John Lennon, life is what happens when you’re thinking about tomorrow.

Tomorrow. It has been called the “single most dangerous word in the English language.”¹ And it shows up for the first time in the bible in this morning’s scripture lesson from Exodus.

God has called Moses to liberate the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian bondage. And with God on his side, Moses goes to Pharaoh to tell him, “Let my people go.” This is Moses’ second visit to Pharaoh; the first time, Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to Moses’ request, so God helped Moses turn the Nile’s water to blood. But Pharaoh was unmoved; his heart remain hardened.

In this morning’s lesson, Moses returns a week later to Pharaoh, and this time God sends the second plague: an army of frogs. The Nile teems with frogs; they go up into Pharaoh’s palace and into his bedroom and onto his bed, even into his ovens and kneading troughs.

If you think about it for a moment, the picture this conjures up is rather amusing. And Old Testament scholars note that the writer of Exodus is deliberately painting a comic picture to ridicule the pretensions of Pharaoh. Can you imagine – frogs in your house, frogs in your bedroom, frogs in your bed, frogs in your bread?

The frogs get Pharaoh’s attention, and he tells Moses to pray to God to eradicate the pesky amphibians; Pharaoh says that if Moses’ prayer works, he will let the Hebrew people go free. Moses asks Pharaoh when he would like him to say the frog-removal prayer.

And Pharaoh answers in a single word: “Tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? Wouldn’t you think that Pharaoh would want to be rid of the frogs NOW? But no, Pharaoh wants to wait until tomorrow. Because by tomorrow, maybe the frogs will be gone by themselves. By tomorrow, maybe his own palace magicians will have been able to get rid of them. By tomorrow, maybe the Egyptian rites and ceremonies will have worked. Pharaoh is willing to put up with the frogs for another day, rather than surrender to Moses and the God of Israel and let the Hebrew slaves go free. Tomorrow.

And you know, we’re a lot like Pharaoh, whether we’re dealing something that’s less problematic than a bunch of frogs, or a lot more serious.

Tomorrow I’ll start eating right. Tomorrow I’ll make peace with my loved one. Tomorrow I’ll leave my abusive relationship. Tomorrow I’ll get help for my addiction.

And that is why the most dangerous word in the Bible, in the English language, in life is “tomorrow.” It can cause us to mismanage our finances, damage our relationships, and jeopardize our health. Tomorrow distracts us from enjoying today. Tomorrow can eat up our self-esteem and erode our joy. And tomorrow can keep us from embarking on our spiritual journey.²

Some of us may tell ourselves that we’ll begin nurturing our relationship with God someday, when the kids are no longer small and demanding, or when the pressures of work lighten up, or when we become more disciplined, or more motivated, or more spiritually mature. Tomorrow.

But God is available in this moment right now. Always now. Only now.

If I asked you what was the greatest moment of your life, you might say, when you graduated, or fell in love or got married; the moment you were born, or your child was; the moment you were baptized like little Aliyana today, or the moment God became real to you. But here’s another possibility: the greatest moment of your life is this moment, this tick of the clock, this beat of your heart, right now. And the greatest moment of your life is now not because it’s pleasant or happy or easy, but because this moment is the only moment you’ve got. Every past moment is irretrievably gone. It’s never coming back. If you live there in the past, you’ll lose your life.

And the future is always out there somewhere. You can spend an eternity waiting for or worrying about tomorrow. If you live there in the future, you’ll lose your life also.

We hear in our culture’s lexicon such sayings as “seize the day” and “embrace the moment.” And while those phrases do express a deep longing in our hearts, they are somehow not powerful enough to transform us. Maybe that’s because we are not meant to seize days and embrace moments; rather, we are to embrace God; days and moments are simply the place and the time where we meet God.

This moment is God’s irreplaceable gift to you. This is the moment that matters because this moment is where God is. That is why the Psalmist [118:24] sings, “This is the day the Lord has made ; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That is why, in this morning’s New Testament lesson, the writer of Hebrews says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts… But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘today.’

This can be the greatest moment of your life because this moment is the place where you can meet God. God is present is this instant, offering to partner with us in whatever we face. Each moment of our life can be sacramental, a vehicle for God’s love and power. In the same way that every lungful of air gives life to our body, every moment in time can – if we let it – give life to our souls. This moment is as God-filled as any we have ever lived.

The most dangerous word in the bible, in the English language, in all of life is “tomorrow.” But today can be filled with God, drenched with grace, packed with meaning if we embrace it as God’s irreplaceable gift. This is the day the Lord has made, and the Lord is here today. This moment is the greatest moment of your life because God is in this moment. Let us rejoice and give thanks by treasuring it, savoring it, and meeting God in this moment, in every moment, starting right now. Amen.