Sunday Morning Scramble

The Washington family is scheduled to recite Scripture before the church, and the pastor and his wife will visit for lunch afterward. Because the family has arrived ten minutes late nearly every Sunday for eight years, Elaine creates and laminates a minute-by-minute morning schedule. She is determined to leave at exactly 9:42.

Marvin tries to save time by sleeping in his suit and chewing gum instead of brushing his teeth. The suit is wrinkled, and the gum is tangled in his hair. Ed attempts to cut it out despite his family's memories of his disastrous work with scissors and leaves Marvin with an enormous bald patch that requires an even shorter haircut.

Tamika expects to receive a Sunday-school merit award for collecting the most stickers through Bible reading, memorization, and other activities. When she learns that Hilary may pass her by summarizing Genesis, Tamika races through Psalms, memorizes the entire family's assigned verses, and pressures friends to attend church so she can collect visitor stickers. Earning the prize matters more to her than learning or helping anyone.

Bart Rathbone appears in a bathrobe after Doris locks him out for eating cheese doodles in the shower. The Washingtons allow him to wash, but he borrows Ed's clothes, uses a toothbrush, demands breakfast, and slices the center from Elaine's carefully prepared cheesecake to put on sugary cereal. Every act of hospitality pushes the schedule further behind.

Ed creates delays of his own. He wants to turn the family verses into a responsive reading or fit them to a hymn instead of reciting them normally. He also insists that he can repair Marvin's hair and chooses an unsuitable old tie. His desire to make the presentation memorable distracts him from its meaning.

Elaine's urgent preparation becomes equally misplaced. She improvises French toast from hamburger buns, guards the remaining bread for lunch, worries about matching clothes and food, and keeps counting the minutes. She has become so focused on arriving properly that worship itself receives little attention.

Several attempts to control time collide. Elaine has secretly moved the clocks ten minutes ahead, while Ed moved them fifteen minutes ahead the night before. Bart notices that the clock seems thirty minutes fast and resets it to the correct hour without telling them. After more confusion, the family rushes into the car, badly dressed, unprepared, and blaming one another.

The empty church parking lot makes them fear that they have missed the whole service. Tom Riley reveals the opposite: they forgot to set their clocks back for the seasonal time change and have arrived fifty minutes early.

Tom normally uses the quiet time before church to pray and prepare his heart for worship. The family realizes that this is the preparation they have neglected. Tamika lets go of the sticker contest, Elaine stops worrying about replacing the cheesecake, and Ed abandons his elaborate presentation plan so they can join Tom in prayer.

During the service, the Washingtons read Psalm 100 together, calling everyone to enter God's presence with thanksgiving and praise. Their frantic morning ends when they remember that getting ready for church means more than schedules, clothes, food, or public performance; it means becoming ready to worship.