Printer Friendly Version[A Powerpoint presentation of Carol Arends song ‘Seize
the Day’ precedes the sermon. The first two stories refer back to the
lyrics used in the song.]
I know a girl who was schooled in Virginia – the University
of – that is. She reads thick books about poverty and urban development.
She knows several phrases in Spanish because she did a lot of research for
her doctorate in international development in South America.
She’s an author . . . she writes books like this one .
. . Restorers of Hope . . .a book about churches that are reclaiming communities
and transforming lives through faith-based ministries to the poor and needy
in their cities.
She works for a think tank called the Hudson Institute and her
passion is to see churches all over the U.S. get a vision for extending compassionate,
wholistic care to spiritually hungry and physically needy people.
In fact, she started a ministry at her own church several years
ago called Abundant Life. It is a ministry to one of the poorest communities
in Charlottesville, Va. The ministry helps people finish their high school
degrees, runs Bible studies for teens and single moms . . . finds jobs for
men and women who have little skill and little hope of improving their status
in life.
I think my friend Amy Sherman – Sherm – is a genius.
She’s sure a lot smarter than me. She gets published in places like Christianity
Today, The Christian Century, and, on occasion, I’ll hear someone interview
her on National Public Radio. Recently, I found out that Sherm was asked to
serve in the Bush Administration, but she turned the job down so that she
could concentrate on her writing and her ministry with Abundant Life.
If you were to visit Sherm, you’d find her working on her
writings most everyday . . . .in the house that she bought in the blighted
neighborhood where Abundant Life Ministries is located . . . and if you tell
her she’s a genius, courageous and brave, she’d probably laugh at
you and say:
Seize the Day . . . seize whatever you can
‘cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the Day – pray for grace from God’s hand
Then nothing will stand in your way . . . Seize the day.
Well, I know a doctor, a fine young physician . . .who will
leave all hopes of making a six figure job behind as he prepares to leave
the U.S. for a long-term mission position this Spring. Many of you probably
remember Scott Dooley who was a part of this church community as he was finishing
up Medical School at KU a few years back. He and his wife Gail, a registered
nurse, will make their way back to Kansas City this January where they’ll
be going through the missionary internship program at our denominational seminary.
Once they are finished with their class work this summer, Scott
and Gail will leave, with their two girls, for the mission field -- Papua
New Guinea. Two years ago, the Dooleys headed to Kenya for a short-term summer
missions trip. I remember when Scott was here in Kansas later that year, he
spoke so powerfully about the great needs in this poor African country and
how tremendously his time there had impacted him.
Indeed, Scott found himself healing the sick in an African clinic
– a clinic so chronically under-staffed and under-stocked that most days
the doctors and nurses working there had to give their own blood in order
to perform surgery on their patients.
And Scott’s take on it all? His time in Africa? The work
he will be doing in Papua New Guinea? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised to
hear him say something like . . . We work through the night so most everyday,
as we watch the sun rise we can say:
Seize the Day . . . seize whatever you can
‘cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the Day – pray for grace from God’s hand
Then nothing will stand in your way . . . Seize the day.
Break
Sherm and Scott are just two vivid examples that I can think
of – of people who have used the talents, gifts and passions God has
given them with gusto. Perhaps you too can think of friends or family members
who have done the same thing – they have seized the day . . . Carpe Diem!
You might remember that phrase, Carpe Diem. . . it was popularized
by the inspiring movie Dead Poets Society. It starred Robin Williams as a
teacher at a private boys’ school, and this was the favorite phrase of
the quirky English teacher he played . . . seize the day! . . . although he
chose to use the Latin form of it: Carpe Diem.
I remember when that movie came out . . . so many people were using that phrase
. . . putting it on bumper stickers, key chains, t-shirts. . . it was all
the rage. Carpe Diem!!! And it was a good thing, I think, because the whole
thrust of that movie was really a powerfully motivating one, and essentially
it was this: make the most of every moment and the most of all that you have
to give.
Break
But just as quickly as the popularity of that movie Dead Poets
Society faded, so did our resolves to do what the movie had inspired us to
do: Carpe Diem! Unfortunately, our resolves to live our lives this way . .
. making the most of every moment and every talent . . . fade far too quickly.
It’s too bad that we can’t live everyday in the way Robin Williams’
character inspired his students to live -- Carpe Diem!
Unfortunately, it seems like many of us give up far too easily
when obstacles or opposition come our way. We begin to despair and eventually
give up -- like one of the other main characters in Dead Poets Society did
. . . .Remember him? The young teenage boy who couldn’t quite live up
to his father’s expectations? He had so much talent, so many gifts, so
much to give . . . but, in the end, this young man chooses to commit suicide
instead of living his life to the fullest.
His wasted life reminds me of a parable in Matthew’s Gospel
. . . chapter 25, verses 14-30. Read The Message version here . . .
Remember from last week’s sermon that, in Matthew 25, Jesus
is in the middle of a discussion about end times. Last week we heard about
the parable of the ten bridesmaids and about how very important it was for
us to be ready when Christ comes again. Our parable today also urges us to
consider the future, but it goes on to say more than just ‘be ready.’
This parable goes on to say: Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! Make the most of every
moment, and the most of all that you have to give.
I think this parable is also telling us that there will be serious
consequences if we choose not to live life like this . . . if we chose not
to seize the Day. Remember what the Master says to the last servant who hid
the money he had been given? If you knew I was after the best, why did you
do less than the least? Why didn’t you at least put the money into the
bank to earn some interest? That would have been something! But you did nothing.
You chose to do absolutely nothing with the gift I had given you . . .
Break
It is interesting how Eugene Peterson chooses to translate the
last verse of this parable in The Message as he has the Master giving this
command: . . . take the thousand [from this last servant] and give it to the
one who risked the most. And get rid of this ‘play–it-safe’
who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him into utter darkness. . . .
It’s as if the Master would have preferred that this last servant lose
all the money he had been given! Doing something with it would have been infinitely
better than doing nothing with what he had been given.
Break
And so our parable today forces us to take a closer look at
what we are doing with the talents God has given us. What are you doing with
yours?
n his best selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen
Covey offers a compelling exercise that helps us to think more deeply about
whether we are making the most of every moment and the most of all that we
have to give. This is what he writes: . . . [Chapter 2 Begin with the end
in mind, pp. 96-97]
Break
So what would others say about you at your funeral? Would they
say that you made the most of every moment? Would they say that you used your
God-given talents and gifts and passions to make a difference in your world?
In the life of your family, with your friends, at work, at your church?
Break
Well one thing I’ve noticed wherever I wander, everyone’s
got a dream he can follow or squander. You can do what you will with the days
you are given. I’m trying to spend mine on the business of living . .
. Are you? Where do you place yourself in the story – the parable of
the talents? Are you the first or second servant? A person like my friends
Amy Sherman or Scott Dooley? Someone who is using the talents, gifts and passions
God has given you with gusto? Are you ‘seizing the day’? Living
life with the motto Carpe Diem!?
Or do you find yourself identifying the most with that third
servant? Someone with seemingly little faith in themselves or in the Master
. . .a person who doubts that he or she has anything to offer . . . someone
who fears life more than lives it . . . And someone who ends up squandering
the talents and gifts they have been given.
I know a man who’s been doing some thinking, he’s as bitter and
cold as the whiskey he’s drinking. . . He’s talking about fear,
and chances not taken. If you listen to him you can hear his heart breaking.
He says, “One day you’re a boy and the next day you’re dead,
I wish way back when someone had said . . . Seize the day . . .
. . . I wish back then I had listened . . . I wish I had seized the day .
. .
Break
My friends, I believe this parable of the talents, goes beyond
just telling us to be ready for eternity. Jesus goes a step further than the
parable of the bridesmaids. He’s not just saying be prepared -- for eternity.
Don’t just have your bags packed and ready to go when I come back but
you’ve also got to be pro-active in the world in which you find yourself
living in right now. Make a difference now . . . because when you make a difference
in the here and now, you make a difference for all eternity. When you use
the gifts the Master has given you now, then you are building his Kingdom
for eternity.
Seize the day . . . seize whatever you can,
‘cause life slips away just like hourglass sand . . .
Seize the Day – pray for grace from God’s hand . . .
Then nothing will stand in your way . . . Seize the day.
But maybe that is hard for you? Maybe you feel paralyzed to
live life like this because of your fear or your sense of inadequacy? Maybe
you don’t think you have anything to offer. I mean other folks have been
given lots more talent than you – that guy over there for instance –
he’s got great looks, a beautiful family, a great job that he’s
good at, he was the star quarterback in college and married the homecoming
queen . . . he got all the talent, everything comes so easy for him. He was
given $5,000 dollars in the game of life! And me? All I got was a measly $1,000
bucks. Why shouldn’t I feel inadequate? God gave me a whole lot less
ability than him. Why should I even try?
Well, if this is how you feel, like that last servant who had the least amount
of abilities, then let me tell you the story about a boy named Sparky, taken
from a magazine called Bits and Pieces [,Vol. T, No. 6 pp. 9-11].
For Sparky, school was all but impossible . . .My friends, we
all have something to offer. God, in his infinite wisdom, does give some of
us more ability than others. I don’t know why. I can’t answer that
question. But what I do know is this: because some of us have less ability
than others – this doesn’t give us an excuse to quit – because
you see, the gifts are not given to us for our benefit. In the end, the gifts
are given to us for the benefit of the Master. Our gifts, talents – whether
they are big or small – it pleases Him when we use them. It pleases Him
when we make the most of every moment and the most of all that we have to
give.
As we listen again to the song Seize the Day, keep in mind our Epistle lesson
for today taken from 1 Peter: God has given gifts to each of you from his
great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity
can flow through you. Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though
God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it
with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given
glory in everything through Jesus Christ . . .
Powerpoint presentation
