Sermon: Seize the Day

          This week, I've been looking at what inspires people.  The inspiration from the Bible itself is much easier to listen, and understand the passion that was actually written in those words.  Our Psalm this morning can inspire the words that David speaks:  "They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.  But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.  Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.  Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved." 

          We can often learn the words that inspire us more easily when we hear it set to words that speak to our hearts.  If we were lucky when we attended school, we learned to do more than just read the words in our classics. Some of you may remember the movie "Dead Poets Society."  The movie stars the amazingly talented Robin Williams.  Williams plays John Keating, a high school English teacher at an all-boys private academy, who is committed to helping his students take advantage of life's opportunities.  Keating leads his class out into the foyer of the building where old photographs of graduating classes from decades past cover the walls.  As the boys study the portraits of the classes who had graduated generations before them, Keating remarks that the men in those pictures were just like them, full of hope and ambition.  Then Keating asks his class, "Did they wait till it was too late to realize their full potential?" 

          Then he tells the class that if they lean in close they can hear a message from the men in these pictures.  So they lean in and Keating whispers, "Carpe Diem.  Carpe Diem.  Seize the day, boys.  Make your lives extraordinary."

          Whenever I read Hebrews 11, I feel a bit like one of the students in Keating's class.  Except in this case, the writer of Hebrews is my teacher, and he is taking me on a field trip through the "Hall of Faith."  I see portraits of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Samson.  I learn about the heroes of the faith and the extraordinary things they did for God.  As I take in this inspiring tour, it's as if these heroes are calling out to me, "Carpe Diem!  Seize the day.  Make your life extraordinary for God!"

          So listen again to Hebrews:  "And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect."

          So here, we are led from Hebrews, discussing the men from the Old Testament.  We've been listening to Christ telling us about the people of faith, led to today.  And it feels like Jesus has had a terrible, horrible, nogood, very bad day. “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and oh how I wish it were blazing already! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No! I’ve come for division!”

          We've been listening to Christ telling us of the love of God, of how we need to follow the words God has provided us.  But often if our following the words we hear and listen, we don't really take in.  How many people hear the words they listen to on Sunday, and by afternoon, they've forgotten the words?  We may get the gist, and we might even think about it during the week, but how often are we hearing words that actually inspire us to take action, to change something in our own lives, to follow God's words? 

          CS Lewis wrote within a story, to find a method of reaching those who could actually hear the message.  "In the children’s novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe … four British siblings enter a coat closet and discover a whole other world called Narnia. This magical world is filled with talking animals and the original Lion King, a lion named Aslan, who rules over all of Narnia. The youngest child Lucy strikes up a conversation with Mr. Beaver, asking about Aslan, “is he quite safe?” to which Mr. Beaver replies, “"Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.”

          We know the story being told in the Bible.  We've heard Christ say, "I have come to bring fire to the earth!"  And has it occurred to you that we are Christians – our responsibilities require us to follow Christ.  Simple attendance on Sundays merely feed our own souls, but when we leave here, our responsibilities as Christians is to bring that word of Christ to the world, whether that is said aloud or demonstrated in our own actions and choices. 

          Christ brought fire to the earth.  We were taught that "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God."  Carpe Diem, followers of Christ – Seize the day, and make a difference.