"Living, One More Year"
How to fill our calendars with living for God
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, January 13, 2002
Text: I Corinthians 7:17-24, 29-31
One of the things that I enjoy most about a new year is being able to do as I did this year and open up my brand-new, pristine diary: the diary where the pages stick together because they haven't been used and, apart from three or four things that have been booked well in advance, all the pages are clear. Nothing is booked. It's a wonderful thing, is this diary.
As I got my new diary this Christmas, my mind went back to an episode of Seinfeld, where George Costanza, of all people, believed that he had before him the summer months to do as he pleased. He called it 'The Summer of George.'
He was going to do all the things that he hadn't done before. He would be free to do the things that he had dreamt of and the whole summer lay before him with great excitement and openness. The only problem was that at the beginning of the summer, in this particular episode, he broke his leg and he spent all summer in hospital.
Well, I felt this year as if this was 'The Year of Andrew.' I was determined that I would fill the coming year up with only those things that I felt were really important. At the top of the page, (and this was something that Oprah Winfrey always suggests you do, so naturally I followed) I wrote down all the things that I was going to do this year and all the things that I was going to refrain from doing. That was January 1st. The only problem was, by January 3rd I had basically undone all the things that I had said I was not going to do:
By January 7th, for example, Number 1 on my list, 'No more doughnuts in 2002,' had to be struck off, I'm afraid. Number 2: 'Spend more time with my wife Marial' - Well, I haven't seen her since, so I don't know if I've done that or not. Number 3: 'Make sure that I always call my mother-in-law' - Haven't done that yet. This is not looking good!
By the time I had reached nearly the end of the second week of January, I was booked up to the end of February and there is hardly a single moment where nothing is filled in. So much for all my dreams of having 'The Year of Andrew' and doing simply what I would like to do.
Well, I think many of us are like this. But this got me thinking: What would happen if this was the only year that I had left to live? If, indeed, the year 2002 were to be my last year, would I write different things at the top of the page? Would I set different priorities or goals for my life? What would I do if I thought that 2002 would be my last year here on earth?
Now, you might say, that's a highly speculative and highly hypothetical thing to do, but is it really? I mean, none of us really knows what the future brings; you do not know what the next hour brings, or the next month, let alone the next year or the years to come. None of us can predict the future and none of us can account for all our days. So, therefore, is it too fanciful to ask if we were only to have one more year, what would our priorities be and how would we spend it?
Likewise, if you read the passage that was read for us this morning from that glorious First Book of Corinthians. We read that the Apostle Paul was struggling with a challenge that the early Christians faced. Virtually all the early Christians, without exception, believed that Jesus Christ was going to return imminently, and that his imminent return would bring about an end to the world as they knew it. This is what they called the Parousia, the Second Coming. All the earliest Christians, it seems, believed that this would happen within their own lifetimes.
The Apostle Paul, however, due to his grace and humility, recognized that this wasn't coming with the speed at which he thought. In Second Thessalonians and in other passages of his letters, he revised his thinking on this matter, and said that we really don't know when Christ will come again, so therefore we should not worry ourselves too much with when, but just simply with being prepared.
However, he was facing a challenge. The challenge in the early church was that because people believed that the world was coming to an imminent demise, many of them changed their lives dramatically.
One of the ways that they changed was to live and eat and drink as if there would be no tomorrow. They lived lives of profligacy and excess. They took on Epicurean dimensions in the way in which they filled their appetites, and many of them got so caught up in the revelry associated with the world coming to an end that they lived lives of excess and of sin. The Apostle Paul had to address that.
But there was a second thing that had to be addressed, and that was what I call the ascetic impulse - when you think that life is short. Some of the earliest Christians, for example, believed that if the world was coming to an end, than they should dissolve their marriages and the burden of married life. I have never thought of it as a burden myself, but they thought of it as a burden that would prevent them from being free to live with God eternally, and so some of them dissolved their marriages. Some of them, for example, decided that if they were Jews they should return to their Jewish roots and become circumcised immediately, in order that they would be pure and ready for the last day. Others were thinking that they could perhaps reverse their circumcisions, (but I have never been able to figure out how that is done, myself).
Some thought that they should, if they were slaves, just walk away from their masters and their mistresses, and declare their own freedom and wander away from their obligations. Others just decided that they would stop working immediately, because they felt that work was a meaningless exercise. If the world was going to come to an end, why be burdened with having to work?
And so Paul had to address these two problems: on the one hand, the freedom of excess and on the other, this sense that because of the imminent return of Jesus Christ people could dispense with their obligations as they knew them and become almost cultic in the way in which they were to live their lives.
The Apostle Paul addressed this head-on, simply by saying that whatever our status may be, in whatever condition we find ourselves, the most important thing is to live our lives according to the Will and the Purposes of God. We should not get caught up about the future and the end of time and Christ's imminent return, but we should, in a sense, prepare ourselves spiritually. We should set the values and the purposes that are going to govern our lives.
Therefore, the Apostle Paul suggests that there are three things that we should be doing as Christians. In a sense, what Paul said to these early Christians applies to each and every one of us in our daily lives. Whether it is the imminent return of Jesus Christ or not, whether it is the end of our life that we face or not: Simply put, I believe that at the beginning of a new year, when we are filling out our diaries and setting our priorities, we need to listen to the counsel of Paul and make sure that what we are doing is in accordance with the Will and the Purposes of God.
The first thing that the Apostle Paul was suggesting was that people value the time and the lives that they are given. There is a Greek word that Paul uses to describe all Christians. He says each and every one of us has a klesis, a calling, and that every individual Christian, no matter what he or she does, has this calling in his or her life. So he says to the earliest Christians: Well, if God has given you a calling, then it doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing - follow it. The calling comes first. Stay put if you have to stay put. As God has called you now, so stay like that in order that you can follow the Will of God.
Now, the problem is that there were some conservative-minded people, particularly during the Reformation, who took that text to suggest that no-one should ever climb above their status in life. They saw this world as highly structured and stratified, with the rich and the middle class, the poor and the slaves, and the free and the subjugated, and they used this text from the Apostle Paul to suggest that if you are poor, then you should not strive to be wealthy, that if you are subjugated you should not try to be free, that if you are rich you should not change your status of richness. They believed that the world was all nicely carved up and pre-set by God, and therefore you should never strive to improve yourself.
Well this, my friends, is a complete misreading of what the Apostle Paul had to say, for indeed, he actually says to those who are slaves: Obey your masters now. In other words, Don't leave your obligations, but if you can seek your own freedom, if you can earn your own freedom, go find it, go get it. And so, no matter what status we have in this life, no matter what condition we are in, we can always strive to improve it. The key is we should try to live for the moment and, living for the moment, serve God here and now, regardless of what we are doing.
And so, therefore, if we are a lawyer, we are to serve God by being a lawyer; if we are an academic, we are to serve God by being an academic; if we are a stay-at-home parent, as a stay-at-home parent, we are to serve God where we are; if our job is an engineer, we are to serve God as an engineer; if it's a musician, we are to sing to the Glory of God and to use the gifts that we have been given. No matter who we are, or in what condition we find ourselves, Christians have first and foremost a klesis - we have a calling, and that calling is to serve God here and now.
The problem is that there are many Christians who are looking for the extraordinary, the exceptional, the magnificent and the demonstrative. They think that it is only there that the Christian faith is lived. And so, if they are not having a "wow-wow" spiritual experience, if they are not reaching the heights of society, if they are not seen by others to be devout, then they wonder whether their calling is legitimate.
For the Apostle Paul, the bottom line is this: Whether you are slave or free, whether you are male or female, whether you are Greek or Jew, it makes no difference: You serve God where you are, as you are. Your calling comes first.
And when your calling comes first, you do another thing: You value every minute that you have been given and you understand that the life that you have been given is to be lived to the Glory of God.
A few weeks ago, I met up with a neighbour from down the street who was cutting a branch off a tree, and cutting it in one-inch segments. I said to him: "Excuse me. Why are you doing this? Why are you cutting up this huge tree in one-inch segments?" I thought he had one of these lean-burn furnaces, or something.
He said: "Oh, Andrew, I am just killing time."
I thought to myself: "What a phrase, killing time." The time that we have on this earth is so precious. We do not know what the next minute will bring. Why do we kill it? Why do we not spend it and use it for the Glory of God? Why don't we use every minute that we have been given for the good of others?
That does not mean that you are always having to rush around at some torrid pace trying to save the world in one moment as some do. No, there is a time for peace; there is a time for quiet; there is a time for rest; but every minute of every day is a precious gift from the Almighty and we should use it and we should cherish it and we should use it to live out our calling, our klesis.
That is why the Apostle Paul wrote in another epistle: Whatever you do, do it to the Glory of God.
Now, there are some, however, who, when they feel that they have been given the length of days, abuse it only in self-purpose and in self-gratification.
I heard a delightful story told by The Rev. Harold Percy at Trinity Church in Mississauga recently. It's a story of a woman in her forties, who all of a sudden dropped on her knees with a terrible heart attack. She is taken to a hospital where they place her on life-support systems. In a moment of fear and frenzy, she cries out to the Lord: "Lord, is this it? Is this my last moment? I need to know, oh Lord. Is this the end of my life?"
The Lord spoke to her and he said: "No, it is not. You have 20 years, eight days and seven hours still to live."
She said: "Oh, thank you Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you."
She got better and got out of the hospital. She made a decision that if she had 20 years, eight days and seven hours to live, she was going to enjoy herself and improve herself. Immediately she went out and had an operation for liposuction. She went and had facial reconstructive surgery. She got rid of her glasses and put in contact lenses. She had her teeth capped. She had a manicure and a pedicure and went out and bought the most beautiful wig, and she looked gorgeous.
She spent thousands on herself, and as she was coming out of the beautician, she slipped in front of a bus and was killed immediately.
When she got to heaven (she was fortunate, she got to heaven), she said to the Lord: "But you told me I had 20 years, eight days and seven hours to live! What happened?"
He said: "I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you."
Well, that's what happens when you spend your time on yourself. That's what happens when you spend your life only on selfish pursuits. The call, the klesis of God, really does mean living for others. That's what Paul was getting at.
But there was a second thing that he was getting at and that is that our values need to change. If we only have one more year to live, if our days are so numbered, then indeed the possessions that we accumulate take on a different meaning. If we think that they are our source of security, if they are our future, if they are our raison d'être and we spend our lives simply for them, then we, in fact, have wasted the time that God has given us.
Paul understood that if Christians were tied to their possessions, if they were tied to materialism and the accumulation of wealth, then, to use my analogy, they will fill up their diaries with only those things that are going to bring those possessions to bear and to fruition.
The problem is that if you fill your life and you fill your agenda with only those things, then the things that really matter in life often are pushed to the side-lines, to the footnote, or the little phrase: Things that need to be done.
You know, one of the most valuable things that you and I have on this earth is one another. Whether it is the gift of our family and our relationships, whether it is the people with whom we work, whether it is society as a whole that is crying out and in need, one of the things that God has given us is the gift of relationships.
Very often, my friends, I see people filling their diaries with all the things that are going to enslave them to their possessions, but not filling them with the things that build meaningful and lasting relationships.
There was a delightful poem written by a woman called Fay Inchell many years ago about how, in the light of eternity, her values changed. She wrote these lovely words. Listen to this:
Some day of days, some dawning yet to be,
I shall be clothed with immortality,
And in that day, I shall not greatly care
That Jane spilt candle-grease upon the chair.
It will not grieve me then as once it did,
That careless hands have chipped my teapot lid.
I groan, being burdened, but in that glad day
I shall forget vexations of the way.
That needs were often great when means were small
Will not perplex me any more at all.
A few short years at most, it may be less,
I shall have done with earthly storm and stress.
So for this day, I lay me at Thy feet.
Oh, keep me sweet, My Master. Keep me sweet.
One of the great challenges that Christians face is to build meaningful relationships with one another. Paul saw a division arising in the early church. The division was that if people felt that they were only thinking of eternity and not thinking of the relationships that were around them, they would forget the truth of the Gospel. And the truth of the Gospel is reconciled relationships where we are. And so, the most meaningful thing that we can do every year is to ensure that we fill the pages of our diaries with the things that make life sweet.
And what makes life sweet is the development of relationships that have meaning and depth and integrity and purpose. That also means that we need to have a sense of freedom.
One of the things that bothered the Apostle Paul most was that Christians would be constrained, not only by material possessions, but indeed by all things on this earth. He saw Christians as free agents.
Richard Longenecker at McMaster University wrote a book titled: Paul, the Apostle of Liberty. One of the things that Paul honestly did believe was that Christians would be free. Enslaved to Christ, yes; but free in the way that they live.
One of the things that has moved me the most as I look over the last century, for example, is to find that Christians who had been living under the tyranny of the Soviet Union were still able, despite all the oppression that they faced, to maintain their faith and their devotion. Even if they couldn't meet publicly, they kept the bond of relationship open.
In some times of greatest affluence, it is those things that seem to take on less importance; and, at moments of the greatest oppression, there the greatest fervour for the faith and for the sense of community exists.
In just over a month's time I am going to be visiting Santiago, Chile. I'm going to be meeting with ecumenical and religious leaders who, particularly under the Pinochet régime, were able as an ecumenical body to preserve their faith and to speak with the word of justice and of hope. That is freedom, that is understanding that our calling supercedes whatever place we find ourselves in.
Whether it is under a tyranny of capitalism, or communism, or totalitarianism, or oligarchies of many different forms, the fact is: Christians must be free to have one allegiance above all other allegiances. Whether our days are short, or whether our days are long, that allegiance is the first and foremost value on which we base our lives.
This brings me to the last thing. That is, that Paul understood that we all in our own ways should have a new purpose in living.
You see, in this passage there is another Greek word, kairos. Kairos literally means "the acceptable time." But it also means the time of decision, the time to decide.
Just like the people of Israel wandering in the wilderness were challenged by Joshua to choose whom they were going to serve, so this was a call from the Apostle Paul to the early Christians to understand that first and foremost their allegiance was to Jesus Christ and the Gospel; that their purpose for existing on this earth was to serve Christ and to serve God's people.
But there were others who felt 'I'm not sure that I'm worthy to do that.' Some felt that they should change their marital status, or they should do things differently, as I said before, in order that they could do that.
Paul says: "No. Just ensure that the purpose for which you live is right and true."
I hear this sometimes from, for example, single people in our society. A few years ago a friend of mine who was in his mid-thirties came and spoke to me. He said: "Andrew, I am single and I must admit I have never found the right person with whom to settle down. I really wonder whether God has that in store for me. I'm wondering whether, because I'm a single person, I really have the same value as if I were married, or whether I would have the same joy as if I were married."
I simply said one thing to him: "Tell me this: What do these people have in common? Thomas à Kempis, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avilla, Francis of Assisi, Francis Asbury, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Stott, Mother Theresa - tell me, what do those people have in common?"
He said: "Well, they are all Christian."
I said: "Yes, and they were all single."
In other words, they were able to dedicate their lives for the sake of God. They were able to dedicate themselves for the sake of the Gospel.
And so, therefore, whether one is married or whether one is single, according to the Apostle Paul it makes no difference. All, if their purpose is to serve God, can do so and do it boldly and do it in a meaningful way.
That is why Paul said in another of his epistles: "For me, to live is Christ." Whatever the end of days might bring, my purpose is to live for the cause of God.
This brings me now to the last day of my diary.
What matters, you see, my friends, is not what you write at the top of January 1st and all the great things that you are going to do or all the bad things that you are not going to do. What really matters is the end of December 31st: To say whether or not this year that you are living has been dedicated to God's service. This world in which we live, I desperately believe, needs people who will make that commitment.
I think the poor in our world need it. I think those who suffer under injustice and oppression need it. I think the lonely need it. I think that people who are single and worrying about their future need it. I think those who are unemployed need it. I think those who are frightened about events in the world need it. I think people who are tied to the different sins in their lives that hold them down need it. I think that people who are tied to their possessions need it. What they need to understand is the freedom; that no matter what those days may bring and be filled with, living for God is the greatest gift of all.
May this year be such a gift for you and me. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.