SEIZE THE DAY
Isaiah 6:1-8 and John 3:1-17
Rev. Dr. Ken Bickel
First Congregational United Church of Christ
Dubuque, Iowa
May 31. 2015
This past Monday was Memorial Day, and many of us went out to the
cemetery to decorate graves and to remember those who have made a
difference in your lives, but who are no longer with us. Years ago, the
tombstone often told the story of a person’s life. Benjamin Franklin is
buried in the cemetery at Christ Church in Philadelphia, within walking
distance from Independence Hall and Betsy Ross’s home. Early in his life
Franklin wrote this epitaph for his tombstone:
The Body of B. Franklin
Printer
Like the cover of an old Book
Its contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding
Lies here, food for Worms
But the work shall not be wholly lost
For it will, as he believed, appear once more
In a new and more perfect Edition
Corrected and Amended by the Author
It is said that there were 20,000 mourners at Ben Franklin’s funeral
on April 17, 1790, for the man who had helped to craft a new nation and
who had transformed the city of Philadelphia with his volunteer fire
departments and free libraries and so much more. If you have time this
summer to read one biography, let me suggest the biography of Benjamin
Franklin by Walter Isaacson. You’ll learn how our lives have been changed
by the inventions of this remarkable man. A contemporary of Ben Franklin
was an Englishman by the name of John Newton. John Newton’s
tombstone reads like this:
John Newton
Clerk
Once An Infidel, and Libertine
A Servant of Slaves in Africa
Was
By the Rich Mercy of Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ
Preserved, Restored, Pardoned
And Appointed to Preach the Faith
He Had Long Labored to Destroy
John Newton had a loving mother who taught John hymns and had
him memorize Bible passages. However, she died when John Newton was
seven and his father, who was a sea captain, sent him off to boarding school.
He left boarding school at ten and headed to the high seas with his father.
He was eventually pressed into service by the British navy, from which he
deserted, was captured and then flogged. He ended up working on slave
ships and was amazed that they could stuff six hundred captured Africans
packed like sardines into the ships lower deck and haul them to the new
world to be sold as slaves. Eventually, he became the captain of a slave ship.
On one trip to London, he was hitting the bars and prowling the
streets when he passed a little Methodist mission where he heard people
singing about their faith. It reminded him of his mother’s teaching him
Christian hymns and John Newton felt compelled in his heart to go in.
Inside the chapel people were singing about the grace of God and the
preacher was talking about God’s love for everyone. That evening, John
Newton made a U-turn; he was totally transformed. It was like he started
his adult life all over again. Eventually he would become a Christian
minister, and he served with an evangelical spirit in the Church of England
for 43 years until his death at the age of 82 in 1807. Across the years John
Newton wrote 281 hymns. The one you know best was originally titled
“Faith’s Review and Expectation,” but soon became known as “Amazing
Grace.” John Newton was talking about his own life when he wrote,
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me! I once
was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” We will sing this
beloved hymn as our closing hymn today.
John Newton seized the day. He looked at his life, and he looked at
the teachings of Jesus, and he knew that he had to go a new direction, so he
started all over again.
In our Gospel Lesson for today we heard about the familiar Pharisee
named Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cloak of darkness
to try to understand his message and to try to find out how he could let
Jesus into a little corner of his life without making any major changes.
Jesus tells Nicodemus it won’t work, for Nicodemus needs a total, radical
change. He must start all over again; he must be born anew. There can be
no minor repairs of his religious life. Nicodemus must seize the day; he
must allow this encounter with Jesus to be a life-altering experience and
start all over again.
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Can an older man embrace the
radical teachings of this man of Nazareth? Jesus knows it is possible, but
Nicodemus in not sure. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?”
Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of
God without being born of the water and Spirit.” Through the water of
baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit, change can come to Nicodemus
and to people here today in worship.
Seize the day! There is a power at work in Jesus that can change
Nicodemus, that can change John Newton, and that can change you and me.
It is a power that comes from God. It is a power based on God’s love. What
did we read in John 3:16-17? “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but
in order that the world might be saved through him.” A new life happens
through the love of God and God’s Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus was a religious person called a Pharisee; he was conscious
all the time of being morally upright, of keeping every nuance of every
Torah law. He was a respectable person, but he knew that by living by the
law he had not experienced the joy and love that he saw in the eyes of Jesus.
Jesus challenged him to start all over again, to change his way of looking at
the world and at his faith. Sometimes, as I read this passage I want to
shout to Nicodemus, “Do it! Seize the day! Just do it! Let Jesus into your
heart and let Jesus be the Lord of your life!”
Back in 1989, Robin Williams starred as John Keating in the movie
titled “Dead Poet’s Society.” The movie was set in 1959 at a private
boarding school called Welton Academy. Mr. Keating tried to help the
students break out of conventional ways of thinking. Today we would say
he urged them to think outside the box. In one early scene, Robin Williams
has the class out in the foyer examining the pictures of former students who
have long since died. He firmly, yet sensitively, explains that just like these
former students, they too will die some day. Because their time on this
earth is not endless, he says to them quite intensely, “Carpe diem” which is
Latin for “Seize the day.” Mr. Keating tells the boys to lean their ears very
close to the pictures and listen to what the departed have to say to the
students. As they lean toward the pictures, he quietly whispers, as if from
the dead, Carpe diem, carpe diem. Nicodemus needed a Mr. Keating, he
needed someone to whisper in his ear, “Seize the day!”
In today’s Old Testament Lesson from Isaiah, we hear of a vision that
Isaiah saw in 740 BC. Uzziah had been a good and powerful ruler of Israel
from 792 to 740 BC when he died. His death precipitated a crisis as Assyria
gained influence during this time of political transition. Israel was
weakened. The leaders and people allowed themselves to be influenced by
the Assyrian culture and religion, distancing them from worship of Yahweh,
our God. In the midst of the spiritual darkness, Isaiah has a vision of God
in glory where there is constant praise and worship of God. The prophet, in
his role of representing the people, responds to the revelation of God’s glory
with a personal confession and also speaks on behalf of the whole Israelite
faith community when he says, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of
unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips.” After his confession
he receives God’s grace and compassion. When Isaiah responds to the
question “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah says, “Here I
am, send me.” Isaiah is accepting God’s invitation to a new life and a new
way of living. He is willing to seize the day!
What makes the story of Isaiah and the story of Nicodemus so
appropriate for us to hear on Trinity Sunday is the fullness of a portrayal of
who God is and how God interacts with us. God is holy and transcendent,
the one to whom we are to offer unceasing praise and worship. God is also
immanent and personal, touching our individual lives and giving us new
purpose and meaning in our daily living. God is with us through the Holy
Spirit during each step we take as we journey through life. We need God
for the journey, a God we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; a God we
know as Creator, Savior, and Sustainer; a God we know as Maker, Friend,
and Presence.
Every day we live on this earth we have opportunities to broaden and
deepen our experience of God’s love and grace. We, like Isaiah, can offer
ourselves to be the one to go and tell others about this incredible God that
deserves our total loyalty. We, like Nicodemus, have the chance to seize the
day and make the way of Jesus Christ into the way we journey each day.
Don’t sit back and dither and ponder whether to serve a God fully known to
us in the Trinity, make the decision today and live the life of the Christian
faith today, tomorrow and forever. Amen.