Well, let’s get this over with. New Year’s resolutions: how
many of you made New Year’s resolutions? Now how many
of us have already broken at least one resolution? Come on,
hands up, confession is good for the soul. How many have
already, five days into the new year, broken at least one of
your resolutions?
I resolved to lose weight, but, hey, the butter pecan ice
cream just reached out and grabbed me. You resolved to
pay your bills on time, but it was so easy to use that plastic,
getting ready for Christmas, and you were just trying to
stimulate the economy. I resolved to avoid arguments in my
household, but, Lord, it’s just like the Garden of Eden, “the
woman you gave me, she said...”! Resolutions are fine, but
they are hard to keep. They melt faster than the proverbial
snowball in hell.
One reason resolutions are tough to keep is that they look
backward as well as forward. We identify things we know we
ought to do better; we look backward and then try to look
forward and to do it in a different way. The ancient Romans
had a god in their pantheon named Janus. Janus was the
god of doors, always depicted as having two faces, one
looking backward and the other looking forward. When you
went through a door, you were supposed to invoke the
protection of Janus, because you didn’t know what might be
on the other side. It is from this god that we get our word
“janitor”; somebody who takes care of the doors. And it is
also from this god that we get the name of the first month of
the year, January. Looking backward and looking forward.
Thinking we can do something in the new year we didn’t do
in the old year.
But there’s an issue here. There’s a problem. The problem
is that we are the same people on January 1 that we were on
December 31. We haven’t changed an iota. We have the
same skills, the same resources, the same problems, the
same everything today, looking forward, as we did when we
looked backward. So what makes us think we can do any
better? What makes us think that the mere flip of a calendar
page will make us do something today we didn’t do
yesterday?
Lots of us believe that we won’t change. Many of us believe
that few things will be different this year. I’ve listened to you.
And I’ve listened to myself. I’ve caught myself, trying to work
with somebody’s problem, shrugging my shoulders and
saying, “What can you do? I’ll just cut and run.” I’ve heard
you, dealing with something that’s so huge, you just turn your
back and say, “It’s no use trying.” Somebody suggests a
new approach, and we say, “Been there, done that.”
Someone speaks about a person with a problem, and we
pass it off, “The leopard cannot change his spots.” My guess
is that lots of us are really fatalists. We believe that certain
things are inevitable, and it’s no use even trying to change.
If you’re like that, your theme song is the Spanish phrase,
“Que sera, sera.” “Whatever will be, will be”. Do you
remember Doris Day in that old movie? “Que sera, sera;
whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see. Que
sera, sera.” And so lifting our hands in a gesture of futility
we wriggle out of doing anything positive, because, well,
“what can you do?” Time’s too short, not enough money,
energy is low, obstacles too high, and so on. “Que sera,
sera”. “Whatever will be, will be.” Why bother?
But to that the Lord Jesus Christ says a resounding “No”. To
all of that the one who was and who is and who is to come
says, “No.” Consider the believers at the ancient town of
Philadelphia and what the Spirit said.
I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door,
which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power,
and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
I know your works. I know what you have been doing. I can
look backward with you, Philadelphia Christians, and I see
what you have done. It’s not bad. It’s good stuff. But now
look forward. Look at what needs to be done. Look at what
is before you. It is an open door. Opportunity. Not a
burden, not a chore, but opportunity. Not drudgery, not the
same old same old, but a fresh opportunity. You are given
an open door, which no one is able to shut.
Actor Robin Williams, in the movie Dead Poets Society,
confronts a troop of schoolboys who are about as hopeless
as any kids could ever be. They are rowdy, lazy, and rude.
They are the castoffs of homes that didn’t want them any
longer, so they were put away in a boarding school, just to
pass the time. Fatalism. Whatever will be, will be. Que
sera, sera, with these boys. Who cares. Who can do
anything?
But the teacher played by Robin Williams does not give up.
He cannot pass these boys off as mere misfits who will never
achieve. He decides on a strategy of being outrageous. He
will get their attention by doing anything off the wall, wild, as
long as it might teach, as long as it might stir some boy’s
interest in learning. This teaching superstar dresses in
costumes; he creates learning games; he organizes dramas;
he even founds a club, dedicated to reading classical
literature, and brazenly calls his club the “Dead Poets
Society”. He is so determined to kindle the love of learning
in these louts. Well, as the days and weeks wear on, little by
little, one by one, the boys respond. They begin to care.
They begin to learn. They inch their way out of despair and
negativism. Almost in spite of themselves, they start to
change.
Finally, one day, in a burst of excitement, in the boldest of his
outrageous teaching techniques, Robin Williams jumps up on
his desk and begins to chant, “Carpe diem” “Carpe diem” –
Latin for “seize the day”. “Carpe diem, seize the day, take
the opportunity”. His astonished pupils, not accustomed to
seeing a teacher prancing on a desktop, are silent at first;
but then they begin to see. They begin to hear, begin to feel.
And one by one, hesitant at first, but finally rising to a mighty
chorus, they shout it with him, “Carpe diem”. “Carpe diem”.
Seize the day. Seize the day. Opportunity.
There is a world of difference, isn’t there, between “Que
sera, sera” and “Carpe diem”? There is a mile-wide gap
between the fatalism that says that nothing can be done, I
cannot change, I cannot be different; and the spirit that
promises an open door which no one can shut. There is a
world of difference.
I
For one thing, the difference between living a “que sera sera”
life and living a “Carpe diem” life, is seeing that we are not
complete failures and we are not hopeless. The difference
between living in fatalism and living with an open door is in
knowing that we have accomplished some things, no matter
how many failures we have had. The Lord says to the
church at Philadelphia, “I know your works.” You have done
something. You have kept yourselves going. “I know your
works”. But then the Lord says to these folks, “I know [too]
that you have but little power.” I know you are small and
struggling. You may think you are insignificant. But no, “I
know your works”. You have done something.
I do not believe that the Lord is calling on us to beat up on
ourselves. Yes, we need to repent of certain things, and
yes, we need to confess the stranglehold that sin has on us.
Still, I do not believe that the Lord wants us to sit around and
wallow in guilt over everything that has gone wrong in our
lives. You can get so stalled in “woulda, coulda, shoulda”! If
you do nothing but look backward, you will never be free to
become what God wants you to become. If you do nothing
but concentrate on all the mistakes you have made, you will
never experience what God wants to give you. If you live in
the unforgiven past, you will feel nothing but “Que sera,
sera”, whatever will be, will be, and you will die. You will die
emotionally, you will die spiritually. You may even die
physically; I have seen people will their own deaths, because
they think there is nothing else to do.
If you’re here today, and you are in the depths of depression
because of your failures, I ask you to consider that the Lord
knows your works. The Lord knows what you have done
that is right and true and worthy. The Lord knows, too, how
little power any of us really has against the things we
encounter. You may have gotten into substance abuse.
Yes, it was wrong. But now it’s taken you over, and you
have very little power against it. Nevertheless, that’s not all
there is to be said about you. Substance abuser is not all
that you are. Ex-convict is not all that you are. “Can’t keep a
job” doesn’t say everything there is to say about you. You
are more than that. The Lord knows your works, and knows
you have but little power. But He loves you. And in this new
year, He sets before you an open door, which no one can
shut. This is not “que sera” time. This is “open door” time,
this is “Carpe diem” time. We are not hopelessly mired in
past failures.
The other day I sat down with the deacons who compose the
Pastor-Church Relations Committee. They have the
unenviable task of telling the pastor what is really going on in
this church and how the pastor is received. I said to them,
as we reviewed my years here, that I was disappointed that
so many of the things I have wanted us to do have either
been rejected or ignored or just stalled. I gave in to a little
time of complaint about you, to tell the truth, and said I
wondered if my leadership was effective any more. One of
those deacons said, “You speak about the things that have
not been done. But look at all of the things that have been
done. Count the things we would not be doing today if you
had not pushed us to do them.” I thank God for that word!
Because when you feel discouraged and think it’s all for
naught, count your many blessings, see what God has
wrought, and be thankful. And “Carpe diem”. Seize the day.
Keep on going. “I have set before you an open door, which
no one can shut.” You have done some things, brothers and
sisters; with the help of God, you can do even more.
II
But living a “Carpe diem” life instead of a “que sera, sera” life
is not only a matter of knowing that you have accomplished
some things, despite your failures. It is also a question of
maintaining your identity. It is also a matter of being who we
are, under God, and not wanting to be somebody else. If
you spend your energies in wishing you were somebody
different, you are living in the “que sera, sera” world,
because you know that isn’t going to happen. But if you
accept the unique person that you are, given by God and
shaped by Christ, then you can look forward into the new
year and you can “Carpe diem”, you can seize the day, you
can walk through the open door.
The Lord says to the church at Philadelphia,
You have kept my word and have not denied my name ... you have
kept my word of patient endurance ... hold fast to what you have.
You have kept my word, you have kept your identity. You
didn’t try to be somebody else. You just accepted who you
are; now hold fast to that.
In one of my favorite cartoon strips, Peanuts, poor old
Charley Brown says to Lucy, as he looks up at a plane
crossing the sky, “See that plane up there, Lucy? That’s
where I’d like to be. I’d like to be going someplace different.
Maybe if I got to some new place, the people there would like
me and treat me better than people do here at home.” But
Lucy, ever the counselor who minces no words, replies
instantly, “Forget it, Charley Brown. Forget it. Once you got
there, the new people would get to know you, and you’d be
right back where you started.”
In other words, “que sera, sera”! For the issue is not where
we live or who we have to deal with; the issue is who we are,
and how we handle our identity. Don’t try to be somebody
else; God has already made you special, and it is our task to
discern who we are and walk through the open door.
The other day I caught an interview with Ben Carson on the
Charlie Rose show. Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon
at Johns Hopkins. Some of you know his story – how as a
boy growing up in a poor and fatherless home, his anger
began to build, and one day he almost killed another child.
But Ben Carson credits his mother with turning him around,
so that the very hands that one day almost used a knife to
end a life became surgeon’s hands, using scalpels to save
lives. In this interview, Dr. Carson spoke about his mother
and all that she faced. She was one of an incredible 24
children; married at age 13; with all the markers that spell
trouble in our society – minority, poor, uneducated. But Ben
Carson says that the one thing his mother did have that set
her on a different course was that she knew she was a child
of God! She never thought of herself as a victim, but as a
victor. And if there was an obstacle in her way, it wasn’t,
“Oh, my, I can’t do it, I’ll have to quit.” It was instead, “I’m a
child of the God who makes a way out of no way, and Im
going to do it.” Dr. Carson is what he is today – a
superlative surgeon and a Christlike man – because of a
mother who looked at him and saw not a problem to be wept
over but an open door of possibility. Not for her the dregs of
“que sera” because she was black and poor and
uneducated. For her the excitement of “Carpe diem”,
because she belonged to Christ, and He had set before her
an open door, which no one can shut. She knew who she
was, and held fast to that.
I tell you, God will honor faithfulness. Your life may not be
exciting, it may not be brilliant, it may not be extraordinary by
the world’s standards. But if you know who you are, and if
you believe that God asks you to be the best “you” you can
be, He will set before you more open doors, more
opportunity, more seizable days than you have ever dreamed
of! “Carpe diem” Seize the day! An open door!
III
Today, not only do I ask you to look at your own life,
backward and forward, and urge you to move from “que
sera” to “Carpe diem”. May I also ask you to take a moment
and gauge how you fit into Takoma Park Baptist Church by
these same measures.
Our church, like the Philadelphia church. First, God knows
our works. Just as He knew and commended the works of
Philadelphia, so also He knows His people at Takoma Park.
And He knows that we have done some things right. He
knows that we have focused on caring for people. It is a joy
indeed to go into a hospital room, and the patient tells me,
“I’ve received cards from church people I don’t even know.”
What a thrill to get an email from Tennessee, where a young
woman none of us even knew until a few weeks ago is
saying that she never felt more loved than when some of us
went by to visit her! We have done some things right.
God knows that we focus on equipping people through Bible
study and discipleship courses. If you have not been around
this place on a Saturday morning during discipleship season,
you would be astonished at the beehive of activity there is
about learning something new. Who would have thought
that scores of people would invest their Saturday mornings in
concentrated study? But many have done so. We have
done some things right.
God knows, too, that we have been exceptional in our
investment in missions. This year, for the first time in thirty
years, we gave birth to a new congregation, La Philadelphie.
And our gifts to support missions have been greater by far
than they have been in many years. God knows our works.
All of these things suggest that in our church there is a
“Carpe diem” spirit, going forward and rejoicing, not a “que
sera” spirit, looking backwards and grieving.
And so may I encourage you to look forward in hope and in
excitement to the open doors of opportunity that God has
placed all around us? Is there some way I can get you as
excited as I am about all that can be done?
Can I show you the open door of new people for Christ?
Can I show you the wonderfully diverse community in which
we live? A community where there are people from Africa
and from the Caribbean and from Asia moving in daily? A
community which is wonderfully diverse? There are people
to be reached here, people to be won for Christ. Do not look
backward and mourn those who have passed away. Do not
look backward and worry about those who have moved or
who have just quit coming to church. The past will take care
of itself. Look forward, at the open door of witness God has
given us. Carpe diem! An open door!
Can I show you the open door of young people who need
what the church can offer? Can I show you latch-key
children, who need the safe haven of an after-school
program? Can I show you teenagers, who need a place to
study and to “hang out” in the evenings, and who need
healthy recreation? Can I show you young adults who need
their questions answered? Open doors, all of them. Carpe
diem!
Oh, maybe you are saying, “Ah, but these things take money
and time and energy, and we don’t have so-and-so to do it
any more. We no longer have Mr. This, who used to live and
breathe youth ministry. We no longer have Mrs. That, who
used to gather up all the children and coach their English.”
No, we don’t. But do not focus on what we do not have.
Focus on what we do have. We do have you and you and
you and me. We do have people whose hearts can turn
toward the future. And we do have an open door, which no
one can shut. Carpe diem!
Who are we? We are not a megachurch in Prince George’s
County, turning 3000 people away from a New Year’s Eve
service. But we are God’s gift to the Takoma community,
planted here by His word, empowered by His spirit, capable
of obedience to His will. We have an identity on this corner,
and to this we shall hold fast. We need to know who we are.
We are not Evangel Temple, we are not Metropolitan, we are
not Ebenezer, we are not Greater Mount Calvary Holy
Church. And, frankly, I don’t want to be any of those places.
And guess what, neither does God! He made us who we
are; He did not make us a megachurch, but He did not make
us a tiny struggling storefront either. God has given us
identity and resources, and has given us the ability to reach,
teach, and love people. Let us hold fast to that! Let us do
what we do and do it well. Let us seize the day, “Carpe
diem”.
For if we say “No” to ministry opportunities; if we look
backward and think we are too small or too old or too poor or
too this or too that, we will have given in to that tired old
stuff, “Que sera, sera”, “Whatever will be, will be”. And we
will have turned our backs on the God who loves us, knows
us, and promises us His blessing.
But today, at the beginning of this year, hear what the Spirit
says to the church at Philadelphia, yes, the church at
Takoma, “I have set before you an open door, which no one
is able to shut.” Some of us may be suffering from ill health;
but that is an open door to teach others how Christ can heal.
Some of us may be getting older; but that is an open door to
demonstrate Christian maturity. Some of us may have
financial shortfalls; but that is an open door to train the
unemployed. Some of us may feel depressed, but that is an
opportunity for personal growth. Some of us may feel weary
and worn-out, but that is an opportunity to learn how God
refreshes. And some of us may feel hostile to a brother or
sister in this congregation, and you have made up your mind
that you will never ever work with him or cooperate with her
again; but even that is an opportunity to experience God’s
work of reconciliation. “I have set before you and open door,
which no one is able to shut.”
There is no way I am going to believe that nothing will
change. There is no way I am going to invest myself in “Que
sera, sera”. If I were the outrageous Robin Williams, and
had a desk top, I would get you to shout with me, “Carpe
diem. I have no desk top, but what about a table top! What
about this table, where we remember one who was dead but
is alive forevermore? What about a table top on which to
dance, this table, which proclaims one against whom they
shut the door of death, but on the third day the stone was
rolled away, an open door that no one is able to shut? Oh,
yes, church, “Carpe diem” “Carpe diem” “Seize the day”
“Seize the day” “Seize the day”.
