You should be a fly on the wall around our house on Friday evenings. You see, Friday evenings are our night for ourselves. We try not to take on church things on Fridays, and unless you are at the point of death, you can wait for your pastoral call until Saturday morning. The pastor and his bride like to go out to a restaurant on Friday evening. But you really should be a fly on the wall, listening to us try to decide exactly where we are going to eat.
She suggests a Thai restaurant; she’s fond of satay, which to me looks like overpriced stringy meat drowned in curry sauce and skewered on a stick so that it looks bigger. So instead of Thai, I suggest Greek. Someplace with spanakopita and pastititios, with moussaka and the all-important baklava for dessert. Besides I can trot out a few words of New Testament Greek, learned in seminary many years ago. But she says Greek is too heavy, too spicy, too fattening. No Greek.
After more hemming and hawing, she counters with Chinese – speaking of hot and sour soup and moo goo gai pan and eight-treasure chicken. I shrug my shoulders, with a been-there-done-that look, and mention a Tex-Mex place I’ve heard about. Well, the word on that type of place is that it’s apt to be noisy, the barflies will be yelling, the TV sports will be blaring, and there’s no ambience. She will always want ambience, whatever that is.
And so what do you think happens? Out of an hour’s discussion on the pros and cons of every kind of food you can imagine, we settle on a tried and true place, with steaks and a salad bar, that we’ve gone to for nearly thirty years. But when we get there, the parking lot is full, the waiting line is long, and the evening is a mess. Why? What ruined our Friday night joy? Nothing less than indecision. Nothing less than being up in the air. The paralysis of analysis. Indecision steals our joy.
The truth is that more things than Friday nights are ruined by indecision. If you are up in the air about what you are going to do, before long the moment is gone and the prize has vanished. Let one of Michael’s Wizards give in to a fleeting instant of indecision, and somebody has slapped that basketball out of his hands. Put it up in the air and scored because our Wizard was up in the air about what to do. More opportunities are lost, more joy is lost, more victory is lost, from indecision, than this world dreams of. Some of us are always up in the air.
And here’s the real kicker: if you are indecisive, you are likely to put off some decisions until a crisis moment. And then, because you are so unused to making decisions, you still will not decide. You will freeze. You will not take any choices at all. If you insist on staying up in the air about decisions you really need to make, when it gets down to the crunch, not only will your joy be gone, but your choices will be gone too.
I’ve seen people in their 70’s and 80’s, with their health declining, their systems weakening; it’s perfectly obvious that death cannot be too many years away. But, no, they haven’t made a will. We’re up in the air about what to do with our property. We’ll think about it tomorrow. And when tomorrow finally gets here, because somebody stayed up in the air, the taxman gets the bulk and the family fights over the rest. If you live up in the air, in a pattern of indecision, you may not only lose your joy, you may lose something very precious.
I’ve seen people who needed medical attention go into denial and tell themselves they’ll be all right in the morning – no need to call the doctor – but there wasn’t any morning. If you live in a pattern of indecision, you may not only lose your joy, you may lose your very life.
And I’ve seen people so spiritually sick it was pitiful. But they wouldn’t get down to a decision for Christ. Undecided, unclear, unsettled, unsure, and without hope. Sick into their very core with everything going wrong, from job to family to finances to health, but unwilling to decide for the Great Physician. Sick into their soul’s center with loneliness and hurt and rejection, but unwilling to decide for Jesus to be the lover of their souls. Sick unto death with sin, but unwilling to decide for forgiveness. Sick and yet unwilling to decide.
When you are up in the air, there isn’t anything to hold you up. If you stay up in the air about how you use your life, you lose your joy. If you stay up in the air about where you will invest your resources, you will lose precious things. If you stay up in the air about your health, you will lose your life. And if you stay up in the air about Jesus Christ, you will lose eternity itself. Being forever up in the air is death.
I
So, why do people go into denial? Why is it so hard to get down to the bottom line and make decisions? My guess is that many of us are scared of taking risks. We are afraid that if we commit to something, it might be wrong, and we can’t go back on the decision. It may not be like “Who wants to marry a millionaire?”, where you can take the cruise and then back out on the deal. Maybe we might lose out. So we make no decision.
We don’t see that not to decide is to decide. Isn’t that right? Not to decide is to decide. If I drop this book on the floor, I have to decide whether to pick it up. If I say, well, I just won’t decide that yet, I’ll get around to it later, what have I really done? I have decided to leave it there. Not to decide is to decide. Lots of us are scared to take risks of making a decision. We think we might lose it all.
But what if I could show you that there is a risk-free, ironclad decision you can make? What if I could prove to you that there is a choice you can make that is guaranteed, beyond reproach, from which there are no losses? Would you decide, then, to make that decision because the outcome is certain?
The apostle Paul, working with the Christians in Thessalonica, came up against some chronic worriers. These were anxious folks, who would like to have had every question answered and every doubt soothed. They wanted to know about what they would get after they die. They wanted to know what had happened to their loved ones, already deceased. They wanted to know what would happen at the end of time. They just couldn’t be sure, they just couldn’t decide. So Paul addressed their up-in-the-airness.
He tells them not to worry about any of that stuff, and why? Why shouldn’t they be anxious? Because ”we believe that Jesus died and rose again”. Because “the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven”. Do you get the flavor of these declarations? Do you catch their spirit? These statements stand like Mount Everest on the landscape. These sturdy declarations are Rocks of Gibraltar that cannot be ignored. They proclaim no namby-pamby pale Galilean; this is the mighty risen Christ! This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild, this is the Word Made Flesh, victorious over death. This is no sweet little Jesus boy, this is the one who faced off against the worst that we could do, who went to death on a cross and took everything that hell could throw at Him – but who is alive and well and coming again. This is not just some fuzzy set of philosophical ideas about tender loving care, be nice to each other, and it’ll all work out. No. This is about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is about reality. The most real reality you can find. And so you can be clear. You can take risks. Because Jesus Christ is Lord.
II
What a privilege it is and has been for us to share in Black History Month! What magnificent stories of courage under fire and grace under pressure in that history! I tell you, there were few if any whose names we now know who were indecisive. These people knew they had to act and act quickly when the moment came, risk or no risk. Frederick Douglass could not hang forever up in the air when the opportunity came to publish The North Star, even though there was a risk that the paper would fail financially. Sojourner Truth could not forever hold her tongue, for fear of what others would say about uppity women. Harriet Tubman could not dally with her decision to operate the Underground Railroad; lives depended on it. She could not stay forever up in the air.
Several years ago, I visited the old historic Second Baptist Church in Detroit. They took us down winding stairs to a small room with no windows and precious little air, and told us how church members had hidden fugitive slaves there until they could ferry them across the river into the safety of Canada. Just a narrow window of opportunity during the dead of night. Was this illegal? Yes, it was! Was it dangerous? Of course! Risky? Certainly! But these believers had made a commitment, and in Christ their commitment was sure. They could not back off. They had decided. In Christ they were certain. It is a privilege to celebrate such a history.
I believe that we here in our church have a worthy vision before us. I believe that we have made some important commitments. It is time to get off the dime, out of our indecision, and do these things. It is time to make good on the things to which we have been called, time to stop worrying about what it will cost, time to quit fearing risk. It is time to make clear-cut decisions, for not to do so is to die. Not to decide is to decide to die.
We have declared that we would use every means at our disposal to share the good news with our neighbors. We have said that we are would be warmly evangelical, winsomely winning those who are around us. But many of us have never decided to share our faith personally. We are willing for the preacher to do it, for this committee or that ministry to do it, for others who feel comfortable with it to do it, but whether we ourselves will share our faith, personally – well, we’re still up in the air about that. We haven’t decided. But not to decide brings death, it brings death to the church and death to those who have never been invited to the good news. We can no longer be up in the air about evangelism.
We have declared that we are serious about learning. We say we believe the Bible to be the storehouse of wisdom and a treasure trove of knowledge. We have said that we will always teach, preach, and apply this word. Yet fully half of us have never decided to come to Sunday morning Bible study; less than a quarter of us have enrolled in discipleship courses; and ninety-five percent of us don’t have a clue about what happens on Wednesday nights! We have not decided against any of these things, you know! We have just not decided, we are still up in the air about Bible study. We have forgotten that indecision brings death, death to the church and death to our own shriveled souls. We can no longer be up in the air about knowing the Scriptures.
We have labeled ourselves a missionary church. We are proud of our long-standing heritage in missions, we like to tell about how when we were formed, missions dollars came our way to help us get started. But I tell you it brings anguish to my soul when I tell you that in twenty years we have tripled our church budget but are giving fifty percent less to missions. We didn’t decide against missions, did we? No, we just decided to spend more and more on ourselves and less and less on the world. Nor have many of us yet decided that we can risk tithing, or that we can risk taking the time to do some missions work, or that we can risk getting involved in a ministry. It’s not, you see, that we have decided not to do these things. It’s that we have not decided to do them. We have remained up in the air about them. But not to decide is to decide. And indecision brings death, death for the church and death for our own spiritual fulfillment.
III
Dr. King spoke, just a few hours before his death, of seeing the Promised Land, and knowing that it was his. He said he didn’t fear death, he didn’t fear any man, because his eyes had seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. And we have too. Listen to it: “ … we who are alive … will be caught up in the clouds …to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.” Up in the air? Caught up in Him, in His work. Not up in the air, undecided, but up in His arms, up in His embrace, up in His completeness, up in His victory. This we can count on! This we stake our very lives on! There is no risk in this! There is no loss in Him. There is nothing to be afraid of; He is victory, all victory.
Where are you today? Are you up in the air about your life, or are you up in the embrace of the Christ who makes sense of it all?
Are you up in the air about what to do with your life? You’ve not been clear about how to deal with that nagging sense of guilt or that searing shame? You’ve not decided for Christ; you say you haven’t decided against Him, but not to decide is to decide. And indecision brings death. Are you still up in the air or will you now get caught up with Him in the life He is able to give? The last time I heard today’s Scripture, it came from the lips of an elderly man who had suffered a stroke. Roy Purdie’s father-in-law, Charles Newton. His life was in the balance, and his health was precarious. But when he found out I was a pastor, he began, from crystal-clear memory, with a strong voice and bright eyes, to speak out of a heart of absolute confidence, “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep..” He knew that his life’s issues had been dealt with, once and for all, and he was not by any means up in the air. What about you?
Are you up in the air about where to invest yourself? You’ve not been clear about where to put down spiritual roots. You haven’t decided where to make your spiritual home? You’ve not decided for any church just yet; you say you haven’t decided against our church or any church, but not to decide is to decide. And indecision brings death. Are you still up in the air or will you now get caught up in a fellowship of God’s people who have immense potential and authentic vision, who are going someplace? Take one look at the Trailblazers bulletin board and be astounded at what God has done and is doing in this church.
Are you up in the air about what to do with your gifts? You’ve not been clear about how to express your faith, you’ve not been certain about what your ministry should be, you’ve not known whether this group or that mission is the right one for you. So you’ve stayed up in the air about how to serve Christ. But not to decide is to decide, and indecision brings death. Are you going to stay up in the air or will you today, without any further delay, adopt some ministry, risk your time, commit your talents to the one who will gather you up and fill you so full of joy you will marvel that you ever missed a moment of it?
Weren’t we all thrilled last week at Yolanda Sampson’s announcement about her call to ministry and her seminary plans? It was great! But, you know, on Thursday before last Sunday I tried to shake her loose a little. I asked her some “what if” questions. I asked her about going away from home and about paying the tuition bills. I thought I’d see just how up in the air she was about this decision. Oh, crystal clear. Solid. Confident. Confident in the Lord. A joy to behold! And, Yolanda, I hate to admit it, but it’s been forty-two years since I went through the same thing, and I can tell you there is no certainly like the certainty that you are doing God’s will! You will not be up in the air, ever again, about your calling!
Don’t you want that kind of clarity? It can be yours. “… we who are alive… will be caught up in the clouds … to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.” Forever.
“I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day; I don’t borrow from its sunshine, for its skies may turn to gray. I don’t worry o’er the future, for I know what Jesus said; and today I’ll walk beside Him, for He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand; But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.”
