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Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
“Come and find the quiet center..” that’s easier said
than done ... or in this case, easier sung than done. There are times
that life can seem overwhelming, frantic and demanding. We have an
interesting relationship with life ... as this video points out. (Video)
I
thought the producers of that video were rather clever and insightful.
There are times we feel overwhelmed by life; beaten down by life; even
bored by life. We think we get things right and then things come
tumbling down again. But, like the video says, there’s nothing like a
near death experience to help us realize how much we love life. I
know there have been some of you who have had a near-death experience.
If you choose, you’ll have a chance to tell about it in the small group
discussions.
 On
the video that you will see as part of the groups, Gary Smalley will
tell about his own near-death experience and how it changed his life.
After that experience he now does three things each day which have
enriched his life immensely. I won’t give it away. You’ll have to go to
the small groups to find out what those three things are.
But also, in addition to almost dying, another kind of experience that
leads to a special love of life having a terminal illness. With the
advances in modern medicine, doctors now able, in certain circumstances,
to predict approximately how much life we have left to live. When a
person gets the news that they have a terminal illness, it is very
devastating, but there is a positive side to it that many people are
also discovering.
 Many
of you saw the recent movie, “The Bucket List” about two men who were
given the news that they didn’t have long to live. So they started out
on an adventure to do the things on their Bucket List - a list of the
things they wanted to do before they kicked the bucket. Even though the
critics tore it to pieces, I thought it was a wonderful movie. I
recommend it.
Also, about 4 years
ago, there was a song that became an over-night success in the Country
and Western scene and won a Grammy Award. It was written by Tim Nichols
and Craig Williams and recorded by Tim McGraw. It is called: Live Like
You Were Dying. I’ve never read that “The Bucket List” movie came from
this song, but there are sure a lot of similarities. The song begins by
telling the story of a man in his early forties who gets the news that
he is dying. When asked what he would do if this was really the real
end, he replied with these words: (play chorus, verse 2 and the chorus)
 This
song has touched a multitude of people in a variety of ways. Tim
McGraw’s father passed away right around the time he recorded this song.
So many people think that is why he recorded this song. But as he says
in a delightful little book about the song, it’s about more than his own
person connection to the song. He says, “I love this song because I
believe that everyone who hears it will have their own unique reaction
to it. Each person has his or her own definition of what it means to
“live like you were dying.” That’s what makes it such a great song. It’s
not just about my personal connection–although obviously there is
one–it’s about how you connect to it.”
It’s that sentence that says, “Someday I hope you get the chance to live
like you were dying” that hits us. Is it a good thing to live like you
were dying? It certainly doesn’t seem like a good thing to get the news
that you have a terminal illness. But, actually, we are all terminal, we
just don’t always admit it, or act like it. So perhaps, living like we
are dying is exactly what we need to do. The apostle Paul seemed to
think that we needed to realize that the time is getting short for us.
In the book of Romans, he writes these words:
This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is
running out. Wake up; our salvation is nearer now than when we first
believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be
here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes; and put on the
shining armor of right living.” Romans 13:11-12 (NLT)
We can look at verses like this and scoff: He thought the world was
coming to an end soon, and look how long the world have lasted. The
world is still here. True ... but, it is also true that we all are
terminal. All of us have a 100% chance of dying. None of us will live in
this physical body forever. Now, last Sunday, we celebrated Easter and
proclaimed death was defeated. I believe that with all my heart. Death
is not victorious. Death is not the end. We are Easter People and we
believe that we will live eternally with Christ. Jesus said that he
would go and prepare a place for us so that we could be where he was.
That is fantastic news. It is freeing news that we do not need to fear
death. It is not the end. But, as I also said last Sunday, Easter is not
just about a glorious life AFTER we die, it’s about an ABUNDANT life
NOW... a life that realizes the presence of Christ being with us now to
bring us the abundant life of joy and happiness that is a gift from God
right NOW.
 But,
like our video clip pointed out, there are times that we get overwhelmed
by life ... or even take it for granted and get bored with it. That’s
where this song and this scripture come in to encourage us to embrace
life in its fulness NOW and not wait because this earthly LIFE is short.
We don’t know when it will end. If we come face to face with that fact,
then we will seize the day... not waste a moment of it ... but live it
fully. The irony of this is that when we realize that we are, indeed,
dying ... it wakes us up to the fact that we are ALIVE now! I put some
butterflies in our worship setting because butterflies do not live long,
yet they are very beautiful. Our life does not have to be long to be
beautiful, if we wake up and enjoy the beauty of it NOW. That’s what
Paul wanted the people in Rome to realize. He said: WAKE UP! It’s
urgent! Do you know the time is running out? Get with it!
Gary Smalley, a well known speaker, counselor and author was moved by
the song and this scripture to put together this study that hopefully
will help us realize the beauty of Living Like We Were Dying. Smalley is
the director of the Smalley Relationship Center which focuses on finding
ways to use research to develop new tools to help people build better
relationships. One of the things they developed was this 30 Day
 Experiment
that we are about to take. They realized that the benefits of living
like you were dying would include helping you to be a better spouse, a
better friend, and just generally help you to be the person God created
you to be. Like the song said, “I was finally the husband that most the
time I wasn’t.
 And
I became a friend a friend would like to have.” These are wonderful
goals for us as well.
So we begin this experiment by looking closely at our scripture which
gives us three important challenges that will help us to fully embrace
this wonderful gift God has given us called Life. First let’s live with
a sense of urgency. As we look at the words the Apostle Paul wrote
 in
his letter to the Romans, we realize he’s saying: Wake up! It’s urgent!
Do you know the time is running out? Get with it! Do we live with a
sense of urgency, or do we figure there will be time later to do this or
that? Urgent means that something needs your attention NOW. But a lot of
time we think, I’ll do that later. It has been said that one of the most
dangerous words in our vocabulary is “someday.” Someday, I’ll make
things right with my mother. Someday, I’ll take that trip. Someday, I’ll
have more time for the kids. Someday, I’ll talk to my friend about
Jesus. Someday, I’ll go back to school. Someday, I’ll get involved in
church. It could go on and on. What is your “someday”? You fill in the
blank. Someday, I’ll _______________. The problem with “someday” is that
it can rob us of “this day” and we never get “around to it.”
 It
used to be a fun joke to give someone a round wooden chip that said
“Tuit” on it - It was “a round tuit (to it)”
 If
I'd thought of it sooner, I would have given you each a "round tuit"
with the Bible verse that we are supposed to meditate on this week on
the back. Because we certainly need to get around to using our
time wisely so that we can develop wisdom.
A song that touched me ... and a lot of other people ... some time ago
was “Cat’s in the Cradle.” Remember that song? It was nominated for a
Grammy in 1974, back when our children were young. So it was important
to us. It was about a father who wasn’t there when his child was born
... or learned to walk or talk. But the little boy kept saying, “I’m
gonna be like you, Dad. I’m gonna be like you.” But the little boy also
asked, “When you coming home, dad?” To which the father replied, “I
don’t know when, But we’ll get together then. You know we’ll have a good
time then.” Then at the end of the song, the father finally has time,
but, of course, the little boy has grown to be a man who is just like
his dad, and he doesn’t have time. You remember that song don’t you? It
made a lot of fathers uneasy. And made both fathers and mothers think
about spending more quality time with their children. It’s been done by
several artists since the original song came out. In 2004, rapper Daryl
McDaniels did his own
 version
after he found out he had been adopted.. But the version that meant the
most to me was the original one recorded by Harry Chapin. It was based
on a poem his wife wrote. She had written the poem earlier, but Harry
picked it up and related to it after his first son Josh was born. That’s
when he made the recording. However, the poem wasn’t really about Chapin
himself but about her first husband’s father. A man who had made it big
and pulled all kinds of strings to get his son the “good” things in
life, but never really developed a relationship with his son. But I hope
Harry Chapin listened to his son and took the time to have a good
relationship with his children and his family because he died in 1981 at
age 38 from a heart attack while he was driving his car on the
expressway. It was just 7 years after he recorded the song. Which is a
great illustration for not knowing how long we have to live. So we need
to do what we can today, not wait until someday ... not wait until we
get “around to it” ... not wait until it’s too late just because our
children are grown and the moment has passed. Like the Apostle Paul says
to us: WAKE UP! It’s urgent! Do you know the time is running out? Get
with it! So, the first thing we need to do to embrace life fully, is to
live with a sense of urgency.
 The
second thing is to live with a sense of eternity. Paul tells us to wake
up because “the day of salvation will soon be here.” The Greek word used
here refers to the day of “spiritual and eternal deliverance”... this is
the day that we come face to face with God and God completes our
salvation. In other words when we are done with this earthly life and go
into a new realm of existence in a new and closer relationship with God.
It’s one day closer for all of us than it was yesterday. We need to be
aware that there is more to life than these few years and the things
that we do with the time we have will make a difference in the eternal
scheme of things. Now, we do not believe that we can earn our salvation.
We don’t earn God’s favor by doing good things. We could never do enough
good things to earn the right to live in heaven for eternity. But even
though our eternal life is a gift of grace, still the things we do with
our life will make a difference somehow. We don’t know exactly how, but
we are assured that our good deeds will not go unnoticed. Jesus tells us
to store up treasures in heaven, not down here where things wear out and
get broken and out of style. We need to do things that have eternal
significance in God’s sight. We don’t want to be like the main character
in Jesus’ Parable called “The Rich Fool,” who built bigger and bigger
barns to store all his wealth, but then he died and God said to him,
“You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you
have stored up?” Then Jesus told the people to whom he was telling the
story: “This is what happens to people who store up everything for
themselves, but are poor in the sight of God” (Luke 12:16-21) So we need
to realize that we need to live with a sense of eternity ... what things
will matter in the great eternal scheme of life?
There’s an old story that I often remember. It’s about a man who died
and went to heaven. St. Peter welcomed him warmly and said he would show
him to his home that had been prepared especially for him. As he entered
heaven’s gates, he went past a beautiful mansion. Peter said, “Oh that
belongs to your maid.” The man was excited. If that was what his maid
got, he couldn’t imagine how great his house was going to be. As they
went along, St. Peter told him about who lived here and there... all
people who were beneath him socially, so the man got more and more
excited. Until they came to the edge of town to a little shack. St.
Peter said, “Here is the place we built for you.” But the man said,
“That’s only a shack! My maid and all those other people had such
beautiful homes. Why is mine a shack?” To which St. Peter replied. “I’m
sorry, but this is all we could build with the materials you sent up.” I
know you’ve probably heard that one before. I’ve told it before ... lots
of times to myself. Whenever I do something that I think God would like,
but I don’t seem to get the results or the appreciation I think the
effort deserves, I tell myself that story and think: “Well, maybe I
helped give them a little more material to make my heavenly mansion.” I
don’t know if that’s how Christ really goes about preparing a room for
us in heaven, but I do know that I want to build up treasures in heaven
like Jesus told us to do.
 So,
to embrace life fully, we need to live with a sense of urgency and with
a sense of eternity. That gives us a kind of bi-focal vision, with one
eye on eternity and one eye on the gift of “today.” With this kind of
vision, we can move on to the third challenge this scripture gives us
and that is to live with a sense of priority. Paul says: So don’t live
in darkness. Get rid of your evil deeds. Shed them like dirty clothes.
Clothe yourselves with the armor of right living, as those who live in
the light.” I like the word picture that Paul uses here. It is the image
of taking off and putting on clothes. In order to live like you were
dying, you will have to “take off” wrong living and you will have to
“put on” right living. He goes on to say: Don’t participate in wild
parties and getting drunk, or in adultery and immoral living, or in
fighting and jealousy. But let the Lord Jesus Christ
take control of you and don’t think of ways to indulge your evil
desires.” (Romans 13:13-14) Does any of that sound vaguely familiar to
you? Remember our scripture last week? ... The one I suggested you put
by your bed and look at every night and every morning. The things on
that big stone which can hold us captive in a tomb are much the same as
the ones here in Romans. You see, Paul says it over and over again ...
to the Colossians... to the Corinthians ... to the Romans ... to us.
These things that the earth sees as joy-bringers like promiscuous sex
and over indulgent drinking and greedy collecting of material
possessions may seem like they bring us happiness in the moment ... but
it ends up causing us lots and lots of problems ... it’s like a
hang-over that won’t go away. It’s like Paul says, Read my lips. What
don’t you understand about “NO!” Stop doing those things! So, let’s get
our priorities straight. Lets live with this bi-focal vision that has
one eye on making the most of today and the other on storing up
treasures in heaven. It’s what will help us to embrace life fully. In
the coming weeks, we are going to be talking about getting our
priorities straight as we look at the things from the song that happened
as he lived like he was dying, he spoke sweeter, loved deeper and gave
forgiveness that he had been denying. As we do those things, it will
help us to live with a sense of priority... putting first things first.
 As
I close, I want to leave you with a big assignment. I would like you to
make the next seven days a “No Regret Week.” When we gather back here in
seven days from now. I want us to be able to look at each other and say,
“I made the most of every day. I embraced each day as a gift. I didn’t
take life for granted this week. I didn’t take the people in my life for
granted this week. I didn’t take God for granted this week. I worked at
my priorities. Hopefully I added a brick or two to my heavenly home. And
I lived these past seven days to the fullest.” Wouldn’t that be great if
we could do that? Let’s give it a try. Let’s live like we were dying!
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