For whether we live or whether we die (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Psalm 90:1-12
November 16, 2014
Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.
How short is our life?
We last no longer than a dream …
We are like a dream … vivid and real, while it lasts … full of wonders and marvels, while it lasts … but when the dawn comes, when we are awakened, the dream is gone, remembered maybe for a short while, but soon forgotten.
How short is our life?
We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,
that grow and burst into bloom,
then dry up and die in the evening.
We are like a daylily … colorful and delicate, glorious and delightful … truly beautiful, for a day, for one day.
Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.
Life is short, so be wise …
Enjoy your life while you have it! Don’t wait for tomorrow! Enjoy today.
You may not have tomorrow, but you do have today. And today, the life you have is precious. Today, the life you have is good, like a fond dream, like an exquisite daylily.
Life is short, so be wise …
Not impatient, not frantic, not trying too hard to hold onto what you can never hold onto, but sober, wise, realistic, and grateful. Not rueing the moments you will never have, but grateful for the moment you do have.
This moment is God’s gift to you, and you are God’s gift to this moment.
Life is short, so be wise …
You are here today, but tomorrow, on some soon tomorrow, you will be gone. On some soon tomorrow, you will be forgotten.
Tomorrow belongs to your children and to your children’s children. Tomorrow belongs to other people’s children and to other people’s children’s children. Tomorrow belongs to other people.
So be wise and don’t live as if you matter tomorrow. You matter today. You are not immortal. You are not immortal and any attempt to achieve immortality is foolishness. Don’t live to leave a mark, a legacy, an enduring imprint of yourself on tomorrow. You matter today.
You are a dream, a daylily. Immortality is not your glory. Your glory is your mortality. Your glory is to bring glory to God for the one day you have, to let your mortal glory, your fleeting beauty, reflect and point to God’s enduring beauty, God’s lasting glory.
Life is short, so be wise …
Soon, we are gone. Soon, generation after generation is gone. Soon, whole nations, whole civilizations, are gone. But to God, a thousand years are like one day. We are gone, but God remains. God endures. God is.
God is. And God is … our home. The Lord has always been our home. We are mortal. We are like a dream, a daylily. But while we live, we belong to God. And when we die …
For whether we live or whether we die,
we belong to the Lord.
Life is short …
But whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord.
Whether we live or whether we die, God is our home.
Whether we live or whether we die, God is.
So when it comes our time to die? We die as we have lived: for the Lord’s sake, to bring God glory, knowing that in our dying, too, we belong to the Lord.
We are like a dream, but we belong to the Lord, to the Lord who brings dreams to life!
We are like a daylily, but we belong to the Lord, to the Lord who is light, the Lord who will make the day come when there will no more night, because the Lord will be our light!