Seize the day. You’ve heard it before, I’m sure. Even before, or since, Robin Williams and that movie. I forget the name of it. Dead Poets Society. That was it. Over 20 years ago, so there are those out there who weren’t even alive when that was released. But it doesn’t matter! Because this isn’t about that movie, it’s about those words - which the movie used - that captured popular culture’s attention for a moment or two. Before the ADD kicked in and we were off to the next thing.
Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! Go for it! Just do it! Here we go! Grab for the gusto... OK, we may be commercial jingling our way off the subject just a little bit. And just what is the subject? Well, Romans chapter twelve is the subject. But that’s not exactly true. It is the context. The subject is a possible typo at the end of this reading.
Take a look:
Romans 12:1-11 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. 9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
OK, first thing to mention is that I’ve messed up the theme breaks. If you follow the lectionary closely, you’ll find Romans 12:1-8 and Romans 12:9-21. The first part, we’re told, is Paul talking about gifts. That is one of his favorite subjects. He has a variety of lists of gifts of the Spirit sprinkled throughout the epistles. And here’s another one! Actually the gift part is verses 6-8. Prior to that it is a more general appeal, an exhortation. Paul is calling us into right relationship with God (verses 1-2) and into community (verses 3-5). Then he encourages us all by reminding us that we all have something to contribute. We each are a piece in the puzzle that is the kingdom of God at work in the church. We all have a part to play in the drama of the life of faith.
And then, here’s where it gets good in my estimation (not that the rest of it isn’t good. I mean “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” It doesn’t get much better than that. Look at “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Wow, Paul is on a roll in this passage. Some of his best stuff. Seriously.) But from verse nine it is like he shifts into another gear. Invitation after invitation, encouragement after encouragement, call after call, Paul is trying to rev up our engines. Trying to build the excitement. Trying to get us to claim the joy of living as followers of Jesus Christ.
There is more after we stopped reading. And I encourage you to go grab a New Testament and finish chapter twelve. But I stopped at verse eleven for a very specific reason. It had zeal in it.
This week in our Shaped for Service series we are looking at passion. Passion for service. Passion in service. Passion as motivation for service. Passion as the determiner for what kind of service we launch. Passion. “Do not lag in zeal. Be ardent in spirit. Serve the Lord.”
Maybe it should be “Serve the Lord!” Or “serve the LORD!” Yee-ha! OK, maybe Yee-ha is a bit much to expect when it comes to service. But, you’ve got to catch the flavor of verse eleven somehow. You’ve got to grasp the passion that Paul presents (cool alliteration, did you notice?) And you’ve got to hear the story of the typo.
Actually, it isn’t a typo per se. It is more an argument - or an academic conversation, if you will - about the reading of the word at the end of verse eleven. If you check other translations, you will sometimes find the verse ending like this: “serve the time.” No, not in the sense of doing time. One reading of this word is that it is “kurios” - which translates as Lord. Serve the Lord. The other reading says the word is “kairos” - serve the time. Or as one commentator renders it - seize your opportunities. Make the most of the moment. Just do it.
“Kairos” is distinguished from “chronos” in that the latter is clock time and the former is “the right time.” When you ask what time it is, you are asking about “chronos.” But when you are asking if the time is right to make your move, to step out in faith, to take a risk, then you are asking about “kairos.”
Seize your opportunities sounds a lot different from serve the Lord, doesn’t it? Well, yes. At least until you realize that another understanding of “kairos” in the early church was as the Lord’s time. When will the Kingdom be established? In “kairos.” When will Christ be honored by all, when will every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? In “kairos.” The right time. In God’s time.
In a sense, though there is some disagreement as to which word went in verse eleven, to the first followers it didn’t matter which word you used there. The end result would be the same. Seize the day often sounds self serving. Do what you want to do. Don’t wait. Live to the full. It could be, and often is about self-actualization. But to the Christian, the challenge to seize the day would be to live more fully for Christ. Do what is within you, do what you love, not just for your own enjoyment, but for the building up of the community of faith, for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Fred Beuchner said that “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Go with your passions. Go with what gives you joy. But don’t go selfishly, go ready to share, ready to include, ready to transform those around you.
When we serve with passion we discover that the day we seize is not just our own. It is woven into the tapestry of living called the Kingdom of God.
So, Carpe Diem. Go seize that day, as you serve the Lord.
Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! Go for it! Just do it! Here we go! Grab for the gusto... OK, we may be commercial jingling our way off the subject just a little bit. And just what is the subject? Well, Romans chapter twelve is the subject. But that’s not exactly true. It is the context. The subject is a possible typo at the end of this reading.
Take a look:
Romans 12:1-11 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. 9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
OK, first thing to mention is that I’ve messed up the theme breaks. If you follow the lectionary closely, you’ll find Romans 12:1-8 and Romans 12:9-21. The first part, we’re told, is Paul talking about gifts. That is one of his favorite subjects. He has a variety of lists of gifts of the Spirit sprinkled throughout the epistles. And here’s another one! Actually the gift part is verses 6-8. Prior to that it is a more general appeal, an exhortation. Paul is calling us into right relationship with God (verses 1-2) and into community (verses 3-5). Then he encourages us all by reminding us that we all have something to contribute. We each are a piece in the puzzle that is the kingdom of God at work in the church. We all have a part to play in the drama of the life of faith.
And then, here’s where it gets good in my estimation (not that the rest of it isn’t good. I mean “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” It doesn’t get much better than that. Look at “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Wow, Paul is on a roll in this passage. Some of his best stuff. Seriously.) But from verse nine it is like he shifts into another gear. Invitation after invitation, encouragement after encouragement, call after call, Paul is trying to rev up our engines. Trying to build the excitement. Trying to get us to claim the joy of living as followers of Jesus Christ.
There is more after we stopped reading. And I encourage you to go grab a New Testament and finish chapter twelve. But I stopped at verse eleven for a very specific reason. It had zeal in it.
This week in our Shaped for Service series we are looking at passion. Passion for service. Passion in service. Passion as motivation for service. Passion as the determiner for what kind of service we launch. Passion. “Do not lag in zeal. Be ardent in spirit. Serve the Lord.”
Maybe it should be “Serve the Lord!” Or “serve the LORD!” Yee-ha! OK, maybe Yee-ha is a bit much to expect when it comes to service. But, you’ve got to catch the flavor of verse eleven somehow. You’ve got to grasp the passion that Paul presents (cool alliteration, did you notice?) And you’ve got to hear the story of the typo.
Actually, it isn’t a typo per se. It is more an argument - or an academic conversation, if you will - about the reading of the word at the end of verse eleven. If you check other translations, you will sometimes find the verse ending like this: “serve the time.” No, not in the sense of doing time. One reading of this word is that it is “kurios” - which translates as Lord. Serve the Lord. The other reading says the word is “kairos” - serve the time. Or as one commentator renders it - seize your opportunities. Make the most of the moment. Just do it.
“Kairos” is distinguished from “chronos” in that the latter is clock time and the former is “the right time.” When you ask what time it is, you are asking about “chronos.” But when you are asking if the time is right to make your move, to step out in faith, to take a risk, then you are asking about “kairos.”
Seize your opportunities sounds a lot different from serve the Lord, doesn’t it? Well, yes. At least until you realize that another understanding of “kairos” in the early church was as the Lord’s time. When will the Kingdom be established? In “kairos.” When will Christ be honored by all, when will every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? In “kairos.” The right time. In God’s time.
In a sense, though there is some disagreement as to which word went in verse eleven, to the first followers it didn’t matter which word you used there. The end result would be the same. Seize the day often sounds self serving. Do what you want to do. Don’t wait. Live to the full. It could be, and often is about self-actualization. But to the Christian, the challenge to seize the day would be to live more fully for Christ. Do what is within you, do what you love, not just for your own enjoyment, but for the building up of the community of faith, for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Fred Beuchner said that “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Go with your passions. Go with what gives you joy. But don’t go selfishly, go ready to share, ready to include, ready to transform those around you.
When we serve with passion we discover that the day we seize is not just our own. It is woven into the tapestry of living called the Kingdom of God.
So, Carpe Diem. Go seize that day, as you serve the Lord.
Shalom,
Derek
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