What Are You Working So Hard For? - Isaiah 55:1-5 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
I’m going to start with some of our questions tonight, rather than end with them.
1) What is something that you worked hard for, scrimping and saving, just in order to be able to purchase?
a. How many of you can say that the sacrifice was worth it?
b. How many of you can say that the disappointment of the reality set in the moment that the deal was finalized…or at least shortly thereafter?
2) How many of you have ever anticipated or been excited about going to a new or fancy, high-end restaurant (or maybe not even so fancy or high-end, or not even new, but one that everyone has talked about)?
a. How many regretted going afterwards…because of the food or service, and how much you spent on that poor food or service? How many of you left completely unsatisfied?
God, through the prophet Isaiah asks similar questions this way, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
So Anita and I have a couple that we have developed a good friendship with over the years, due to our children/grandchildren. Our friendship began at a restaurant where we have never been disappointed in the food or service, Chick-fil-a. It began because Joshua and their daughter, Addison, when to a summer camp program together with the City of Burlington’s parks and rec. They saw each other and hugged and played on the playground together, and we parents began to spend time talking to one another for we were at Chick-fil-a for family night the same night every month. As we got to know each other, Joel and Jessica began to share their excitement about a dream home they were having built. It was taking a little longer than they anticipated, but they were still excited. They worked hard preparing, they been saving all they could, I think Jessica is the queen of couponing. One night we sat at Chick-fil-a for a long time looking at paint swatches with them. Last summer, nine months after their expected move in date, they were finally able to move into their home. They were excited…and then reality set in. The contractor had not only been slow, their dream home was not really their dream home. There were electrical issues…plumbing issues…sheetrock issues…yard/landscaping issues…complete disregard for design issues…and as of my getting permission from them to share their story today…there are mold issues, with mold being found in every vent and now on the backs of all their furniture. The fruit of all their labor and savings leaving them, not with joy, but with sorrow and frustration.
For me, it was an SUV. Anita and I had talked about getting an SUV and my Sonata had been paid off and handed over to Davey for driving. I spent hours reading evaluations online and reading through Consumer Reports evaluations. Anita and I drove through car lots and I looked at the cars several of our church members had, and decided on a Toyota RAV4. I found a used on at a nearby dealer, and while talking to them found out they knew my parents through serving together on a spiritual retreat weekend. I signed the papers excitedly, got the credit union to approve the loan, drove the Toyota off the lot, and a week later it cut off at a stop light. I got it recranked…the next day it wouldn’t crank. Then it would crank. I took it back to the dealer, and despite it being sold “as-is” they repaired what turned out to be faulty sensors. Fast forward a year…the check engine light is on as I go for inspection. The morning I take it in, it doesn’t come on before I get to the inspection station. It passes…three months later the check engine comes on again…inspection time comes up again…the light stays on…supposedly bad sensors again…$2000 later and the check engine light is still on…grace period after failing inspection on the last possible day comes…and the RAV4 is driven to the local Dodge dealership and the silver Chrysler that y’all see my son driving when he visits drove off the lot. Excitement had turned into major disappointment. (As to why he is driving that Chrysler and I am driving a different one is a completely different car nightmare story.)
Money and labor, tears and frustration…all after things that do not truly satisfy!
Jesus doesn’t ask a question like Isaiah…He just puts it point blank: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal…”
Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with a new home or car or computer or phone, or thing along those lines. The problem becomes when they become the focus of all our labors, all our resources, all our hopes, and all our dreams. The problem becomes when obtaining them or maintaining them takes all our waking thoughts and all the financial resources we have. The problem comes when we look to them to provide true joy, or peace, or contentment, or pleasure. For at some point, either immediately or later, they will falter, and with them will go our joy, peace, contentment, and pleasure.
What might we labor for, what might we sink our lives and resources into? Where we will we find perfect peace and contentment, joy and pleasure? Where will we find, as Isaiah describes it, a place, as God offers the invitation. “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come by wine and milk without money and without price.” It is in responding to Christ’s invitation, “…store up for yourselves treasurers in heaven, where neither month nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” We will find satisfaction as we join our efforts to join God’s work of establishing His Kingdom here. It is remembering that God is not establishing His Kingdom on some far off cloud somewhere, but that God is building His Kingdom, right here amongst us. He began laying the foundation through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He continues to build it through us, laying us brick upon brick on top of that Cornerstone. For every account of God’s Kingdom is not about some far off place, but about It being made real, right here, right now, until that day when heaven descends and God makes His presence fully right here with us, among us, as it was at the beginning. God’s Kingdom building takes place here and now. It is God making real His very efforts to touch the lives of those who are hurting and hungering, physically, emotionally, spiritually. He invites us to pour our labor, our efforts, our resources into that which lasts…that which calls all nations to us, not that we might be praised for our efforts, but so that all might come to know the God we serve, and that they might join us in Kingdom building…and as we do, we will find complete joy, complete contentment, complete satisfaction, complete peace…that can never be taken from us.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1) What is something that you worked hard for, scrimping and saving, just in order to be able to purchase?
a. How many of you can say that the sacrifice was worth it?
b. How many of you can say that the disappointment of the reality set in the moment that the deal was finalized…or at least shortly thereafter?
2) How many of you have ever anticipated or been excited about going to a new or fancy, high-end restaurant (or maybe not even so fancy or high-end, or not even new, but one that everyone has talked about)?
a. How many regretted going afterwards…because of the food or service, and how much you spent on that poor food or service? How many of you left completely unsatisfied?
God, through the prophet Isaiah asks similar questions this way, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
So Anita and I have a couple that we have developed a good friendship with over the years, due to our children/grandchildren. Our friendship began at a restaurant where we have never been disappointed in the food or service, Chick-fil-a. It began because Joshua and their daughter, Addison, when to a summer camp program together with the City of Burlington’s parks and rec. They saw each other and hugged and played on the playground together, and we parents began to spend time talking to one another for we were at Chick-fil-a for family night the same night every month. As we got to know each other, Joel and Jessica began to share their excitement about a dream home they were having built. It was taking a little longer than they anticipated, but they were still excited. They worked hard preparing, they been saving all they could, I think Jessica is the queen of couponing. One night we sat at Chick-fil-a for a long time looking at paint swatches with them. Last summer, nine months after their expected move in date, they were finally able to move into their home. They were excited…and then reality set in. The contractor had not only been slow, their dream home was not really their dream home. There were electrical issues…plumbing issues…sheetrock issues…yard/landscaping issues…complete disregard for design issues…and as of my getting permission from them to share their story today…there are mold issues, with mold being found in every vent and now on the backs of all their furniture. The fruit of all their labor and savings leaving them, not with joy, but with sorrow and frustration.
For me, it was an SUV. Anita and I had talked about getting an SUV and my Sonata had been paid off and handed over to Davey for driving. I spent hours reading evaluations online and reading through Consumer Reports evaluations. Anita and I drove through car lots and I looked at the cars several of our church members had, and decided on a Toyota RAV4. I found a used on at a nearby dealer, and while talking to them found out they knew my parents through serving together on a spiritual retreat weekend. I signed the papers excitedly, got the credit union to approve the loan, drove the Toyota off the lot, and a week later it cut off at a stop light. I got it recranked…the next day it wouldn’t crank. Then it would crank. I took it back to the dealer, and despite it being sold “as-is” they repaired what turned out to be faulty sensors. Fast forward a year…the check engine light is on as I go for inspection. The morning I take it in, it doesn’t come on before I get to the inspection station. It passes…three months later the check engine comes on again…inspection time comes up again…the light stays on…supposedly bad sensors again…$2000 later and the check engine light is still on…grace period after failing inspection on the last possible day comes…and the RAV4 is driven to the local Dodge dealership and the silver Chrysler that y’all see my son driving when he visits drove off the lot. Excitement had turned into major disappointment. (As to why he is driving that Chrysler and I am driving a different one is a completely different car nightmare story.)
Money and labor, tears and frustration…all after things that do not truly satisfy!
Jesus doesn’t ask a question like Isaiah…He just puts it point blank: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal…”
Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with a new home or car or computer or phone, or thing along those lines. The problem becomes when they become the focus of all our labors, all our resources, all our hopes, and all our dreams. The problem becomes when obtaining them or maintaining them takes all our waking thoughts and all the financial resources we have. The problem comes when we look to them to provide true joy, or peace, or contentment, or pleasure. For at some point, either immediately or later, they will falter, and with them will go our joy, peace, contentment, and pleasure.
What might we labor for, what might we sink our lives and resources into? Where we will we find perfect peace and contentment, joy and pleasure? Where will we find, as Isaiah describes it, a place, as God offers the invitation. “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come by wine and milk without money and without price.” It is in responding to Christ’s invitation, “…store up for yourselves treasurers in heaven, where neither month nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” We will find satisfaction as we join our efforts to join God’s work of establishing His Kingdom here. It is remembering that God is not establishing His Kingdom on some far off cloud somewhere, but that God is building His Kingdom, right here amongst us. He began laying the foundation through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He continues to build it through us, laying us brick upon brick on top of that Cornerstone. For every account of God’s Kingdom is not about some far off place, but about It being made real, right here, right now, until that day when heaven descends and God makes His presence fully right here with us, among us, as it was at the beginning. God’s Kingdom building takes place here and now. It is God making real His very efforts to touch the lives of those who are hurting and hungering, physically, emotionally, spiritually. He invites us to pour our labor, our efforts, our resources into that which lasts…that which calls all nations to us, not that we might be praised for our efforts, but so that all might come to know the God we serve, and that they might join us in Kingdom building…and as we do, we will find complete joy, complete contentment, complete satisfaction, complete peace…that can never be taken from us.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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