“Costly, But Freely Given”   (Return to Sermon Page)

  August 31, 2008

Matthew 16: 24-26                                  

Isaiah 55: 1-3

          This being Labor Day weekend, I always want to reflect on the spiritual meaning of work.  Often I have asked you to bring a symbol of your work to place on the altar, to symbolically offer the work of our hands, hearts and minds to God.

In a little while I will ask you to write on the paper in your bulletin a sentence about your work; we will collect those responses in baskets and put them on the altar representing your offering of work to God.  Some of you are unemployed, some of you are retired; this is not a matter of income, it is a matter of what you do that you decide is the labor you offer to God.  After all, some of you have income from one form of employment that supports your real work.

All of us have some effort to offer for Christ’s sake.

Around here it’s harvest time.  The abundance of the crops, the overflowing richness of vegetables and fruit, of rice and alfalfa and nuts is all around us. 

It’s all a luscious and delicious gift of the land and of God.

          But most of all it’s a tremendous gift of labor from those in the fields.

You drive by and see them working so hard in the hot sun and wonder:

‘How do they do it?’  I couldn’t. 

We are blessed by those whom we often treat as the least in our society. 

          I had the opportunity to ride around the fields with Tom Muller this spring as the workers were planting in his family fields. 

As he talked about what he does, his passion for farming was very clear.  What was even more clear were the values that guide Tom as he works. 

He spoke of attention to ecology, water usage, land use.

He spoke of efficiency and time saving methods,

but he also spoke of people saving methods. 

Safe working conditions, care for the worker, encouragement to grow personally,

even beyond working for him, and the importance of education,

are the outgrowth of innovation and compassion in his thinking and planning.

It is not surprising that it bears fruit in his relationships with the workers. 

They do some of the most menial and difficult work anybody does. 

Tom values them and treats them with deep respect. 

Jesus talks about ‘if you would be my follower, then you must leave self behind’.  What does it profit a farmer to abuse the workers, bring in an enormous haul,

only to have nobody willing to work for him another year?

What good will it do to wear out the soil, gaining profit for today,

if it dries up and blows away tomorrow? 

What will we gain if we do not put as much attention as people like Tom does

into the ways we live, the products we use, the way we work? 

The convenience of the moment is costing us our earth.

I for one, have much to learn, and too many unthinking habits to reform.

          It had never occurred to me before that ride how much ethics, education, foresight, attention to detail and grace went into modern farming. 

Because in the end, it’s one big spiritual lesson:  you work hard,

ethically, compassionately, doing the best you can--- then you wait. 

All your hard work can come to nothing. 

It is an amazing risk: to put everything on the line and then wait to see what happens with the weather, the water, the seed, all of the incalculable variables.

          Isn’t this what God asks of us: to work ethically

caring for our workers or our neighbors, those we see and those we don’t?

          Isn’t this what God asks of us: to work with the big picture in mind: 

to be mindful of the impact of our choices on water and land, on people.

          Isn’t this what God asks of us: to do our best,     offer it up        and wait?

It’s costly.  There is no cheap way to respect human persons and creation.

It requires that we follow Christ’s ways—yes, even at work, even in situations where we never think that Christ has anything to say about it.

          It’s sacrificial in a sense.  Tom would tell you it’s good business.

Christ would say: this is what I mean by take up your cross and follow me. 

Set aside personal gain to do the right thing,

take time to look ahead at the impact of present practices,

live, as I would have you live.            Follow me. 

What are you working for?  What drives you?

Who are you working for?   Where does your strength, motivation, energy come?

So many of us have set our hearts on things that will not sustain us.

So many of us have put our hope in gaining that which does not feed us.

If there is any positive in the mortgage crisis it is this: do not covet any thing.

If you lose it, then what do you have?  Have you also lost your soul?

I do not mean to belittle the terrible impact of having a home foreclosed on, but I am saying where your treasure is, there is your heart. 

Let nothing be more important to you than the grace of God.

For in the end everything else will let you down. 

Only God’s grace nourishes; only God’s grace holds you up. 

We all need to be able to sustain ourselves; we all need meaningful work. 

Without it we have no purpose; without it we have no means of caring for ourselves

     But neither work, nor money, not the things that money can buy will substitute

for the one who says:

Come to me and I will give you drink.

Come to the bread of life; come to the living waters.

Come, the price has already been paid,

this love won’t cost you anything.