"YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR"
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13)
August 6, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Isaiah 55:2 (ESV)
Many years ago I knew a certified pastoral counselor who also served as a parish pastor. He was so well-respected in his field that many people from outside of his own congregation began to seek his advice on a regular basis. This went on for a number of years until finally the counselor announced that from now on he would charge a fee for every consultation. He strongly maintained that it wasn't a matter of his needing or even wanting the extra money, since he was paid adequately by his congregation. In fact, all of the extra money that he collected in this fashion was promptly donated to a number of his favorite charities. I suspected that perhaps he had taken this step because his schedule was becoming overburdened with counselees from outside of his congregation, but he insisted that this wasn't the reason either. When I bluntly asked him why he was now charging when he never had before, he told me that this was the only way that he could get his clients to take his counsel seriously, since people seldom place any value on anything that they don't have to pay for.
How true that is--and how sad. What is worth more to the average person: the free grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ or the host of "things" that the person in question has to pay for? What is the average person more likely to avoid: a worship service or a performance that has an admission fee exceeding a hundred dollars per person? You get what you pay for--that's what they say. But in a sense you pay for spiritual things too. You pay with your attention and with your time. The redeeming grace of Jesus Christ is offered to every sinner absolutely free of charge, but most people (including many who call themselves Christians) are so wrapped up in other, less important things that they don't even notice that it's there. They aren't able to tear themselves away from whatever it is that has captivated them and is controlling them at the moment long enough to really listen to the Good News that God has come to them in the Person of His Son and has provided for their every need and desire. Let's listen to the Lord's prophet Isaiah this morning as he urges us to invest our time, our attention, and our energy not in the things of this world but in of the things of God.
No matter how things may appear, the things of this world do not really benefit us; they in fact endanger us. I'm not talking here simply about the known physical dangers of unhealthy lifestyles; I'm talking about far more serious dangers than that. Pursuing the joys of this world has a way of pre-empting the pursuit of true spiritual joy. People can become so infatuated with worldly things that they don't even notice the things of God, let alone pursue them. That's sad--more sad than you can imagine, because the world's joys are only momentary and they ultimately end in death. They have nothing to offer that lasts forever. Have you ever wondered why, after the fall, God prevented our first parents from eating of the tree of life in the garden of Eden and living forever? I think it was to spare us from becoming the victims of our own choice once again and being doomed to live forever in our fallen and sinful state. I don't have any kind of death wish, I can assure you, but neither do I want to live forever in this sinful and broken world.
Not only do the things of this world fail to benefit us; they really don't satisfy us either. We may think that they do at times, but they really don't. If they did, we wouldn't have to continually pursue them so relentlessly. Just take a look around at the world that you live in. What do you see? Have you ever known of anyone who pursued wealth and actually got to a point where he said: "That's enough. I'm satisfied with what I have. I'll stop pursuing it now." I have shared with a number of you the story of an incident in the life of the famous millionaire John D. Rockefeller that reveals a lot about the relationship between material wealth and human satisfaction. It is said that Mr. Rockefeller was once asked: "How much wealth does it take to make a man happy?" He answered: "Just a little bit more." That's the way it is with the things of this world. They are never quite enough to satisfy.
But what a difference there is between the things of this world and the things of God! The things of God are everything that the things of this world are not. While the things of this world do us harm, the things of God meet our every need. And what are these things of God? They are the Gospel of Christ, given to us in His means of grace: the Word and the Sacraments. Through them the Holy Spirit speaks to us and strengthens us. Through them we are provided with divine instruction and the means to follow it. Through them we are granted spiritual growth and are equipped to be living witnesses of the love for lost sinners that God has revealed in His Son Jesus Christ. So all-sufficient are the things of God that when Martha of Bethany criticized her sister Mary for abandoning worldly necessities in favor of spiritual ones, Jesus responded: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41, 42).
Not only do the things of God provide for us what we need; they also bless us with genuine happiness and satisfaction. The assurance that our text gives us goes beyond the necessities of life. The end result of seeking the things of God is described here as being luxurious--even extravagant: "[You will] delight yourselves in rich food," we are told. There is a remarkable freedom and joy that come to the person who gives up pursuing the things of this world. And my choice of words here is deliberate, because that's the only way that we turn from the things of this world to the things of God: We give up. It's not any conscious (let alone noble) decision on our part; it's just that our efforts to survive and be happy on our own get us nowhere. We become Christians not because we choose to; we become Christians because we've exhausted all of the other options. What can that possibly be but the working of God the Holy Spirit?
There's no question that we're going to invest our time and attention in something; the only question is what we're going to invest it all in. Speaking through His prophet Isaiah, the Lord places before us this morning a couple of options: we can pursue the things of this world or we can pursue the things of God. He tells us beforehand the consequences and end result of each pursuit. The problem is that, left to our own devices, we sinners will always make the wrong choice. But the Lord has blessed us with His Holy Spirit, who calls people to faith and enables them to grow in it. May God grant that every time that we experience the emptiness and frustration of pursuing the things of this world, that same Spirit may remind us of the complete sufficiency and joy that is ours through our Savior Jesus Christ, thereby giving us every reason to rejoice and be satisfied.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.