Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 55

“What Really Matters?”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

This past Monday I went with Emma Baker to the funeral for Matthew Moats, the 24 year old fiancé of Brook Adams, who was killed in an auto accident on 81. As Emma and I sat in silence in the sanctuary up at the Spring Run Bible Church, watching people come in and take their seats, it was a time for reflection. I thought about the two seniors from Big Spring High School, Melissa and Heston, who died just a few weeks ago in a car crash. I thought about another young woman Miranda Bert, a 19 year old who was intern at Ingersoll-Rand with Leslie Baker. She also died in an auto accident in this last month. I thought about the different losses I have heard about from so many of you, whether it was a loss from many years ago, or more recently- the loss of sons and daughters- sisters and brothers- mothers and fathers- best friends- husbands and wives. I thought about all of these things in a rush of names and faces in my mind in those moments last Monday. And I thought how temporary life here on earth really is. It’s so temporary this time we have here- whether it is 5 years, 10 years, 25, 40, 60, or 100 years- it is so, so temporary. Your life and mine is as temporary, as quickly here and quickly gone as the blink of an eye. Here. Gone. Temporary.

So why do we put so much time, effort, and money into what is merely temporary? I’ve heard it said, as I’m sure you have, that at the end of our lives if the question were asked, “What do you regret most,” we would never say, “Oh, I wish I would have spent more time at work.” “I wish I would have mowed my lawn 3 times a week instead of 2.” “I wish I would have added that sun room onto my house.” “I wish I would have that red Firebird convertible I always wanted.” The most important things in life are NOT things. At the end of our lives here, what we will most likely regret has to do with our relationship with God and our relationship with God and our relationships with the people God has placed in our lives. But why wait to ponder these things when they can only be regrets? Why not ponder them now when we can actually do something to keep those regrets from becoming ours.

What do you really count as most important in your life? If someone would look at our bank accounts, if they would look at how we use our time- what would they see? How we spend our money and how we spend our time really shows what we count as important in life. So, what do you think your money and your time tell about you?

Jesus told us to first love God, then love others. You want to live your life without regrets? Then first and foremost, be intentional about growing your relationship with God. In Isaiah 55, the Lord makes his invitation to us: “Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”

The Lord calls us to come to him. It is an invitation for a relationship- because God is all about relationships. He came himself, in the form of Jesus, to show us how very much he wants to be in a relationship with each of us. The Lord says, “Come.” “You don’t have to bring anything- and it doesn’t cost you any money.” “Come.” “Our relationship will bring deep satisfaction to the empty places of your soul.” Because, you see, we were made for relationships.

In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them.” Here we learn, on 27 verses into the Holy Word of God, that we were created as relational creatures. God made us to be in relationships with him and with others- relationships that are honest, full, generous, and satisfying. God made us to want those kind of relationships- the same kind of relationship that God enjoys in himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Haven’t you noticed in your life that it is when your primary relationship with God and with others are at their healthiest that you feel the most joyful? Haven’t you noticed how empty you feel when the connection with God and with others is not firmly tied?

Folks, our lives here are so very temporary. Why do we spend our time on those things that do not satisfy the deepest hungers in our soul? And why do we just keep moving further and further away when we know we’re failing instead of running full speed back to where we long to be?

I think it is wonderful to recognize that the two Sacraments we celebrate in the Presbyterian Church show us the importance that God places on our relationship with him and with others. Neither Communion nor Baptism is meant to be celebrated privately except in the case of extreme emergency. Sharing the Lord’s Supper together and sharing in the celebration of baptism connects us in spiritually mysterious ways to God, yes, but they also connect us to each other in practical ways. The Lord commanded us to gather together around the Table and gather together around the newly baptized to remember our common grace given by God through Jesus. It doesn’t cost a thing in material terms, yet the riches we receive in joy and in peace cannot be measured.

Dr. Gary Smalley says this in his book, The DNA of Relationships: “Life is relationships; the rest is just details. This is the greatest truth. Everything in life that truly matters can be boiled down to relationships.” I think God would agree.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me, hear me; hear me that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you (meaning the nation of Israel) will summon nations you know not, and nations that you do not know who will hasten to you (they will see your satisfaction and love through your relationship with God and God’s people, and they will be drawn to you because of it), because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (What are we talking about here? Our relationship with the Lord!) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” As the heavens are higher that the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (In other words, we can put our FULL trust in what God reveals to us in His word. We don’t have to know or understand all things intellectually; we have to choose, by faith, to draw near to us through Jesus Christ.)(And then, if we will do these things, spending our time on developing the most important relationships in our lives, when we are near the end of our lives, ready to make the journey into the full presence of the Lord), “You will go out with JOY and be led forth in PEACE; (Joy and peace! Isn’t it true that what steals away our joy and our peace is when we are out of communion with God and others?) “You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briars, the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown (for the glory of the Lord), for an everlasting sign which will not be destroyed.”

What is eternal and not temporary? What will never be destroyed: The Lord’s desire to be in a relationship with us, who calls us through the Sacraments of communion and baptism to nurture our relationship with him and with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. See, even in the phrase, “brothers and sisters in Christ,” God shows us how much he wants us to be in honest, full, generous, and satisfying relationships with each other. In 1. Cor., the apostle Paul uses the phrase, “brothers and sisters” 22 times (by my count) in only 15 chapters to emphasize to the Corinthian church (who were not getting along) their irrevocable relationship as chosen children of God.

Later today, John, Douglas, Molly, and I will be flying to Miami to catch a ship leaving tomorrow afternoon. We will spend 5 uninterrupted days together. No cell phones, no computers- just the 4 of us to talk and laugh and play together. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to this time. Because as I sat there at the funeral for Matthew Moats, I realized anew how temporary is this life on earth we have been given. As I watched my son graduate from high school on Tuesday night, I realized anew how temporary is this life on earth. I repeated that phrase over and over, “It went so fast.” And it does, this blink-of-an-eye earthly life, it goes so fast. “Please Lord, help me not be so busy making a living I forget to make a life.” “Lord, help me not care more about a TV program than I do about talking to the people in my home, or taking a phone call, or reading my Bible.” “Lord, help me teach my children that Sunday mornings are all about You, and that nothing stands in the way of coming to worship You and building strong relationships with other Christians.”

When your day comes to meet your Maker, I want you to “go out with joy,” as Isaiah prophesied- knowing that you have sought the Lord first and foremost, that you have spent your money on the things that really matter, knowing that your love relationship with God has been passed on the those you love because you were willing to be a witness for God by investing yourself in the people God has placed in your sphere of influence. “And this will be for the Lord’s glory, for an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.” And there’s nothing temporary about that! Amen.

6-12-2005