Almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose.
We live in a monumental city. Capitol Hill, the monuments, the Federal Triangle, the White House -- it’s all been there for a long time and it all looks very permanent. We count on having Washington just about the way we’ve always had it.
The only trouble is that I’ve lived here almost twenty years, and I get more lost today that I did twenty years ago! Everything has been moved, or really removed. Maybe not the monumental things I just listed, but a lot of other landmarks are just gone. Most of downtown is either new office buildings, new hotels, a convention center, or a hole in the ground. And if I get off 16th street and venture either into downtown or into West End, I don’t recognize anything any more. What we had and thought was permanent, we lost.
Almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose.
And if you think that maybe this city is different; if you think it is just our throwaway society; if you suppose that it is just that we Americans have no consciousness of history, then I invite you to travel with me in your mind’s eye to the great capitals of the ancient world. And you will see much the same thing.
Stand with me in Jerusalem at the site held sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims; stand at the site of the Temple. And all you will see is one wall, the western wall, still standing. The rest is gone. A building built to honor God and be the center of life for God’s people -- and it is gone.
Climb with me the acropolis in Athens, where stood temples and altars and monuments and palaces. Built of the finest marble, adorned by the most practiced artists, the best that Greece could construct -- and today it is a jumble of pediment and pedestals, broken columns and weather-beaten steps. The glory that was Greece is mostly a boneyard of marble fragments now.
So also the grandeur that was Rome, and the majesty that was Carthage, and the splendor that was Thebes in Egypt. All dust, all gone.
Almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose.
And that means we have to make some choices. That means we have to make some decisions about what we will do with our resources and our energies. Most of all, that means we are going to have to choose what we will give our loyalties to. If something is only temporary, I can choose to spend some time and money and energy on it, and that’s all right, as long as I understand that it is temporary. But if I can find something that is not temporary, if I can find something that will last, if I can find something that will be eternal, doesn’t it make sense to choose that?
The people of God were out in the wilderness of Moab, gathered around Moses, remembering what they had passed through and anticipating what lay ahead.
Behind them desert and wanderings and a generation of hardship; behind them the memory of slavery and of bitter wrangles; but behind them also the evidence of God’s loving care -- food and drink, guidance and support, a sense of His presence. Behind them was something that they had had -- and wanted to keep. They had heard that what lay ahead was the land of promise; they had heard that there might be good pastures and fertile fields there, but they did not really know that. And what they had had, they would just as soon keep.
But remember: almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose.
And so Moses speaks to God’s people about having, losing , and choosing.
I
He first points out that whatever we have is a gift from God, and that it last just as long as it needs to, but no more! This is a fascinating truth. What God gives, He gives us to use as long as we need it. And for that period of time we have it. But the time will come when we do not need it, and we will then either choose or lose.
Moses points out to the people that something very strange happened while they were traveling in that harsh desert, "I have led you forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out." Hey! Wouldn’t you like to get a suit that would last you for forty years? Bet you can’t get that from your J. C. Penney catalog!
And what cobbler can provide me with shoes that I can clog through the desert in for a generation? Take that, L. L. Bean! Moses’ point is that God gives His people precisely what they need, and these things last as long as we need them, but the day comes when things change. And needs change. And keeping what we have then just gets to be an exercise in futility and in nostalgia and maybe even idolatry.
The other night one of those veterans’ organizations that picks up used clothing and other such items called. We set out to clean a closet or two. What a lot of junk! What an unbelievable clutter! Why in the world did we ever have a goldfish bowl, complete with pump and gravel and a couple of little fishy houses?
Well, we had that goldfish bowl because we wanted to teach our children about taking care of something that was helpless and depended on them for tender loving care. And despite several fish funerals held over the toilet, we accomplished that purpose. And so the time came to let go of that fishbowl.
I believe that what God gives us, whether it be money or time or energy or talents or buildings or programs or whatever it be -- that whatever God gives us, He gives because we need it for that time. But we need to recognize that it has no meaning beyond that. And what we once thought we needed we will need no more.
Besides, almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose. And that means we have to make some choices.
II
You see, my mistake was, I kept the fishbowl, hung on to it, pretending I was going to need it. But its purpose had been fulfilled. No point in hanging on to it any longer, just to have it.
And so Moses also reminds the people that you have these things because God gave them, but one sure way to lose them is to get protective and emotional about them. One sure way to lose what you have is to make it the object of your desire and your emotional energy. In Biblical terms, one sure way to lose whatever you have is to make it an idol.
Listen to Moses’ warning: “It may be that there is among you a man or a woman whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. All who think in their hearts, ’We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways’... the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them, and you will see the devastation of that land, nothing planted, nothing sprouting … all because they abandoned the covenant of the lord and served other gods.”
Now, do you really hear that? The surest and quickest way to lose all the good things with which we have surrounded ourselves, houses and lands and bank accounts and cars and clothes, all of it given to us by a generous God, is to make these things the object of our affections. Make having things all important in your life, and when they disappear, you will be devastated. But understand things as a gift from God for the time that they are really needed, and when they go, you will not be destroyed.
In July my wife and I listened to the ticking of the clock -- I think it was her birthday that did it; she’s getting older, you understand. And we decided to scrape together some money and put it into a mutual fund that was supposed to grow at a good rate and provide us with something for our retirement years.
So we put $2000 into a mutual fund, based on a stock portfolio, toward the end of July, and sat back to watch the monthly statements come in. August 1, the money hadn’t been there long, so there wasn’t much, but it was something. Our $2000 had become $2004. A happy trend.
But within a week Saddam Hussein had taken Kuwait; oil had begun to shoot up; and the stock market went slightly crazy. My September 1 statement said that my $2000 had grown all the way up to $1869. And my October 1 statement said my $2000 was now worth a grand $1815.
I haven’t had the courage yet to open the November 1 statement. Let’s just say that if this doesn’t turn around in the next twelve or fifteen years, you all may end up with a recycled preacher on your hands!
But the truth is, I am learning that I dare not get emotionally bound up with that money, because I am going to lose it anyway some day. And if I get caught up with it; if I make having it and keeping it my aim -- then I will be guilty of idolatry and the Lord will snatch it from my grasp. Jesus said, "Whoever will save his life will lose it."
Again, almost nothing that you and I count on to be permanent really is permanent. Almost everything that we think will last forever, it turns out, can be destroyed. Anything we have we can also very easily lose. And that means we have to make some choices.
III
How wonderful, then, that after Moses had given the people all these warnings, after Moses had reminded them that what they had they had as a gift as long as they needed it, but no more; and after Moses had warned them that if they made idols out of their possessions, they would all disappear -- after that Moses spoke with the people about a gracious God who would respond with love and favor if they chose to honor Him. Moses told the people of Israel, out there on the very brink of a new venture, that God had given them the choice, and they could either take it or leave it. But choice there is, and the possibilities are very clear:
"Return to the Lord your God … then the Lord will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you. He will bring you into the land, and you will possess it, and He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors... see, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, then you shall live and God will bless you. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore choose life.”
Therefore choose life. Since you cannot keep your time anyway, and it will be lost, don’t make an idol of it and try to hoard it. Give your time to people who need you, give your time to the enterprises of the Kingdom; choose life, and live. Only one minute - I can use it or I can lose it. So choose life.
Since you cannot keep your energies and your talents anyway, why fritter them away on mere entertainment and on meaningless things that do nothing but sap your strength? If you can speak, speak for God. If you can write, write for Christ. If you can cook and clean, cook and clean for ministry and mission. If you can do anything at all, do it for the Kingdom. Choose life, because whatever you do have will eventually be lost; choose life, because to grasp at life is to lose it. Choose life and you will live. "Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what you do for Christ will last."
And yes, since you cannot keep your bank account; since, as they say, there are no pockets in shrouds; since the world is changing and stock markets go crazy and savings banks go belly up, then I say, "choose life.” Choose life, give life, choose life now.
Because we name as Lord one who had at his disposal the vast riches of the universe, but who chose to set it aside, all for us; because Jesus the Christ had life eternal but chose death on a cross, all for us; because on this Table we see reminders of the very dying form of one who suffered, all for us; and because in this bread and at the bottom of this cup we remember that there was one who said that no one took His life from Him, but rather that He chose to lay it down, all for us …because of all of that, choose life.
