HOW MUCH IS TOMORROW WORTH?

“Hezekiah answered: ‘The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good;’ thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.” (Isaiah 39:8)

            In some of our youth meetings years ago, we would engage in a Bible drill. Someone would call out a passage to see which member of the group could find it first. Once in a while the caller would announce, “Hezekiah 6:3.” The wise would resist the bait, but the unknowing would go tearing through the Bible in search of a book that isn’t there.

            Hezekiah is not a book in the Bible, but Hezekiah was a dominant figure in Hebrew history. He was a strong king of Judah for some twenty-eight years. During his reign he reorganized the government and thus became the patron saint of all reorganizing bureaucrats. He repaired and cleansed the temple. He stamped out idolatry. He won an important victory over the Philistines. In his reign he was a chronological neighbor of Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. Not a bad neighborhood, that!

            It is not the royal side of Hezekiah but the human side that I want you to see today. At one point in his career he was taken seriously ill. The best guess has it that he suffered from a carbuncle. The king felt certain that his illness was terminal. His death-bed lament is exceedingly moving and occupies most of the 38^th chapter of the book of Isaiah. Like many who have been up against the hard face of extremity, Hezekiah promised God that if the Lord would make him well he would become a better man than ever. God raised Hezekiah up. Unfortunately, like many he forgot in good health that which he had pledged in illness. That venerable bit of doggerel still finds us with its truth: The devil was ill/ the devil a monk would be/ the devil was well/ a devil of a monk was he.

            Presently some visitors of state came from Babylon to pay Hezekiah a visit. Ostensibly, they came to rejoice with him in the recovery of his health and to congratulate him on the efficacy of his prayers. Hezekiah rose to the occasion. He strutted proudly around his palace pointing out his treasures and arsenal.

            Isaiah challenged the king and informed him that his Babylonian guests had come to induce him to enter into an alliance with them against Assyria. This was clearly against the will of God. Such a union, predicted the prophet, would be disastrous for the people and spell curtains for the royal house.

            To this word Hezekiah replied, “‘the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good,’ thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.”

            My topic today is a question: “What is the future worth?” To Hezekiah it wasn’t worth much. Listen to his statement again. “…’The word of the Lord which you have spoken…’” that is, the word concerning pending devastation, “is good;’ thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.  Moffat translates that statement this way: “Thinking to himself that there would be no trouble or change at least so long as he was alive.” It would be hard to imagine a more irresponsible attitude toward the future than that.

            The Hezekiah mentality is alive and well in our society. Time and time again we have seen corporations of national reputation sell its future to a conglomerate. The workers stood to lose. The public stood to lose. But the officers of the company that was being swallowed up did handsomely for themselves and saw to it that they would never want.

            I’ve saved in my files an editorial written by Fred Hechinger from the New York Times, under the title “Crisis of the Spirit.” He makes virtually the same point. “A major reason why so large a majority is smugly docile is that it has accepted the unwritten rules of the game: Don’t rock the boat as long as you get your cut.  Why get worked up about corruption as long as there are enough benefits of the fallout to go around. Once the acceptance of corruption becomes sufficiently widespread, effective exposure seems threatening to too many people and interests. Clamor for closing loopholes declines in direct proportion to the number of people who benefit from loopholes of their own.”  “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good… thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.”

            How much is the future worth? I ask that question because it seems to me that we are somewhere around the midpoint between Haywood’s retirement and the arrival of the new pastor. I know we don’t elect the PNC until next Sunday, but I have the intuitive feeling that it’s not going to take forever to find a new head of staff, given the great strengths of this congregation. Here at somewhere around the midpoint, I want to encourage you and strengthen you in your continued giving of time, talents, energy, intelligence, imagination, love, leadership, and resources to the ongoing mission of Westminster Church. I’m grateful for two things. 1- That when Haywood left, a whole group of people didn’t walk out the door and stop supporting the church; and 2- Everyone who remained continued their dedication here as if nothing happened. That is an enormous tribute to the quality of life in this church. We are here, not just for ourselves, but for the future! And that good future, because it is in God’s hands, is sure to come.

            The term “future” is so abstract. Let me try to bring it closer by putting the question this way: What of the newly born? Do we want for them a knowledge of the love of God? Familiarity with the Bible? A Christian sense of history? The strength of the sacraments? The joy of great music and worship? Friends in the youth group? The knowledge of sins forgiven? The power of hope?

            Jesus one time found his disciples all hung up on the question as to which of them was or would be the greatest. An amazing argument on an equally amazing wrong subject as followers of Jesus. In order to make his point, he put a child in their midst and silenced their misguided murmurings. I want you to image for a moment a child seated right up here on the chancel steps, much like the children do during our Children's Message. Think of this youngster, and imagine that this child is the valued prize in a spirited auction. This child is not only loved by his or her parents, he or she is also wanted by many forces in society.

            The bids come thick and fast. The distiller would like to make that child dependent on alcohol. The drug dealer would like to make that child the victim of his needle. The fashion industry would like to make that child into a clothes horse. The world of entertainment would like to make that child into a couch potato. The world of sports would like to make that child into an avid supporter. The world of food would like to make that child into a gourmet. The advertising agencies would like to make that child into an ever restless consumer. How much energy, time, and talents are we willing to bid to make that child a follower of Jesus Christ!

            This is really a stewardship sermon! But this is the middle of July, not early November, and this sermon has nothing to do with filling out our pledge cards for 2008. I think it is most unfortunate that we have equated the word “stewardship” just with raising money. To pass on to the next generation at least as much as we received from the last generation is what good stewardship is all about.  “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good, thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime.”

This is somewhere around mid-term. Staying in there in mid-term in the world of education, most often means that there one day will be a graduation, when we will move on to the next level in our journey, and how exciting such occasions are.

The city of St. Louis was named after King Louis IX of France who was later known as St. Louis. In a large church in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, these words of the king are emblazoned on a wall: “I think more of the place where I was baptized than of the Cathedral of Rheims where I was crowned. For the dignity of a child of God, which was bestowed on me at baptism, is greater than that of the ruler of a kingdom. The latter I shall lose at death—the other will be my passport to everlasting glory.”

            How much is the future worth to you?

            How a man sits to the future pretty much reveals what he is. Albert Camus once noted that “real generosity toward the future lies in giving all we can to the present.” To plant oak trees under whose shade we may not sit is to keep faith with a future that is ours to hope for and God’s to bring!