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December
29, 2002
Sermon: "Come Thou Long Expected Life?"
Scripture: Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Reverend Larry Gerber
According to many biogeneticists, there is a baby among us who will be alive for a century and a half. Scientists have launched a concerted attack on the aging process, with attempts being made to expand the human life span. But as we go forward into the new year, living well is a more faithful focus for us than simply living long.
She was on Good Morning America with journalist Diane Sawyer to show off her new look.
She had had a face lift, breast implants, Botox injections to smooth out the wrinkles, lip resculpting and a chemical peel. She had spent over seven hours in surgery, and the cost for all this body work was in excess of $25,000.
Phyllis Porter is 82 years old.
When questioned about the wisdom of getting all this work done at the age of 82, she said, "What difference does it make if you're 2 or 82? There was no point in waiting until I got any older - and I'm not getting any younger!"
No, Phyllis is not getting any younger, but life spans for the human race are getting longer.
Somewhere on earth - right now - is a child, born during the last 24 months, who will be alive 150 years from now, or maybe even longer.
Impossible? Not at all. Consider that the average human life span at the beginning of the 20th century was 49 years. Many women died at childbirth. Many children died of illness or accident. Many men died of disease or war. At 61 years old, if you lived back then, you'd have been considered an old crone, and been respected for your age.
At the start of this 21st century, in the United States, the average human life span is fast approaching 80 years. These days, at 61 years old, we can't even retire. And there are people in their 80s who are fit enough to run marathons. Compared to our ancient predecessors, like Isaiah, we already have an enormous length of time on earth to learn, to grow, to love, to live.
Isaiah's question for us might be, "How well do you live with the time you have?" - as individuals, as a nation. His concern is for eternal life, rather than mere physical life. He cares more about the state of our souls than the number of our years.
Can you imagine the quality of life thousands of children might have if that $25,000 was spent on feeding, nurturing, and educating our youth, instead of making an 82 year old look more youthful? How many others have spent $25,000 or more in an attempt to preserve the body, while allowing the soul to remain empty? How many more thousands, or millions of youth could have a healthier life, if our monies were spent on quality of life, instead of quantity of years?
Suppose science succeeds, and this child, now only 12 months old, lives to 2152, making her 150 years old, or until 2182, as is expected by certain biogeneticists.
Think back historically, two centuries, to the time before the Industrial Revolution, to the Agrarian Age of our nation. Think of the vast changes over 180 years. Now leap forward 180 years from today. Imagine if 180 years is long enough to learn to love God, like a young bride delights in her groom.
Is there ever enough time? Will there ever be?
What would this child, probably female, do with her life if her time alive was more than double ours? Take more vacations? Spend more time at the office? Get busier? Plant a bigger garden? Plan for a longer retirement? Plant trees instead of gardens? Love more, give more, hope more?
Would doubling our current 80 years make that much difference spiritually or ethically, personally or nationally? Would we the people choose to love more, to give more? Would we choose to dedicate a larger part of our lives to God?
Well, at least we would have more Sundays for worship and learning, that's for sure.
While no one can say for certain how we'd change, history remains a reasonable measure of the future.
Whether we live to 49, 89 or 179, our spiritual goal ought to remain the same as it was during the time of Isaiah. He dreamed of and spoke about a Messiah - the salvation of a nation, the savior of individuals. Our goal ought to be pursuing eternal life and salvation, no matter the length of our lives, because eternity lasts longer than a century and a half. Our dreams ought to include being "a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God" (Isaiah 62:3).
The prophet Isaiah speaks of wedding celebrations, with young brides and grooms mutually delighting in each other, decorating themselves for each other with the beauty of flower garlands and shimmering gems. What joy there is in youth, beauty, love and desire! If only such love could last a lifetime.
The prophet also speaks of gracious gardens growing in warm springtime sunlight. Tended and cultivated gardens which blossom and grow.
A garden is measured by its produce, not its size. A life is measured by its deeds and its love, not by its length. What good would there be in a vegetable garden that brought forth no edible fruit? What good would there be in a life of any length, if it gave forth no love, no delight, no joy?
The measure of a life is found not in quantity, but in quality.
So here we are, four days after the birth of Jesus, the long expected Messiah, the one who lived 33 years and changed the world. Given the coming of the new year, we might plan to look to life - our lives - as God sees it.
A thousand years is like a day to God, so says Scripture. It's not how long we live that matters, but how well we live and how well we love, in God's eyes.
We are judged not by the length of our years, but by our deeds in the years we have, as individuals and as a nation. Our deeds, be they emotional and external wounds given to others, or spiritual and physical healing given through love, are the true measure of lives.
Our souls, our lives, are like spring gardens, says Isaiah. Gardens with rich soil produce an abundant growth with many blossoms bursting forth giving sweet food to nourish our bodies. Or gardens can be ill-worked, and stony, with weak soil producing little growth and bitter taste.
Soil must be worked, tilled and turned, and the plants must be tended. No matter how long the garden has existed, 49 years, 80 years, 170 years, unless it is fed and cleaned, it will fail. Weeds will choke it. Blights will infect it. Insects will eat it. And the produce will be worthless.
Like our garden, our love and our relationship with God must be tended.
Whether life is short or long, God calls us to have a depth of love in a quality of life. God expects us to live a well-tended life; a life dedicated to seeking God as a plant seeks and needs the light of the sun - even in midwinter.
It's not how many years we have, or will have. It's what we do with those years, and how we tend them, that matters. Should we put our efforts and money into smoothing out our 82 year old wrinkles, or set our mind and dollars on helping the younger generation to have a better quality of life?
As we go forward into this new year, it's less important to worry about how long we're going to live, and what we are going to look like, as it is how well we are living. So here is a picture of a millennial life well lived: clothed with the garments of salvation, righteousness in the nations and political peace.
How much time do we need to learn to love God?
We close with a familiar hymn: Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated Lord to Thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise...... If our life is a gift from God, and if the life of Jesus is a gift to us, we have no other way to live our life, but consecrated to the Giver and Sustainer, and redeemer. Come thou long expected life?? No, quite the contrary, we are called to have a full life in the time alloted us. This life is but a stepping stone to life eternal, or we live for nothing. Begin the calendar year 2003 with a life expectancy, not in years, but in fullness of each day of the year. The stepping stone is already laid for us, we need only to step on it in order to go forward.....Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee..............Come thou long expected Jesus, into my heart.
Let us pray
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Source:
Louria, Donald B. "Second thoughts on extending life spans." The Futurist,
January-February 2002, 44ff.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766