An Invitation to the Abundant Life
An Invitation to the Abundant Life by Rev. L. John Gable
March 7, 2021
I thought I would brighten your day a little by starting off with a reflection written by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell on the meaning and purpose of life. “Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving…his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collections of atoms…no fire, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave… and the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.” I think he worked for Hallmark on the side, didn’t he?
Now, I am quite certain that not many of us would take that particular view of life, at least I hope not, but I am aware that even the most optimistic among us optimists have been flattened a bit during this past year of pandemic. Even the most hopeful among us have found ourselves getting a bit discouraged. Even the most energetic among us have confessed that we have been running at about 80% capacity during much of the year.
Even without a pandemic, much less a contentious political season, many find themselves wondering if this is all there is to life or if perhaps there is something missing or that they are missing out on something.
During the discussion of the “God is Dead” movement in the 1960’s, Dr. Erich Fromm said to his colleagues that instead of debating the question, “Is God dead?” we should be debating the question, “Is humanity dead?” Psychologist Fromm writes, “Man has been transformed into a thing, a producer, a consumer, an idolator of other things. They sit for hours in front of bad television programs without even knowing that they are bored. They learn that millions of children around the world are literally starving to death without even relating that reality to the teaching of religion. They join the rat race of commerce, where personal wealth is measured in terms of market values and remain unaware of the anxiety they are enduring. All this represents death as Christians understand it. It is not true that physical death is the last enemy. The last enemy to be conquered is spiritual death. The name is not important; the essence of it is separation from God, whether on this side or the other side of physical death.” Oscar spoke powerfully about this experience of spiritual death, even among us as Christians, last Sunday as he reflected on Jesus’ teaching that we must be “born again, born from above.”
Perhaps we could say that T.S. Eliot poses the question best when he asks, “Where is the life we have lost in the living?”
“It’s a good question,” the woman says. “What is?” asks her husband peering over his Wall Street Journal. “We got this mail order catalogue today. Look at these exotic specialty items. They have everything from authentic Russian KGB metals to hand made cigars from the Dominican Republic. They call it “The Good Life Catalogue”. I wonder, what does it take to have a good life?” “I’m not sure” he answers, his eyes moving back to the article he was reading on overseas marketing, “but you probably can’t buy it from a catalogue.”
If any of this rings true for you, then listen to the invitation Jesus gives us, it is an invitation to the “good life”. “Come to Me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” This is an invitation to the abundant life only He can offer, and any beside Him who dare make that claim, before or after Him, are but thieves and robbers offering false hopes and empty promises.
600 years before the time of Christ the prophet Isaiah issued a very similar invitation as he envisioned a way of life and living in a kingdom under the reign and rule of God. Recall, he is writing to a people displaced and living in exile, whose homeland had been overtaken by warring forces, whose practice of their religion had been shattered and scattered even as much as had been the Temple in which they worshiped in Jerusalem. They were a people who had suffered not a year of isolation and hardship but over 70 years and they had all but given up the hope of ever returning back home or getting their lives back in order.
Listen to Isaiah’s invitation to the abundant life and the way in which to receive it, which, believe me, is not to be found on-line or purchased from a mail order catalogue.
He begins with the simple call to attention and then an invitation, “Ho! (I wonder how long it took the scholars to figure out the Hebrew word for “Ho!”?) “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch? God invites us to come to the waters, to come to Him even though we feel empty with nothing to give, nothing to offer. We are invited to come, not because we are worthy but because He is worthy and He welcomes us as His “beloved.” What He offers is free, without cost to us, because He has already paid the price for us.
“Come, you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” The Biblical word for that is “grace”. Stop spending your time and your money and wasting your energy chasing after those things that ultimately will never satisfy. “Listen to me! Incline your ear and come to Me,”, says the Lord. Turn down all of the other noise in your ears and minds and hearts so that you will be able to recognize My voice when I call. “Listen so that you may live!” Friends, listen to these words of the prophet, “Seek the Lord while He may be found”, as they have been spoken to each of us and all of us who have found life difficult and its meaning unclear, and please know, you do not need to cry very loud, for God is closer than you think, as close as your very breathing or your most silent prayer.
Believe me when I tell you, it really is that easy to enter in to a relationship with God, to know His presence, to enjoy the abundant life which only He can give. “Surely not”, we say. “Nothing could be that easy, just turning, seeking, listening, coming? Surely there is something more we have to do!” No, there really isn’t. That way of thinking and acting correlates to the way of this world, the way of the world that says we have to earn everything we get, but the Lord, speaking through the prophet, says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; My ways are not your ways.” So, if you think you have clean up your act and get it all right before you can turn to God, or that you can somehow impress God by your goodness so as to earn your way in to His good favor, or even that your experience of God is all there is to experience of God, you clearly have not read or understood the central message of Scripture. God loves us, claims us, welcomes us, accepts us, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who He is and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ, and He continues to invite us to come closer and go deeper with Him.
But some will ask, “If that really is all there is to it, how will we know that we really have received the abundant life which God offers? Will there be flashes of lightning and thunderclaps from heaven? Will we hear voices or see visions? Will we suddenly win the lottery and choose the right door on “Let’s Make a Deal”? Most likely not any of those things, but Isaiah tells us what will happen to us. “We will go out with joy and be led forth in peace.” We will experience a joy that is everlasting and a peace that is beyond all human understanding. Of course none of this is from us, it is from God. It is not because of anything we can do or earn or gain for ourselves, but is something which God alone can, and has, done for us. And believe me, it can’t be bought on-line or out of a catalogue.
We enter in to the abundant life when we respond to the simple invitation “Come” which is offered by God alone. After all of our chasing after life’s meaning and purpose, after exploring a myriad of ways of trying to make ourselves happy and fulfilled and contented, after being deceived by the world’s false bill of goods which tells us we will only be happy and fulfilled if we go to the right school, get the right job, marry the right person, get the right car, buy the right house, we discover the secret to the abundant life lies not in anything we have or have done or ever could ever do for ourselves, but is something God has done for us in Jesus Christ. As one has said, “The self is a very small package in which to try to find ultimate meaning.”
I agree with Peter Marshall, the beloved Scottish Presbyterian pastor and former chaplain to the United States Senate, who said, “Once and for all, we must put out of our mind that the purpose of life here is to enjoy ourselves, to have a good time, to be happy, to make money and to live in ease and comfort. That is not what life is all about. You were put here for a purpose, and that purpose is not related to superficial pleasures. No one owes you a living. Not your parents, not your government. Not life itself. You do not have a right to happiness. You have a right to nothing. I believe that God wants us to be happy, but it is not a matter of our right, but of His love and mercy.”
Friends, this morning we come to this table and to the tables you have prepared for yourself at home. This is the table of our Lord. This is the banquet feast of the Kingdom of God and we have been graciously invited to join Him here as His guests.
Listen as our Lord speaks these words of invitation and welcome: Ho, everyone who thirsts for the abundant life, for something more than the life you have lost in the living, come to the waters and be refreshed! You who have no money, no worries, your money has no value here, your currency is worthless in the economy of heaven, so come as My guests, come, buy and eat! Come, you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Listen to the weariness of your heart, your body, your soul. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; You needn’t be hesitant or afraid, or feel yourself to be unwelcome or unworthy, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find exactly what you are looking for, rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, such is the invitation to the abundant life which can be found nowhere else but in Him.
Do you hear His invitation, spoken to you, today, “Come!”