Why Work for the Gifts that Perish?

What do we work for? There are multiple answers to this question. We work for subsistence—to have food to eat and a roof over our heads. That matters, we need a place to live, and food to eat. We work for luxury—we naturally want more than just subsistence. That is also understandable—we all want to enjoy life when we are not working. We work for security—we want to somehow KNOW that we will be financially and otherwise secure for the rest of our lives. So once we’ve made subsistence and luxury, we go for security. We work for popularity—who doesn’t want to be liked and have friends. That’s also understandable—no one wants to be alone and without friends. And once we’ve made enough friends, popularity might shift to “fame,” to wanting to be known for our achievements.

Subsistence, luxury, security, popularity, fame—do we see these things as more blessings, or entitlements? And do we understand that all of these things are transient and temporary. Every the most famous, financially secure person will die and the fame and fortune will not go with them.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well. It was the middle of the day. It was hot. He was thirsty. He asked the woman to draw some water for Him from the well. She asked why He, a Jew, would ask a drink from her, a Samaritan woman, because the Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. He told her, as we read in John 4:10, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Of course, she answered with a material answer—“where can I get that kind of water so I don’t have to come here to draw water in the hot sun?” I think of this verse many times, as it comes to Christ and Holy Communion. If we truly knew the gift of God and what it means to touch God in Holy Communion, that in this sacrament, we are actually touching the Divine God, how we could order our lives a little more purposefully and certain a little more respectfully. In the midst of all of our labors and all of our stress, we have the opportunity to partake of “the living water” and like the Samaritan woman, we are too engrossed with material things to even recognize it. We are so engrossed in the labor for the temporary that we don’t properly recognize the labor for the eternal. Again, it is understandable that we need to make time to work for sufficiency, and perhaps a degree of luxury and security, but when all we do is labor for the temporary and not the eternal, we are making a serious mistake.

Jesus says in John 6:27, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but the food which endures to eternal life.” Shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning up are part of every day life. We each spend a varying amount of time on these tasks. For the one cooking for a large family, this might consume hours. And for the one who doesn’t have to cook but only shows up to eat, this may take mere minutes. When we add up the time associating with eating, how does that compare to the amount of time we spend praying? Again, we spend a great portion of our time around the food we put into our stomachs. What about feeding our souls? When we don’t eat food for many hours, our stomachs remind us with pain, “feed me, I’m hungry.” We recognize that pains of hunger and then we go and satisfy them. Do we feel the same pain in our souls, a hunger for God? If the answer is yes, then why do we not go satisfy that? And if no, then why are we not hungering for God?

In a few weeks, after we celebrate Christmas, people will ask “what did you get for Christmas?” and our answers will of course be material in nature—“I got a sweater” or “some music I wanted.” What if we are disappointed with our material gifts? Will we answer as Saint Paul did in II Corinthians 6:8-10, that we have nothing but in reality have everything? I know for myself, on Christmas, my gift to both myself and to everyone else is a gift of prayer. I gift myself a day of quiet on Christmas Eve, spending the day in church praying all day for everyone I know. The idea on that day is to spend little time talking to others and a lot of time talking to God. And each year, when I do that, I feel like I have everything, that I’ve had the best day.

I don’t write the prayer team to shame people into doing things or to make people feel bad, and that is certainly not the intention for this message. I write these messages to make people think, to make myself think. There has to be more to life than just getting things—the most important thing in life is what we give, not what we get. If my life were to end today, I think I would reflect more on why did I not give more, not on why did I not get more? There also has to be more to Christmas than a gift exchange with people around us. I remember when our son turned 4 that he figured out the Christmas was a holiday of material gain. Many of us still have that 4-year-old mentality when it comes to Christmas. For me, as I have gotten older, this is a day for spiritual gain. And spiritual celebration. Because what good is everything is we do not have Christ in our minds and our hearts? It’s like having everything and in reality have nothing, because nothing goes with us at the end. Rather, let us focus on the gifts that do not perish, so that regardless of whether we have something or we have nothing, with Christ we have everything, and when this life on earth ends, we will be wanting for nothing, forever.

We can all do a better job in seeking after the gift that doesn’t perish—Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. May we be cognizant of this always, especially during this Nativity season.