Sermon – Earth Is More Expensive than Heaven
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Luke 6:27-36
Farmville Presbyterian Church
6/15/25
Father’s Day is one of those occasions when people might go out for a special dinner. My guess is that if you have ever been in that situation of taking out a special dad-figure, you probably did not seek out the cheapest meal possible. I will be the first to admit that less expensive food can be tasty, though. Thursday catfish at the Fishin’ Pig is mighty fine, for instance. I have had some pretty incredible foods that were not in expensive places, but the “eating-out” foods that have blown my socks off tend to be from more expensive restaurants. This is one tiny window into what many of us probably already understand. Things that are worth more tend to cost more. Nicer homes, nicer vehicles, nicer food (as I was saying), nicer opportunities, nicer vacations, nicer medical care, nicer insurance, and a nicer standard of living (just to name a few things) all require more money. They are more expensive. Please do not hear a crazy generalization. Obviously and of course, we can have nice things and do nice things without having to break the bank. Some of the best things in life are free, but by and large, every single one of us would rather have more money than less money because it is easier to get through life with more money. This world and especially the lives we would rather live in it are not the cheapest. But have you ever wondered why this world is more expensive than heaven?
I have no idea or recollection of how this idea popped into my brain, but at some point, it occurred to me that there might be some irony in the fact that the greatest life that we might ever know, the life that is eternally good, the life that must even be beyond words, our hoped for and promised life in our eternal, heavenly home is free. It requires no money, no investment, and no entrance fee. To live there, we can only imagine, requires no job, no income, and no currency. It is pretty amazing, if you think about it. To receive so much greatness in the presence of God and it not actually cost us anything is pretty astounding. On the other hand, just to get by with any kind of minimum standard of living in this world is anything but cheap, and the costs keep rising. Pretty much everything costs something in this life. Of this, we are painfully aware.
It is so tempting to offer the cliché that “you get what you pay for.” Even the things that are free seem to come with some kind of cost in this life. If you love someone, try growing that love without spending money on them. It might not be impossible, but it would be tough between presents, celebrations, experiences, and just sharing life. I’m not even going to mention weddings…. “You get what you pay for” also rings hollow ultimately because there are plenty of things that cost a great deal that don’t seem to give us the value for what we paid. This is why so many folk now encourage young people to explore trades that do not require four-year college degrees because of the excessive cost of college doesn’t pay for itself. Houses get more and more expensive, but they do not seem quite the same quality as homes of old, and the same goes for cars. I’d rather have a solid, dependable car than one that can drive itself. Generally speaking, however, to live a more successful and full life in this world will require us to pay for it. The trick is that you might not get what you pay for.
Now, we are not the only ones who have had to pay to live in this world. God is heavily, heavily invested in this giant ball of terrestrial dust that we call home. The passage from Proverbs speaks at least a little to that investment that God gave to make the world the kind of real place in which anyone might want to live. The Bible is a living record of time and effort, sometimes recording God’s tremendous grief over how much the people were taxing God. Sometimes, it sounds like God is in a dead-end job and is struggling to find a different way to get through the work of being responsible for us. The Exodus and the time in Israel’s history dominated by corrupt kings stand out as some of the most taxing years. Then, there is the most expensive thing God has ever done. Jesus cost God more than we can imagine. If God is actually love (and that is pretty much belief #1 for us), then it hurt God immeasurably to have Jesus die, and not just to die, but to die because we were all so lousy as a people. I do not want to get into guilt here, because the Godhead (Father, Son, and Spirit) went into this with open eyes, but I do want us to appreciate what God cost God to love us. Earth is an expensive place. This cost was not even just for us, but all of creation itself will be redeemed one day. Even my words are about costs – “appreciate” means to know the price of something, and “redeem” means to buy something back.
Yes, this world is expensive, and it goes beyond just what is expected. Jesus in Luke lays out a picture of giving and sharing that baffles the worldly norms. Even though the earth is an expensive place, he says we should not live that same way. In the mindset that resources are limited, no one gives more than they have to. Even providing for normal and expected things can be tight. It can feel good to be stingy with our resources or to cut back on the ways we share. It can be comforting to deny others if we end up with more for ourselves. You had better believe I’m getting my money back, too. Jesus, however, presents a different picture of what it means to share in the costs of this world. Not only should we meet the earthly expectations of sharing what we have, but we should also exceed those expectations by sharing more and without expectation of repayment. Because Jesus knows that we will have no need for wealth in heaven and that we cannot take it with us, he wants us to think about our value of wealth in this life, also. It is no accident that Jesus spoke about money more than any other single topic in the gospels. It drives our lives in unhealthy and unloving and unfaithful ways. James confessed how bad the love of money can be, if we let it be. It is the root of all sorts of evil.
We cannot live for ourselves and our enrichment. That will cost us our hearts and spirits. We cannot live as if wealth is god. That god dies at the grave. We cannot expect anything different from the way the world spends if we do exactly the same thing. This world is too expensive to give by the same rules as the world. We need better and to do better. When we see people out there doing whatever they can to make others pay in all kinds of ways or whatever they can to withhold value from those in need in all kinds of ways, it is must be hard for followers of Christ. Jesus knew how expensive this world was better than any of us, yet he walked right in and covered the whole bill. His understanding of costs has rewired our brains and remade our hearts. We are supposed to understand costs differently than anyone else on the planet.
This world is where we can invest what we have while we have it. Here is where we can build something beautiful and loving and enduring and life-changing that lifts up our neighbor and celebrates what God has given to us already and still provides today. There is no cost to be this kind of person and to share in this love. In a world in which everyone is out for themselves, we are here to make this world more like the world to come. As Jesus said, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done – on earth as it is in heaven.” This world is already covered, and it is expensive enough as it is. To God be the glory. Amen.