Built to Last--June 8, 2022

Built to Last--June 8, 2022

"Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw--the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and fire will test what sort of work each has done." [1 Corinthians 3:12-13]

Forgive me for sounding childish, but these verses sound a bit like a religious version of the story of The Three Little Pigs.  Instead of a Big Bad Wolf, you have the threat of fire, of course; and you've got a slightly different list of possible building materials beyond the pigs' options of straw, sticks, and bricks.  But the basic underlying idea sure seems to run parallel between the two, doesn't it?  In life you will have the opportunity to build something sturdy and solid that will last... or you can choose to slap together the fastest and cheapest thing you can and cross your fingers that it doesn't collapse with anybody inside. 

Now maybe at first, to the untrained eye or the casual observer, both the well-made house and the thrown-together shanty look comparable. You might not be able to tell which is which from the outside. They may both have a roof, a door, and windows--maybe the cheaply built one can even afford to have more trim and decorative flourishes, because the contractor didn't have to sink as much money into doing things well behind the scenes where no one thinks to look.  But there is a difference between building something cheap... and building something to last.  And Paul is here to remind us that it is worth making the effort to build things well, so that they can endure.

If you're in the real-estate business just to make a buck for yourself, you don't really care about building high-quality, long-lasting houses, so much as you care about making a quick return on your investment.  You'll be more tempted to cut corners to maximize profits, and you'll want to push construction to move along as fast as possible, so you can sell one and move onto the next before anything has time to go wrong.  And, truth be told, in this day when so much of our economy is driven by the need to have things wear out so that consumers will throw away the old one and buy a new item all over again, that's a sure-fire way to make a buck.  Build fast and cheap and get out of town fast enough to be selling lots in your next development in the next county over.  If your reason for building is personal profit at the expense of everything else, there's little reason not to be like the first or second piggy in the story and build on the cheap with straw or sticks.

But what if you are a builder who cares about the people who will live in the house you are constructing?  What if you take pride in your work beyond what you get paid for it?  What if you are thinking, not of your bottom line at the end of the fiscal quarter, but of the well-being of the people who live in this house in fifty years who haven't even been born yet?  What if you care about doing things well, simply because they are worth doing well?  Ah, that's an entirely different kind of logic, isn't it?  If you are concerned about the house standing sturdy and strong for generations of people to live in it, then you are going to take the time to do things right. You'll measure twice and cut once.  You won't skimp on the construction materials, and you'll make sure the house is built to code, and that the walls are standing square.  You will do this even if it eats into your profits, because you are more invested in building something with quality, worthy of the solid foundation it is on, rather than being seen as a real estate mogul.  These are the brick-building piggies, who are willing to take the extra time to do something right so it will last, even if it means more sweat equity is sunk into the project.

In all honesty, Saint Paul doesn't have much time for folks who are only interested in the quick buck and the slapdash construction.  You can build out of straw and sticks if you insist on it, Paul says, but don't be surprised if what you build just doesn't last.  Paul is trying to get us to spend our lives taking the additional effort to do it right, even if it takes more time, we get less credit, and there are slimmer paychecks.  He wants us to be the kind of people who spend our lives building something good and true on the foundation of Christ, not so that we can blow out of town on the next train and sell lots to the next city's worth of suckers for more money, but because we believe that building things well is simply worth doing.

Maybe that's the question to start with in this day: why do we do what we do?  Not just our jobs, whatever field they may be in. Not just for our immediate families, or in the things we'll get an immediate profit from. And not just our churchy activities done underneath steeples.   But in the parts of our lives where no one will notice that we've taken the additional time to do something well... in the interactions with strangers who will never know our names or pay us back... in the times of our lives when it would be easier (or more lucrative) to do a half-baked job and pocket the savings... are we doing what we do just for the payback we'll get in return, or because we are committed to doing things well, and building with good materials?  Will we take the extra time with someone who needs us, just because they need us?  Will we make the additional effort regardless of whether we get thanks or applause?  Will we love when it would be easier to be indifferent?  Will we give the best of ourselves because we care about how we spend our days? If we can say, honestly, that we will dare these kinds of things, it's a sign we are on the same page with Paul, who dares us to reject the quick-buck-making mindset of the stick-and-straw swine, and instead to be the kind of builders who take the time and make the effort to do things well.

The real-estate moguls who just want their names on buildings in big gold letters have missed the point.  We are called to be people who give our lives to building what will last, apart from what it will profit us--because we believe that the act of building well is itself worthwhile.  And I've got to tell you: if I get to the end of my life and I haven't made a dime but have built something that was useful for someone else to find shelter and be at home in, that seems like a life well spent.

How will you and I each spend our lives, and what will we do with this day we have been given that will be worth the sweat and energy we pour into it?

Lord God, enable us to use this day you have given us well, for the sake of building something that will last.