Why bother?

Text: I Cor. 15:50-58
Title: Why Bother?

It’s as effective as any rain dance that was ever devised. It’s a sure way to cause the clouds to hold a meeting that gets excitable enough for them to start bumping into each other with such force that they knock the stuffing out of each other. All I have to do to guarantee a good rain, often within 24 hours, is to wash and wax my car. Cleaning the inside of the windows and using armor-all ups the chances from definitely possible to highly probable. It can be a perfectly clear day with no rain in the forecast for the next three months and all I have to do to get some rain is wash my car! When those drops begin to demolish the deep shine which is the fruit of my labors, I sometimes feel like throwing up my hands and whining, “Why bother?!”

It’s probably the same feeling Michelle gets when I wear my shoes in the house after she’s just finished mopping our hardwood floors. I’m pretty certain more than one mom has felt the frustration which has led to an exasperated “why bother!” when a clothes hamper that was empty when she went to bed mysteriously filled while everyone was sleeping. Why bother!?

We start a diet or join a gym and in the first couple weeks the only thing we have to show for it is sore muscles, cranky attitudes, and unsatisfied cravings. The pounds aren’t falling off like dry leaves on a winter day and a when a dessert calls out to us, it’s easy to ask out loud “Why bother?”
My kids sometimes ask that question when they are told to make their bed. “I’m just going to mess it up again tonight anyway, why bother?!”

Mow the yard, it needs it again next week. Change the diaper and it’s need to be done again next week ?, no, it’s only going to be a matter of hours before it needs it again. Pull the weeds that somehow thrive even when the grass can’t survive and you guessed it, they’ll be back with a vengeance as if to say “nice try.” It’s enough to make you wonder out loud, “Why bother?” What are the things that make you say “why bother?”

It’s one thing to feel that way about relatively trivial stuff like clean cars and made beds, but sometimes “give up and quit” sounds like a logical option when the issues are a lot more serious. Why bother to keep caring about someone when they don’t seem to give a rip about themselves? You reach out for what feels like the thousandth time to mend a relational fence you didn’t do anything to knock down only to find out that the person on the other side of the conflict refuses to even tell you why they’re upset. Why bother? You feel like the right thing to do is keep witnessing to that person God has put on your heart but instead of getting closer to God they seem to get further and further away with every conversation. Why bother? You take the time and effort and emotional energy to listen while someone else shares the dreaded details of some huge dilemma and give them sound advice only to have them refuse to pay attention to any of it. They ignore you and end up making more of a mess than ever. The next time they come asking for your opinion the temptation is to yell at the top of your lungs, “I could tell you what I think makes sense, but you wouldn’t listen anyway, so why bother?!!!”

Sometimes the “why bother” question bleeds over into our spiritual lives. You do the hard labor of intercessory prayer, maybe even fast a meal or two while you’re at it and nothing changes. The job doesn’t come, the healing doesn’t happen, the relationship doesn’t improve, the temptation doesn’t go away. You keep encouraging but she doesn’t stop drinking, keep hoping but he doesn’t stop cheating, keep believing but nothing changes. You keep teaching but no one seems to learn, keep singing but no one seems to join in, keep serving but there is no visible difference - “Why bother?!” Why invest the time, put forth the effort, expend the emotional energy? Why go out of my way to help, serve, stand beside, and sit with people when it doesn’t make any difference? Why bother?

Some people just quit. Others don’t give up completely but full-hearted becomes half-hearted. Often becomes occasional, and usually turns into every once-in-a-while. A tough work ethic becomes just enough to get by, and cynicism moves in to the house that idealism built. “We can make a difference” becomes “why bother?”

None of us are immune from the discouragement that comes when the hard work doesn’t pay off, things don’t work out, and the future isn’t unfolding the way we thought or hoped or wished it would. Discouragement can give way to defeat as the “why bother” attitude throws us into a pit of self-pity.
No one wants to feel like the work they are doing, the effort they are expending, the labor of love they are offering is all for nothing. I know I don’t. If it’s any consolation, we’re not the only people on the planet who have ever gotten to the point where they wanted to throw up their hands and say, “Why bother?!”
While most of the letter of I Corinthians is Paul correcting, commanding and cajoling the Corinthians who still have a lot to learn about the Jesus-following life, there is also a point where he pauses to pick them up, dust them off, and remind them why they’re doing what they’re doing. Paul points to the past and reaches to the future to encourage them in the present. The motivation to continue living as a Christian - to keep working, laboring, loving, spending and expending ourselves is firmly rooted in a past victory and future promise called resurrection.
Read text. How do we look at Labor Day for the Lord when all we feel like doing is throwing up our hands and saying “why bother?” We look at it through the eyes of Easter! We look at all of our labor through the lenses of resurrection. Why bother? Because Jesus really did defeat death and that victory means that what we do and how we live really matters. Why bother? Because our present trials are producing a future glory. Because our current hardships and frustrations and disappointments are going to be eclipsed by a future resurrection. Paul says earlier in this chapter that we are to be pitied more than all people, if only for this life we have hope. The promise of resurrection is the foundational doctrine which reminds us that ultimate and eternal victory is ours through Jesus Christ. We’re going to get new bodies. The dead in Christ are going to be raised to new life. We’re going to be with Him forever! Why bother to keep going, keep praying, keep believing, keep working, keep serving, keep receiving and sharing and extending the grace of God? Because it’s all going to be worth it!!!
I know this approach doesn’t sell books and get people into the theaters but the truth is most of the time when talk turns to end-time stuff in the Scripture, the intent isn’t to inflict fear, but to hand out hope, not to incite worry but to initiate encouragement. It’s not to stir up a storm of doom and gloom, but to settle troubled hearts and motivate believers to keep at it even when they feel like saying, “Why bother?”
If there isn’t any resurrection, no new body or future glory or ultimate victory of life over death, then our work for the Lord is worthless. Everything is meaningless. Why not eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die? If there is no resurrection, death does have the last word and sin is stronger than grace and the best we can ever hope for is a return to the dust from which we came. So don’t bother to make the bed. Might as well let the weeds overtake the grass. Forget about washing the car. Who cares about keeping your heart clean or keeping faith against all odds? Don’t keep praying or believing or witnessing or working. Why not sleep in instead of going to the sanctuary, consult the horoscope instead of prayer. Why even try to stand firm when everyone else is falling or keep working when everyone else calls it quits? Why not give a half-hearted effort and call it good enough? If there is no resurrection, why bother?
Why bother? Because resurrection is real. Death doesn’t have the last word. What we do does matter and it does make a difference whether we can see it or not. Our labor for God is never in vain and when it’s all said and done we’ll be rejoicing in a resurrected body with a resurrected Savior. So Paul says to a bunch of Christ followers who just like all of us still have a lot to learn, and who sometimes feel like throwing up their hands and saying “why bother?” - Stand firm. Don’t give up. Give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Stay at it. Your labor and effort and struggle and trial and sacrifice is not in vain. So on this day when we think about work, be encouraged people of God. Take a look a Labor Day through the lenses of Easter and be encouraged. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t get weary in your well doing. Stand firm. Give yourselves fully to the Lord, for your labor for the Lord will never be in vain.
Communion - I Cor. 11:23-26 - until he comes. This table is a foretaste of what is ahead but it’s enough nourishment to keep us filled right now with the grace that keeps us going, keeps us working, keeps us laboring and loving. Why bother? That’s easy for us to answer: because Jesus bothered to give His life for us, to give us life now and the promise of life to come, because resurrection did happen, and will happen, and because our labor for the Lord is never in vain.
II Thess. 2:16-17 “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”