⚫When I began working on this sermon, the image of a cracked cistern that could hold no water stuck in my mind…
While I was pondering what to make of that, the McLean County Museum of History announced the discovery of an old brick cistern right here in Bloomington, just a few blocks from First Christian Church. It’s in the 200 block of Washington Street.
The Public Works Department was doing some excavation work when the cistern was revealed.
A cistern, if you don’t know, is a basin meant to hold water. Drinking water, rainwater…And they’re usually in the ground…
I’m not sure exactly how this cistern was used. But I do know that when they discovered this cistern, they also found two wooden pipes running from that cistern to another cistern under the intersection of Washington Street and Madison Street.
Apparently, in the 19th century, water, sewer, and even gas lines were often constructed of wood.
Historically, cisterns have been vital parts of the infrastructure for cities all over the world.
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The city of Istanbul, for example, has hundreds of ancient cisterns buried beneath it. The largest is the Basilica Cistern, built in the 6th century.
The Basilica Cistern is huge. It’s enormous! It is capable of holding 21 million gallons of water. The floorspace covers 100,000 square feet. That’s almost as big as two football fields. The ceiling of the cistern is held up by 336 marble pillars.
Today, the Basilica Cistern has become a tourist attraction…
Most of the water is drained, just a little bit on the floor is left, and they have installed metal walkways over the water… and they have also installed modern, color-changing LED lights (you know I love color-changing LED lights!)
Sometimes they have concerts there… imagine the acoustics! (Although the 96% humidity in the cistern might not be good for certain musical instruments.) They also have art shows and other events in the cistern.
A ticket to visit costs 1,650 lira, or about 40 dollars. But know that, as of August 1, the Basilica Cistern has gone cashless, just like the BCPA and Grossinger Motors Arena, so if you plan on going, be sure to bring your credit card.
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If you don’t think you’ll be going to Istanbul anytime soon, you can visit the Basilica Cistern virtually, via the website. Or you can play the video game Assassin’s Creed Revelations, which features a sequence set in the Basilica Cistern.
If you do visit in person, your visit will begin by climbing down 52 stone steps into the cistern. Once down below, you will be surrounded by walls that are thirteen feet thick, coated with a waterproofing mortar.
That waterproofing mortar is important. If you’re going to build a cistern to hold 21 million gallons of water, the walls and floor need to be waterproof. Otherwise the water will all leak out.
Imagine the effort it took to build the Basilica Cistern. It is said that it required the labor of 7,000 slaves to build, and that construction lasted 38 years.
And imagine if, after all that, they forgot to waterproof it. All that labor would have been in vain.
The prophet Jeremiah says that the people have built cisterns that can hold no water. All their labor has been in vain.
Since this is Labor Day weekend in the United States, it does seem a good time to contemplate our own labor, what it is we labor for, and whether or not our own labor has been in vain, or whether it has yielded good results.
We want our labor to mean something. We want it to yield results…
In Jeremiah’s time, the people of Israel established their nation over the course of many years.
First, they were in slavery in Egypt… laboring not for themselves or for their own welfare, or even for God, but for Pharaoh.
Then God led them out of slavery, so that they could use their labor to build their own nation in their own land.
And what high hopes they had when they began!
But then they began to forget.
They began to forget that it was God who led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the wilderness, and to the Promised Land.
They forgot that God, who always had and still has their welfare in mind, should be lifted up and praised and honored in all they do.
Instead, they began to use their labor to glorify themselves. They would build something, and say, “look what we have done,” forgetting that nothing they accomplished would have been possible without God.
The breath in their lungs, the strength in their bodies, the hope that dwelled within them, all came from God.
And the nation they built became like a cracked cistern that could hold no water. Their labor was in vain. As the psalmist wrote, “unless the Lord builds this house, those who build it labor in vain.”
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Here is something I have found helpful. We all are given, by God, a certain amount of life energy.
What we use that life energy for matters.
Now let’s say you go to work. 40, 50, 60 hours a week. And maybe that job isn’t very meaningful to you. It’s just a job.
Does that mean you are laboring in vain?
Not necessarily.
At that job, you are trading in your life energy, right? You give the company, the boss, whoever, 40, 50, 60 hours a week of your life energy, and in exchange, they give you a paycheck.
So now you have converted your life energy into money.
Let’s say that you get paid $20 an hour. You work one hour, and you get $20. So that $20 represents one hour of your life energy.
And let’s say that, after work, you stop by the store, and you see something that costs $20. If it costs $20, that means that what it really costs you is one hour of your life energy.
So instead of asking yourself, “is this item worth $20,” you should ask yourself, “Is this item worth the one hour of my life I gave in exchange for that $20.”
I find that thinking about money this way helps me make better decisions, as it reminds me that my money is really the result of my labor, and I don’t want my labor to be in vain.
If I spend my $20 on something that doesn’t enrich my life or the life of my family, or if I spend it on something that goes against my values, then that would be like building a cistern that can hold no water. It would be doing all this work, yet the work I do would not be accomplishing any goal I have or helping in any way to fulfill the vision I have set for how I want to live.
(I probably should have saved all this for when we talk about stewardship later this fall, but labor and money are so intimately connected, that I couldn’t wait until then.)
Learning about the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, and how it was built with the labor of 7,000 slaves, brings up another issue. It’s not just my labor that matters. It is the labor of those around me.
I’m glad that the labor of those 7,000 slaves was mentioned in the material I read. It’s important to remember that much of what we enjoy is the result of the labor of others… and that sometimes, that labor was forced; and that those who did the labor were not able to benefit from what their labor produced.
In Micah 4, there is a vision of what the prophet calls “the days to come,” when the Lord’s instruction goes forth into the land, and the people listen to the teachings of God.
And in that vision, the prophet says that the people “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees.”
That vision, of people sitting under their own vines and under their own fig trees, also appears in 1 Kings 4, where life under the reign of Solomon was good and prosperous.
Zechariah also presents a vision of people sitting under their own vine and fig tree.
What that means is that those who labor, tending to the vine, tending to the fig tree, tending to the crops they grow, get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Their labor is not in vain.
In God’s vision for the world, people do not labor in vain. People do not exert their life energy, only to have someone else receive all the benefits and rewards from that labor.
Slavery is not a part of God’s vision.
Neither is it a part of God’s vision to have a society where people labor and spend their life energy without receiving a living wage. A company whose CEO earns billions, while the employees do not earn enough to feed themselves or their families, or enough to secure adequate housing, is contrary to God’s will.
All labor is important. All labor has value. And all those who labor should be able to share in the abundance their labor helps produce. They should be allowed to sit under their own vine and their own fig tree, and enjoy the fruit they helped produce.
So on this Labor Day weekend, let us remember the labor of others, and the blessings we have received because of their labor and their life energy;
let us honor all who labor;
And let us consider our own labor, and the ways we spend our own life energy, so that it may bring glory to God, and life to us and those around us.
