The Old Testament writer proclaims that, “Everything is meaningless - it's all nothing but vanity and so is worthless!“ We spend our time, “Chasing after the wind!” These are views that I reckon resonate with many (if not all) of us as we pass through this life of ours.
The reading continues with: ”I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labour under the sun. For a person may labour with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.“
We struggle to master ‘wisdom, knowledge and skill’ and then we leave this life and another gains what we leave behind, and though they might act wisely with it, then again they might not!
A rich man I knew built his company from nothing and toiled hard to ‘make it’. He became a multimillionaire and as he aged he realised his children were (in his own words), “Worthless, spoilt wasters, who would spend and enjoy rather than continue the firm.” Everything he had worked for would be thrown to the ground making his life’s work ‘worthless’
The Bible tells us not to store our treasures here on earth where they rust, break and get stolen but to store them up in heaven where they will be safe for ever - and where the things we value (treasure) are, that's where our hearts will be found (Matt 6.19-20)
So often we can let the things we possess possess us. We put so much store in things that we lose sight of people and relationships. We make the pursuit of knowledge so all-encompassing that we never learn what is important. We store our treasures up and in doing so live like paupers.We develop skills that can create amazing things and then hide or ‘protect’ them from others.
The reality is that life is about love and living to the fullest extent not filling our homes with treasures which we will lave behind. Don’t struggle to have lots to leave but work hard to put the things that matter into heavenly places. And if we are looking at heaven then we are looking at where God is - and if we are not, then who are we serving? Could it be that our labours and legacies can deny God? If this is true the ‘Protestant work ethic’ sets our face against God and becomes something hat diminishes our relationship with Him! What a thought that is :-(
In the Gospel reading brings a rich man into a conversation with someone who wants his brother to share an inheritance. Jesus tells the man to be careful: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” I’m glad He does this because it fits in with what I’m thinking and supports the words of Ecclesiastes too.
So we hear a story of a man and a huge harvest and the man’s plans to build even bigger barns to accommodate them and have even more than I have now so I can ‘take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’. But God says to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
Who will get what you leave - and what will it be that you have left?
The Bible tells us that, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6.10). Money can be a great tool but it can also, like all possessions, turn our hearts from God and from the things that matter. If we make idols than we deny the one true and living God. Are we making idols that deny God and our relationship with Him?
I know clergy whose idols are to be found in the size of their church congregation or their giving - I know this is true because they so crave this ‘success’ and the approval of ‘senior clergy’.
My own idols can be found in the pursuit of knowledge - a noble cause which all approve of - but what does being an ‘academic’ or a ‘theologian’ bring us if we know everything about God except who He is? What is of more value, knowledge of something or someone or the knowing someone as Saviour and friend?
For some of us our idols are found in things: Cars, houses, holidays and the like - but when they make enough noise that we no longer hear God, they have become idols. But we, as Christians, having died to sin and the things of this world need to look to Jesus, the Christ, and life with Him and for Him. We are call to put off the old things and become something new: And this means looking to the heavenly things and making them real in the here and now and sharing, and storing, the treasures in those around us with storehouses filled in heaven.
It’s not wrong to leave things for those who follow us, but it is wrong to avoid heavenly things stored up because of our pursuit fr the physical, earthly things.
“Woe unto you when people speak well of you!” (Lk 6.26) Isn’t this a nod toward the realities of life? Don’t we all like to be ‘buttered up’ and approved of? Bu what if our good works are merely ploys to be approved of by man? Shouldn’t we be seeking God’s approval.
Bottom line: Don’t be idle and don’t have idols!
Our final reading from Colossians leads us in the right direction as it shows us the way to live:
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Put away the idols and look to the things that bring peace so that the fruit of God’s Spirit might be seen in us (these are found in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”)
The Colossians passage continues:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
The problem with being a Christian is that it is so easy to understand what we need to do to store up treasure in heaven - just love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength and possessions - and so blinking difficult to do.
The Collect
Generous God, you give us gifts and make them grow: though our faith is small as mustard seed, make it grow to your glory and the flourishing of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord help me to see the things that get in the way of You and me. Lead me into that place where contentment is found in being one with you and showing your love to those I meet change my heart and the things I treasure. Take away the idols I have and consume me with love for You. Amen.
Ecclesiastes 1.2,12-14; 2.18-23
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labour under the sun. For a person may labour with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
Colossians 3:1-11
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Post Communion Prayer
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live: may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen.
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