Pentecost 9
Luke 12:13-21 Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14 2:18-23
"All is Vanity without God"
I would like to share one of Aesop’s Fables with you this morning.
"When a dog which had stolen a piece of meat out of a butcher’s shop, was crossing a river on its way home, he saw his own shadow reflected in the stream below.
Thinking that it was another dog with another piece of meat, he decided to make himself master of that also; but in snapping at the supposed treasure, he dropped the meat he was carrying, and so went away empty handed."
Another tale: "Two buckets met at a well one day. One bucket had a big smile on its face. The other had a big frown.
"Why are you frowning?" asked the happy bucket.
"Oh, no matter how full I am when I leave the well, I always return Emptt,"complained the sad bucket.
"And why are you always smiling?" asked the sad bucket.
"No matter how empty I am when I come to the well. I always leave full!!"
The rich farmer said to his soul, "Soul you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink be merry."
"Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!! All is vanity"
"Jesus says, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions; "
As you can tell by now as you listened to the stories and the quotes from our lessons this morning, our topic for today concerns a subject that is difficult to preach about, even more difficult for you to listen to, that subject is money, or possessions, or wealth, or whatever you would like to call it. It is a subject that many people have accused the church of talking about every Sunday or it is a subject that is only talked about when the church needs money. It is a subject that can raise the tempers of a lot of people, it can cause guilt feelings in others or it can cause apathy in still others.
This morning I would like to talk about money, but in a way that I hope will not make you feel guilty, or become angry, but in a way that will help us all to see that we have a duty, a responsibility from God to make wise use of the money we do have.
I would like to begin by looking at our first lesson from Ecclesiastes. The preacher says, " Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities!! All is vanity." or futility of futility’s, futility of futility’s!! All is futile, or Emptiness of emptiness, emptiness of emptiness!! All is emptiness. As you can see the word vanity as it is used in the Bible has to do with things or life being empty, futile, or insubstantial, or as the Hebrew word is literally translated, "a breath".
What the preacher is saying in Ecclesiastes is that all of life is empty, all of life is futile, all of life is like a breath here one minute, gone the next. Our text goes on to say that a man can toil all the day in field, but then when he dies and another takes over and he might not appreciate your efforts and might not take as good of care of the land.
In one sense, the preacher is saying, that things of this life in and of themselves mean very little. The preacher is saying that the toil for things, the toil of work in and of itself is really worthless, empty of no value.
But he says in the last paragraph, when you see your toil as from God, when you see that your toil is in praise and service to God, then it is not in vain, then one can eat and drink and find enjoyment in one’s toil. The preacher says, in verse 25 "for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
The preacher is saying that if your toil and effort are for God, then it has meaning and purpose. For if toil is seen in connection with God, then we will have our priorities right. Our work, our toil will be shared with God and it will not be the whole consuming effort in our lives.
For example:
" A young man found a two-dollar bill on the sidewalk, once. From that time on he never lifted his eyes from the ground when walking. In the course of 40 years he accumulated 29,516 buttons, 54,172 pins, 7 pennies, a bent back and a miserly disposition. And at the same time, he lost the glories of the sun light, the smiles of friends, the songs of birds, the beauties of flowers, trees, blue skies and all there is in life worth living for--the opportunity to serve his fellow man and spread happiness and walk with God."
The preacher is saying that we can be distracted from what is truly important, relationships, relationship with God and relationships with our family. And if we are distracted, then our toil and work is like the breath of wind here one minute, gone the next.
"A pastor in a very large congregation gave a rousing sermon on how we view our possessions one Sunday.
"Nothing we have is ours," he told the relatively wealthy members of the congregation, "all belongs to God."
One wealthy member of the congregation, a surgeon, took offense at what the pastor had to say. He invited the pastor to his lovely suburban home and it’s beautifully landscaped yard and pool area.
As the doctor took the minister on a tour of the estate, he asked pointedly, "Did you mean what you said in your sermon Sunday? Do you mean, the doctor said, with a wave of his hand, "that all this is not mine?"
The pastor simply smiled and replied, "Why don’t you ask me that question fifty years from now?"
Isn’t that the point? It really doesn’t matter what we have now, because in the end, what really matters is our relationship to God. Now don’t set me wrong, I am not saying that we shouldn’t toil or work to provide for our families.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t strive to do the best possible work we can, but what we are trying to point out is that the toil, the work, the stuff that the work buys is in and of itself is not that important. What really matters is my relationship to God and my relationship to the people around me. Because as the preacher says in Ecclesiastes apart from God everything is vanity.
Martin Luther talks about vocation as a God given gift, that what we do is a gift from God so our doing is important. But it is the priority we place on our work we are talking about this morning.
The rich farmer said to his soul,
19* And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’
20* But God said to him, ’Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
21* So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
The rich farmer was more concerned about his wealth than anything else. There needs to be a balance in life. On the one hand we need to work to take care of our families. But on the other, our families need more than a pay check. We need something more than a pay check. We need to develop sound relationships. The first relationship is with God, then our family.
It is only through God that my toil, my work, my enjoyment of life can have meaning and purpose. It is in that relationship with God then, that I can be free to work, free to use the fruits of my labor to serve God and the people around me. It is in that relationship with God that I can be free to love, free to care, free from the bonds of greed to enjoy life, to discover the beauty of relationships, the joy of a person who truly cares for me as I am, and the thrill of knowing that when this life is ended, I will be given a mansion for eternity.
Bill, an accomplished professor at a major university, understood what the preacher was trying to say in this text from Ecclesiastes. He took neither himself nor his job as seriously as he took his family and his fishing pole. The things, others took seriously--- church organizational charts and denominational hand books, money and fame Bill winked at. He was too busy visiting with the widow lady who planted tulips the same day he did last week.
Bill knew that we can take life so seriously that we think each step we take is vitally important to the future of the human race. But Bill knew we must be only semiserious about this life. Understanding the semiseriousness of life does not lead to despair, but to a free and playful spirit that gives us time to enjoy life and time to love.
In I Timothy 6: 6-8 it says: "There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if we have food and clothing with these we shall be content."
Is there a certain contentment about your life? A contentment that says I don’t have to work and toil for an over abundance of things, but I can be content with a good living. Then spend some quality time in relationships, one, my relationship with God and then my relationship with my family and my friends. Am I content in knowing that my God given skills are being used to further his kingdom through my service and through my giving? Am I content in knowing that I don’t take life so seriously, that I don’t have time to smell the roses, so to speak?
"A 45 year old man sat crying in a pastor’s office. For the last 20 years he had grabbed and strained and fought for success. Through the corporate maze he ran, never asking why, never observing how he hurt his wife or kids, never realizing he didn’t know them, never admitting that he was destroying his own body with the stress and constant work.
Now he is in the pastor’s office crying his eyes out. His wife has left him. The kids are grown and have nothing to do with him because they don’t know him. Suddenly his financial assets and career mean nothing. He is alone in the world. Nothing means anything. He is alone, cut off from his loved ones, living in a hollowness of life apart from meaningful attachments to family or God."
You could apply this story to countless other people, not just corporate executives but farmers, lawyers, business people, doctors, and yes even pastors. All of us can get so caught up in being driven by the addiction for financial success, or fame, or importance, that we can loose sight of those relationships that truly give meaning and purpose to life. It is in relationships, being with people, being with God that gives life meaning and purpose.
Vanity or vanities, like a breath of wind,what we have is here one day gone the next.
The preacher says, in verse 25 "for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
"There is great gain in godliness with contentment, "
Am I content ?
amen
