A Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie
Ecclesiastes 1:12-14;2:(1-7,11)18-23
Colossians 3:(5-11)12-17
Luke 12:13-21
Psalm 49 or 49:1-11
So why bother? "All is vanity." You can't take it with you. Why bother to buy a lottery ticket, even when it promises a quarter of a billion or more? Will it bring you pleasure? "Eat, drink, and be merry?" "This also is vanity." "All these things you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."
Do you believe it? Surely possessions and wealth are not all bad.
Over the past few months I've been moving my books. There are a lot of them, uncounted thousands. We built "a bigger barn" for them -- transformed a large garage into a library and still I'm afraid they wont' all fit. I look at my other old vacant buildings, wondering about a "branch library." Because, after all, I might one day have even more books. Like the teacher in Ecclesiastes, I'm a seeker of wisdom. And more books and bigger library is better, right?
Possessions are our security. I need the books to help write the sermons. We need money in the bank to keep the church doors open. Just like the brother who meets Jesus needs his fair share of the family inheritance.
And Jesus said to them."Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
The Teacher in Ecclesiastes had it all -- books, wisdom, money, inheritance. And in the end found he had nothing. Might as well chase the wind.
Karen was only four but she knew it wasn't fair. Her twin brother Karl had not one but both the new red dump trucks. "MOMMYYYYYY. Tell Karl to share!"
Mom arrives with a double load of building blocks and dumps them in front of Karen. Karl hangs on to both trucks and eyes the blocks. But before long both kids are busily hauling blocks in red dump trucks.
"Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." And what is Jesus' response? Not "Be fair and share." Not even "Hey, kid, who are you to tell me what to tell your brother." But "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" Jesus isn't going to tell us who is right and who is wrong. We know what happens if Mom says Karen is right and Karl is wrong. When Mom judges between them, Karen gloats and Karl sulks. The red dump trucks stand between them. And no one's having fun.
At age four the separation seldom lasts. At age forty-four the pain and leftovers of ‘you are right and he is wrong' or ‘you get the family farm and she doesn't' may be fatal to the relationship.
Jesus isn't saying red dump trucks or possessions are bad. But he warns us that our greed for possessions can destroy our relationships, And he tells a story that puts our desire to store up possessions in a new perspective.
"You fool! " Jesus says, "This very night your life is being demanded of you." You are going to die. All your possessions can't stop that from happening. Death doesn't discriminate between those with extensive libraries and those who can't read. It doesn't matter anymore who got the family inheritance or who has both red dump trucks. Facing death changes riches into vanity. What treasure do we have then?
Have you ever thought about what people will say about you at your funeral? How will they name the richness of your life? What do you hope they will say? Will they talk about how much you have in the bank? about the size of your house or how many trucks you have?
One of the blessings of being a priest is hearing those stories -- what people remember and treasure about the people they love. It isn't grandma's silver they talk about, even if they hope to inherit it. It's the time she made your whole team brownies right after you lost the section finals. It's not Bruce's six-figure bank balance we remember, it's the time he spent volunteering at the AIDS hospice, we remember his compassion and his friendship. The red dump trucks are long forgotten, but Karen and Karl remember their mother's compassion, understanding, and forgiveness.
This is being rich toward God. These are the treasures of life. Our real treasurers are those things that bring us closer to others and to God.
These treasures give life -- our treasures are found in our relationships.
None of those things for which the teacher in Ecclesiastes toils has to do with relationships or with community. The work he doesn't mention, the work that is not vanity, is the work of love.
The Apostle Paul describes this work: "As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. . . . Bear with one another . . . forgive each other . . . Above all, clothe yourselves with love . . . " for then you are rich toward God.
Jesus tells us that "life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" There is more to life than possessions. Life is about relationships, about loving God and others. Go ahead, "eat, drink, and be merry." But take care: Don't let your possessions rob you of the real treasures.