Eighth Sunday after Pentecost August 3, 2025 Faith, Okemos Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23, Psalm 49:1-12, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21 Living Under the Sun, Living from Above Grace to you and peace… [Please take a few deep breaths. This will be a difficult sermon to hear, but I ask you to wait with me for the precious good news at the end…] Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity… it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after the wind… What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which we toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity. [There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw is from the hand of God…] Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:22-24 In an email sent from Kalea on Wednesday, I invited you to read the entire book of Ecclesiastes. It is a sobering, largely dark assessment of the human story “under the sun.” If you had time to read it, I like to take a couple of minutes now to hear a sampling of your reactions… I think of the tens of thousands in our country whose jobs have been either completely eliminated or made more burdensome. I think of those trying to support themselves and/or their families but are paid far from sufficiently for their work, whose days, in the words of the Teacher, “are full of pain, and their work is a vexation.” Maybe you, like me, remember projects in which you passionately spent countless hours and perhaps a fair amount of money, all to see them either immediately or eventually go up in smoke. And don’t we see in our own day the erosion of hard-fought protections for the poorest among us or for the people in Gaza or for the well-being of Earth itself? I remember Dr. Leupold, an Old Testament professor at our seminary in Columbus, who reminded us of the importance of the phrase “under the sun.” For him that was key to understanding the darkness and seemingly endless repetition, generation after generation, of the quest for power and the presence of insatiable greed. [Historians don’t have to look far to see the parallels of the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer throughout our 250 years as a nation and throughout the thousands of years of the lives and deaths of countless empires, nations, and kingdoms.] So the perspective and wisdom of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. Which perspective is then enriched by Jesus’ story of the rich man in our gospel for today. Jesus said: Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. For the rich man, life under the sun was going great. And yet. as Jesus told them this story [here in the Message translation often read in our Tuesday Bible Studies]: The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ’Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself. “Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!” Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods – who gets it?’ That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.” Or this last thought in the words in the NRSV translation (in our bulletin): So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God. Next Sunday you will hear these further precious words of Jesus: Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven… All of which is to say, in Jesus all is not vanity, all is not a chasing after the wind! Which then takes us to our Second Reading from Colossians 3, words which call us to a live this vexing life above the sun. These words in Colossians don’t deny how hard and painful and empty and lonely and, yes, how finite is our life on Earth, our life under the sun. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes counsels a little relief in seizing the moment [Carpe Diem] doing your best to find a measure of enjoyment in your work, in drink… in your eating… But hear again these words: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, the you also will be revealed with him in glory. What does that mean, “you have ...
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