Sermon
delivered at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish – Sunday 4th August 2019 – Morning
Worship
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke
12:13-21
“Vanity
of Vanities, All is Vanities”
May
I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and may my words be a
blessing to all who hear them. Amen
“Vanity
of Vanities, All is Vanities” so begins the Book of
Ecclesiastes – that book of “Wisdom” attributed to King Solomon of Israel who
was renowned for his wisdom throughout the then known world. These opening
words are hardly ones of encouragement though, telling the reader that life
seems to be pointless – people come and go – the cycles of nature and history are
constantly repeating themselves – there is nothing new. Our highest goal, he tells us, is wisdom and
even that is futile - for the more one has the more one has to suffer he
says. However much wealth or status we
have – life is still empty. Wisdom is better
than folly but in the end death makes fools of us all is the conclusion which
he reaches.
These are depressing thoughts on
such a lovely sunny Sunday morning and
not an easy topic on which to preach. Yet the more I reflect on Solomon’s words
and then reconsider them in the light of our second and third readings the more
they make sense and the more they concentrate my mind, and hopefully yours, on
the important things that matter in this life; the things we often overlook
too.
Solomon was also renowned for his wise judgments –
remember the story of the two women who had a dispute over the parenthood of
the baby. Likewise we read in our Gospel
reading of someone in the crowd approaching Jesus to ask him to arbitrate over
a family inheritance. Jesus’s answer to
him is that it is not his role to act as judge or arbitrator but uses the
opportunity to give a moral warning with his parable of the rich man and his
barns.
We all know that parable very well, I am sure, but how
often do we, ourselves, take heed of its meaning and spend so much of our lives
collecting and hoarding things – I am probably more guilty than many here as a
quick chat with Liz over coffee will bear testimony or better still a quick
visit to view the inside of our garage. I, like many others am often guilty of
procrastination too – I recall early on in my school life a teacher scrawling
on the front of a late essay in red ink “Procrastination is the thief of time”.
I know that is true but I still procrastinate – hence the numbers of boxes
still to be sorted into save, donate or bin.
Collecting and hoarding is something that we often do to
feel good about ourselves and to provide comfort in having things around
us. It makes us feel that we have
achieved something and that we matter. In my case I think it is often because I
procrastinate in getting down to the de-cluttering that I need to do.
Solomon is telling us that “at the end of the day”, to
use that horrible expression, what we have on this earth when we die is no more
than we had when we entered it – or as my grandfather often said in his almost
incomprehensible East Anglian accent accent (he was an undertaker’s assistant
in a Norfolk village) – “all the time I’ve been doing this job I’ve never seen
pockets in a shroud”; simple wisdom from a wise simple man who lived a simple
life – and a happy one too.
Paul, in his letter to the Colossians sets out in very
clear and unambiguous language that those of us who have been raised with
Christ, in other words those who have come to believe and follow him should set
their hearts and minds not on the transient things of this world, not on
earthly pleasures and vices which he lists in some detail, but should get rid
of those things, should de-clutter ourselves of them and concentrate on renewing
ourselves in those things which God wanted us to have and to be. As all
children of God, Paul tells us that we are all equal in God’s eyes – as he puts
it no longer Greeks or Jews, circumcised or uncircumcised but Christ in all and
all in Christ. This is a message, also,
which Jesus gives to his disciples when he sends them out ahead of him.
I think some of
our modern politicians would do well to heed the sentiments of Solomon, Jesus
and Paul. Too many times today we see
examples of a world where the poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer.
Small barns are being pulled down to make way for larger barns – and this is
not necessarily metaphorically; money is hoarded and often we seem to strive to
make more of it in ways which destroy our natural world. Solomon is correct – the cycles of nature and
history do repeat themselves and, increasingly, it seems, despite having
knowledge of these things we are not wise enough to learn from them and adjust
our behaviour. I think this is an area where we as Christians should be
actively engaged.
The first module of learning I undertook at Sarum College
when I trained for church ministry was the art of theological reflection. Taught as an academic topic I found it quite
difficult at first to grasp in the context of theories by differing theologians
but in essence it is quite simple when explained in the context of something
called the Pastoral Cycle as simplified by one of our lecturers, Dr. Andrew
Todd. This technique has also been used by investigators of near miss incidents
involving aircraft and goes something like this – An Incident/Experience Occurs
– We Analyse that Incident/Experience (i.e. We ask ourselves what actually
happened?); We then reflect upon this and bring into the equation similar
examples from similar cases or from our own previous experiences – after this
we make a decision on what could or should be done to avoid it happening
again in the future and then finally
execute that plan of action. In theological reflection we add in, at the reflective
stage, examples from the Christian tradition – often examples of scripture from
the bible to reach a conclusion and an action which conforms with our Christian
beliefs and Faith. We may be required to
go round the cycle again modifying it as we do so that it becomes more of an
upward spiral than going round in circles.
Jesus was very much an advocate for the poor. If ever he had a bad word to say about anyone
you will find that it was more often about those who thought they were in a
comfortable position both spiritually and financially; those for which status
and wealth was more important. People
like the rich young ruler which provked the phrase about the camel and the eye
of the needle. The people that Jesus ministered to the most tended to be the
poor and humble.
Decades ago many Christian missionaries went out into
Africa and Asia to convert the heathen natives as they put it. They did much good work it has to be said but
sometimes their aims were double edged – wanting the local inhabitants to adopt
Western ways and values – some of which were not exactly helpful to their own
cultures and countries. Now it is interesting to observe that missionaries are
now being sent out to the western world from such places as China, South Korea
and many countries in Africa where Christianity is growing immensely.
Christianity is growing rapidly in many of these countries and we are seeing
miracles occurring not least examples of Muslims meeting Christ in visions and
experiences.
The decline of the Christian Faith is very much a
myth. For 2,000 years it has flourished
and will continue to do so, so long as we take on board the teachings of Christ
from scripture.
Let me add, finally, that I am not criticising those who
are wealthy – neither did Christ. It is how you choose to treat it. Rob
Parson’s in his book “The Money Secret” writes “The secret is as old as time itself, and no amount of money can
replace its power. The poor who find it can find financial security, the
wealthy who despise it can end their life as paupers”.
Being unwise with our money and wealth can lead to
stresses and untold unhappiness. Our man
in the parable thought that by hoarding it for the future he would be happy and secure – but no, his
life came to a sudden end.
In my experience the answer is most often prayer – if God
wishes us to do something and we do it, as Paul says, with God in us, then it can happen regardless of the cost. That was the message of Jesus in the sending
out of the disciples.
So today, as we go out, let us theologically reflect on
our lives and our priorities. Do we put
God in us as a priority. Who knows, I
might even go home from here today and empty another box!
Amen
MFB/02082019
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