The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
I suppose everyone has heard the old saying, "Those who will not learn from history will have to repeat it." Today's Bible readings give us some examples of that.
The first reading is from the book of Ecclesiastes, which is also called The Wisdom of Solomon . You remember that King Solomon was the son of King David. When Solomon became king, God asked Solomon what gift he would like from God. God expected that Solomon would ask for power or much money, but Solomon asked for wisdom to govern the people well. God gave him the wisdom he asked for, but also gave him money and power, too!
However, Solomon had to learn the same lesson that most of us are still learning today. He found, as we are all finding out, that having a lot of money, being famous, being a king with lots of power, and being able to do almost anything he wanted to do, did not bring him peace of mind and a happy soul. So Solomon wrote this book to tell people that money, power, fame and all the pleasure in the world really have no value at all. When you die, the money and the power go to somebody else, and the pleasure that you spent your time and money looking for, doesn't do you any good. As he got older, he began to regret that he had worked so hard for money, power, property and fame. He regretted the time he had wasted in empty pleasure-seeking. At the end of the book, Solomon warns that only a life well lived according to God's law is worth anything.
Solomon lived about 800 or 900 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem...almost 3,000 years ago. And we people today STILL haven't learned the lessons he tried to teach us!
Jesus DID know this lesson, though, and he tried to teach it to others, too. A man came to him and asked Jesus to settle a disagreement between the man and his brother. It was about how to divide up the property their father had left them. Jesus did not answer the question exactly. Instead, he told a parable or story that gives the answer, but he left it for the people who heard the story to figure out the answer for themselves. We read that story today.
A rich farmer, Jesus said, was very proud and happy because he had harvested more crops than his barn could hold. So he decided to tear down all his barns and build much bigger ones to hold all the crops that he had harvested. And then, he thought, he would be really happy. He was already rich but he would get even more money from selling the crops. And there were lots and lots of crops to sell...barns and barns full of wheat and other things. Then, the man thought, he would be truly happy. He would be very rich and would have the power to sell those crops and get even richer. He would be able to buy fine food and wine, travel, have any kind of pleasure he wanted. But God said to the man, Well, you know, you are going to die tonight. So what kind of value do your money and your crops have for you? What kind of value will you get for them? You can't take them with you. Someone else will get the money and the profits and the pleasure you planned for yourself!
Of course, we know what the story means. We knock ourselves out working hard to earn money to buy a nice house and a fine car and the latest fashionable clothes. We use our money to go to expensive restaurants, shows, and on long vacation trips. Maybe we buy tickets to concerts or ball games, or buy stock in the stock market. We spend a lot of money on pleasure. But what does it get us? We are going to die sometime, and all that money and power can't keep us alive forever. In fact, doctors tell us that eating too much, drinking too much, and being too lazy will make us die faster, from a heart attack or stroke. So what good is it to be selfish, to work ourselves to death and neglect our family, to buy expensive
artificial pleasures instead of enjoying God's beautiful earth, and to sacrifice our lives and other peoples' lives in order to get more money? We cannot take the money and fame and power with us when we die. About the only worthwhile thing we can do with our life is to try to grow closer to God and help God take care of other people and the earth he gave us to care for.
Isn't it too bad that we cannot learn from others' examples? Isn't it too bad that we refuse to learn from history? The saints found out what St. Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Colossae: the things that our bodies want us to do are mostly worthless. The only things worth doing are the things that bring us closer to God and help other people. Amen.
