The assigned texts for this 8th Sunday after Pentecost are Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23; Psalm 49:1-12; Colossians 3:1-11; and Luke 12:13-21. The opening and ending of this sermon are adapted from the last time I preached on these texts in 2019, although I went a different direction this time inspired by Nicky Gumbel’s devotion for day 184 of the Bible in One Year app. For the rest, I drew inspiration from several commentaries on Working Preacher, including this one by Vanessa Lovelace on the Psalm, Lois Malcolm’s on Colossians, and especially Matt Skinner’s Dear Working Preacher column.
Here’s the video of the whole service and audio of just the sermon:
Grace to you and peace from the One who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
In the entire three year church lectionary, there are exactly two passages we read from the book of Ecclesiastes.
One is the famous passage about how there is a time for everything, a time to live, and a time to die; a time for planting and a time for harvesting. That one is appointed for New Years Day, which seems appropriate.
Today, we hear the one other passage appointed from Ecclesiastes. This one is about the meaning of life. Or rather, it’s about what is not the meaning of life.
This is one of my favorite opening lines of any book in the Bible: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Or in other translations, “Perfectly pointless…everything is pointless” (CEB)
“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” (NIV) “Smoke, nothing but smoke. There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.” (MSG) “Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all—nothing makes sense.” (CEV)
After that fantastic opening, the writer of Ecclesiastes spends much of the book recounting how he went through a series of experiments searching for the meaning of life.
He searched for wisdom, and acquired great wisdom, but with greater wisdom came greater understanding of the problems in the world, so wisdom lead to sorrow.
He searched for meaning through pleasure, through laughter, through wine and food, work, and wealth, but all these turned out to be meaningless, chasing after wind. In the grand scheme of things, on the cosmic scale of time, nothing he accomplished mattered.
He even talks about having 100 children to establish a legacy, but then he remembers death comes for everyone and all his children are going to die too. It’s all vanity. It’s all meaningless.
From chapter 6: “who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?”
If you’re looking for an uplifting, hopeful book, Ecclesiastes is not it. But it does point to the reality of being human. We are designed to seek meaning and purpose in life, but no matter how hard we try, no matter how much hard work we do, no matter what we accomplish, nothing we do lasts.
We are mortal creatures doomed to die. Death is coming. Amen
We continue with our hymn of the day.
No, just kidding. We’re not ending on that note, because as Christians, we know a better way to look at life.
We know life is not meaningless. We know we will die, but we also know we have been set free from death. Death is not the end of the story.
Turn to Colossians. Paul says in verse 2, “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.”
The fact that we’re all going to die does not make life meaningless and pointless. Instead, knowing that we are going to die sets us free to live.
So the question becomes, what difference does this freedom make in your life? What difference does Jesus make in your life?
The answer to that question is your testimony, your faith story. As followers of Jesus, we need to be able to articulate the difference Jesus makes in our lives. That’s our testimony to our neighbors.
If we believe God is calling us to share the good news with others, to invite others into the Body of Christ, then we need to be able to identify how Jesus has changed our own lives.
For some people, that’s an easy question. Some people have dramatic conversion stories where they met Jesus at the lowest points in their lives and left drug use, or a life of robbing banks, or whatever and became a missionary. Fantastic! Those stories are great! But I suspect most of us have more straightforward stories.
How many of you were baptized as infants? I believe in infant baptism. My baptism was the day I was born, because I wasn’t doing well at breathing and it looked like it might be the only chance. I believe infant baptism is Biblical, with stories of whole households converting and being baptized.
Infant baptism is theologically rich, a great picture of God’s grace, because babies can’t do anything to deserve God’s love or make a decision for Christ. It’s not a choice you’re making or something you’re doing; it’s clearly God doing all the work. The baby does nothing to help.
But sometimes it can feel like I’ve been robbed of a testimony.
I can’t point to a moment of saying here’s when I became a Christian, here’s when I got saved, or met Jesus. But that too is a testimony—a testimony to God’s grace, to God’s work, not ours. And it’s still worth reflecting on what would be different in your life if you didn’t know Jesus.
So, I want you to take a moment and write down an answer to that question, “What difference does Jesus make in your life?” I won’t collect it or make you share—although you certainly if you want to—I just want you to take a moment to think about your testimony, what would be different if you weren’t a Christian.
And if you can’t think of anything, well, the fact that you’re here right now, the fact that you’re taking the time to watch and listen is one thing. But I’m hoping and trusting you can come up with something more too.
———
So what’d you come up with? Maybe you’d be like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, only storing stuff up for yourself.
The world tells us our goal is to accumulate more, to work harder, to get enough, to do enough to not be forgotten. If you don’t believe me, watch a commercial break on television—it’s all about what you’re lacking and how some product or service can fix you.
But because of Jesus, we don’t have to spend our lives trying to make our own immortality—Jesus has already secured that for us.
We don’t have to keep wondering if we’re working hard enough, if we’re climbing the corporate ladder fast enough, if our retirement accounts are fat enough. We have been set free from bondage to fear, set free from the chains of self-sufficiency, set free from the stress of trying and failing to save ourselves. We don’t have to try to find eternal life in temporary, earthly things like fornication, passion, greed.
The Psalm we read tells us there is no ransom, no price one can give to God for one’s life. There is nothing you can pay to live forever and never see the grave.
And yet we keep trying. There are at least 250 people who have paid around $28,000 each to have their bodies cryonically frozen after death, hoping that at some point science will progress enough to bring them back to life, and someone will still care about them. (Source) Billionaire Larry Ellison’s foundation spends $40 million a year studying the biology of aging, trying to find a way to stop the aging process, because as he once said, “Death makes no sense to me.” (Source) Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Because we know Jesus, we have an eternal purpose. We don’t have to fear death, because we have been raised with Christ.
Rather than looking to temporary things like money or possessions or any of this world’s pleasure for the meaning of life, we are called to live differently as God’s chosen people.
As Paul continues in Colossians 3, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Forgive each other. “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Maybe that’s your testimony of knowing Jesus. I’m not saying being a Christian automatically makes you a nice person, but it ought to change the way you interact with people. Following Jesus means loving the people God made.
Maybe it means getting rid of some anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language, because now you know everyone you encounter is someone for whom Christ died, someone made in the image of God.
That’s also true for you. In the waters of baptism, your old self has been drowned and put to death. You have died with Christ, and you have been raised with Christ.
Who you were before doesn’t matter. Whether you were Greek or Jew, slave or free, male or female, rich or poor; whether you were tenant or landlord, black or white, young or old, judge or prisoner, you have put on Christ.
Knowing Jesus means knowing you are loved unconditionally, that you don’t need to prove yourself by what job you have, who your friends are, what clubs you’re in, how busy you are. You are set free. You are being renewed in the image of your creator who has redeemed you, who declares that your life has meaning.
This hope we have in Christ, this is what the world needs to hear. As a church, we can have great music, and the best sound system, and the nicest hymnals and the best coffee, and the best sermon graphics and most compelling social media, and that’s all great, but what makes a difference to our neighbors is seeing the change Jesus makes in your life and my life.
2,500 years after Ecclesiastes, everyone is still looking for meaning and purpose.
So beloved of God, may your life be a testimony to God’s love for you and for the world, a testimony of the difference Jesus makes for you. May you know the truth of God’s boundless grace and forgiveness when you fall short of that goal.
May you use your freedom to love and serve your neighbors. And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen