Is All This a Waste of Time?

Proper 13C

In the Name of God –

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

There’s a quote I read from a calendar many years ago, which says, “The harder I work, the behinder I get!” Have you ever had that feeling… that no matter how hard you work, no matter how much effort you make, no matter how many hours you spend working and trying and striving and stressing about all you have to do, that you just can’t seem to get it all done… can’t seem to even get caught up? Does it ever feel like all you do, no matter how much, that in the end, it’s just been a waste of time?

I mean, you go to work, and there’s your in box… chocked-full of work to be done, projects awaiting your attention, jobs that need to be organized and completed. You have deadlines to meet, schedules and appointments to keep. Your boss – even it that happens to be yourself – just seems to keep piling it on. You get one things finally done, and here comes three more. My personal favorite are those recurring tasks that have to be done week after week, month after month.

On my computer, I use Microsoft Outlook for my calendar, tasks, and appointments. I have all my recurring tasks entered in to remind me to do them. There’s the weekly deposit, the news article for the Progress-Index, the monthly fire-inspection, the monthly news letter, the quarterly tax returns, the annual reports. One of the most frustrating and aggravating things about the Outlook Task Panel, is that when you complete one of these recurring tasks and click on the little box that lets the program know you’ve done it, Outlook immediately loads the same task for next week, or next month, or next year. I no more than give a huge sigh of relief that I finished the newsletter, and lo-and-behold, Outlook reminds me that it’s due again in 30 days! Its very frustrating… and I sometimes come away with the sense that the harder I work, the behinder I get! I even sometimes get that feeling that it’s been a waste of time and effort even trying to get it all done. Yes, even Pastor’s get frustrated sometimes by the work they have to do.

But isn’t that really how life is? Each day, we get up, get dressed, have our coffee, and go to work or school. We go through the same routine, day after day… trying to get our work done, day after day… only to come home tired, exhausted, even frustrated day after day… only to get up the next morning and do it all again. Makes you wonder what it would have been like if Adam and Eve hadn’t been so stupid… I mean, they had it made!

Today’s Scripture Lessons speak to this idea of working and striving; and the question that begs to be answered from today’s lesson is “What Good is it all?” Is it all just a waste of time?

In the first lesson, King Solomon – the wisest man who ever lived – is expressing this sense of “What Good is it all?” He uses the word Vanity to sum up all the work and effort one makes in life. That word Vanity, means futility, emptiness, uselessness, pointlessness. It’s a good word for describing exactly how Solomon felt, and how we sometimes feel about the work we have to do, the recurring tasks, the Outlook Reminders, the overstuffed in-box, the never ending chores and housework that all needs doing. To sum it up, I think of when Chris was little, around 5 or 6 years old, and I was trying to teach him to make his bed every morning. One day, while struggling to make his bed, he looked up at me and said, “Dad, this is a waste of time… I’m just going to mess it up again tonight when I go to bed!” You know what? He still has trouble, as does Nikki, in making their beds every day.

Solomon, in writing this passage in Ecclesiastes is frustrated by the apparent emptiness, the pointlessness, futility – vanity – of all efforts and work we do in life. He even goes so far as to point out that ever after one has worked their whole life long and achieved some degree of success, has amassed some degree of money and comfort, that in the end, you die, and someone else gets it all in the form of an inheritance… and they will probably just fight over it and waste it all anyway!

In the Gospel Lesson, Jesus is dealing with this very issue, when someone comes to him complaining that he hasn’t received his fair share of the family fortune and inheritance. He tells the story of a man – a rich man – a very rich man – who planted a crop, had a super harvest, then tore down his barns and built new ones so that he could store all this surplus grain. He had worked hard, and honestly, doing his job and gaining his reward. But in the end, what good did it do him; because God said to him that very night he would die. Yes, this man had worked hard…. Yes, this man could now retire… yes, this man was rich… and yes… this man was dead. So, what good did it do him? None whatsoever! It was all empty, all pointless, all meaningless, and all vanity… Because now he had to stand before God and face the great Judgment in which his soul – not his fortune – hung in the balance. His bank account was full… but his soul was empty. His barns were full… but his eternal destiny was in doubt. He worked hard making a life for himself, but hadn’t worked towards making Eternal Life for himself. It was indeed… all Vanity.

Now, it would usually be at this point in the homily, that many preachers and most televangelists would begin to wax lyrical about how evil it is for you have any money and that you should give it all to them, so that God would bless you. But to do is a perversion of both the First Lesson and the Gospel Lesson which we have read. When Jesus says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God…" he is not talking about tithing or offerings or giving all your money to God. As I said, to attempt to twist this passage into an appeal for more money is simply a perversion of the text, and an abuse of the true message that lies therein.

So what is the true message of these texts? Is life just a waste of time? Is all our effort and work and saving and striving all just empty, pointless, meaningless vanity? Is life nothing more than just working yourself to death? No! The true meaning of this week’s lessons can be found in what we have read from the Second Lesson today. Paul gives the point of our existence in Colossians, chapter 3 – and in this passage, we can find the true meaning of life, the real purpose of our lives, and the real work we should be striving at. Paul is telling us that our lives are not a waste of time if our focus is on spiritual things and not what we can consume, that loving each other, serving God in true sincerity, living a life of praise and worship before him, and sharing all that we have and are in Christ with those around us are the things that give our vain, empty, pointless existence any meaning at all. In short, Paul is telling us what it means to be rich towards God, in answer to Jesus’ last statement about the rich man.

It’s not a bad thing, nor is it evil, to work hard, to try to earn more money, to save for college or retirement, or to by that boat, or take that trip. Our work, despite it’s frustrations and the sometimes apparent waste of time really are important, and we should strive to be our best and do our best in everything we do. And, it is important to plan for the future, to be prudent about college and retirement and debt and savings. These things are not evil in and of themselves. But in order to give all these things any meaning at all… to give our lives and miserable existences any real meaning at all, we must place God first in our lives… and then do all that we do with an eye towards honoring Him… not just getting rich or comfortable. We can indeed have it all… but we need to guard against having it all at the expense of our souls.

Let me ask you this… Is your faith and relationship with God so full of the riches of his grace, so full of the riches of his joy, so full of the riches of his love, and so full of the riches of heaven, that if you got up tomorrow morning, and went to work… and your boss had to let you go… and you went home only to find that your house had burned to the ground… and you called your bank to get some help only to discover that they had called in your loans and seized your assets… so you called your broker to cash in your 401K only to find that your investments were bankrupt… so that now you are completely penniless, homeless, helpless, and destitute… is your faith and relationship with God so real, so rich, so powerful, and so important to you, that you could still find some joy, some peace, so hope, and some meaning in your life? Would you call out to God for grace and strength, or would you shake your fist at God and blame him for destroying your life? When we stand before him, we will not have our job, our home, our assets, or our investment portfolio… we will have only our souls and what we’ve done to show our love for God and for others… to present as any defense of our selves…

Remember this: Some of the most pious, spiritual, righteous people that ever walked the earth were also some of the poorest, most destitute people that ever walked the earth… but they had peace where they had no money… they had hope where they had no home… they had joy where they had no riches… and today, they walk around in rich in Heaven with God. Remember this too… that some people are so poor, that all they have is money. That describes the rich man in today’s Gospel lesson. Does that describe you?

Life without God is indeed vanity. But life with God is wonderful and has true meaning. Solomon eventually learned this, and even wrote it later in Ecclesiastes… he came to realize that a life focused on self…. Is vain… but a life focused on God and others is a life full of meaning.

This week, let each one of us take a look at our lives, our work, our goals, and our priorities; and see out they match up in our relationship with God and with others; and then let us work towards making God first in our lives, and sharing who and what we are with those around us. Let that be our legacy, the inheritance we pass on to those who will come after us. Let our focus be our relationship with God because in the end… that’s all we really have to save us. Let us pray…

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy and grace; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.