|
About Calvary
Education
Events
Fellowship
Links
Music
People
Sermons
Service
Worship
Home
|
The Rev. Laura Matarazzo
August 5, 2007 --- The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
This morning, George
Hayman, our Parish Administrator, has presented us with a rather strange
image on the front of our bulletin. From time to time, he likes to sneak
some humor or whimsy into our sometimes staid weekly practices. You have
before you a caricature of William Connor Magee, Bishop of Petersborough
and later (briefly) Archbishop of York in the late 19th
century. George found this image in his Google search around the word,
“vanity” and you can just make out the title of the magazine in which it
appeared: “Vanity Fair.” Unbeknownst to me until I did some research of
my own, there have been several “Vanity Fair” magazines in our
Anglo-American history and this caricature is from a British version
that was published between 1868 and 1914. All of these magazines, true
to their name, profited from portraying in print the vagaries of our
human vanity…our concern for appearances, our common conceits, and our
excessive pride. It certainly looks as though Bishop Magee is
admonishing his congregation on the evils of such vanity!
The author of
Ecclesiastes takes the word, “vanity” to a deeper level. Beneath that
superficial and unwarranted pride of person we call vanity is something
else: a sure and certain futility. None of us will retain our youthful
beauty, our strength of muscle, our acuity of brain, no matter how many
cosmetic surgeries, workouts, or crossword puzzles we indulge in. We
delude ourselves if we think we can indefinitely sustain our youth or
our beauty or our health. Trusting in our own capacity to sustain our
lives is futile. It is vanity!
In fact, this passage
from Ecclestiastes would have us believe that all of life is in vain.
These particular verses, however, leave out the balance of the Teacher’s
lesson. The verse immediately following our reading is this: “There is
nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in
their toil. This also I saw is from God.” God’s life-giving provision is
to be enjoyed and even our toil (our work, our career, whatever we find
at hand to do) is intended by God to give us pleasure. From the
next chapter, hear this, “I know that there is nothing better for [human
beings] than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;
moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take
pleasure in all their toil.” When the Teacher of Ecclesiastes seems to
despair of life—seeing the wicked flourish beside the good and his own
labor’s yield ultimately left to a stranger—he concludes that God
intends for us to enjoy what God has given us now, today. Here is the
heart of the Teacher’s message: “since humans are not masters of the
universe, but afflicted by vanity in all its forms, their good is simply
to enjoy life—both work and play—as God’s gift and the ‘lot’ for which
they are responsible.”
Jesus is teaching about
vanity as well in our reading from Luke’s gospel. When a young man
insists that Jesus divide the assets of their estate between him and his
brother, Jesus rejects the role of arbitrator. Then he tells the story
of a rich man who built some barns for the purpose of storing up his
grain. I can tell you, this is common practice in the agricultural
community—everyone stores their grain in barns—and, certainly, parallels
in our more urban lives--like depositing money in a savings account or
arranging for payroll deductions to go into an IRA are good and faithful
practices. Saving is a virtue and a necessity. So, what’s the rub here?
What does Jesus mean to teach us by this parable?
His meaning lies in the
introductory sentence. Jesus begins his story with the admonition: “Take
care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does
not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Here is the rub. While
saving and investing and considering the future are important parts of
responsible stewardship of our resources, we need to beware that our
hearts and minds are not enslaved by these principles and practices. The
rich man used his resources to build storage for his resources…an
entirely selfish—self-contained—enterprise. Only after he had secured
what he believed would sustain him does he address his soul…as if his
wealth will assure the wellbeing of his soul! On the contrary, it will
not even sustain his physical body, for he will in the night! What,
then, is the value of all the thought and time and energy and money
spent in accumulating and storing that grain? What is the fruit of his
singularly focused labor? All has been vanity!
Not only that, but
consider the effect his hording could have and probably did have on his
community. His greed removed his assets from circulation and we cannot
know how many of his neighbors went hungry as a result. Not only was his
labor in vain, but his vanity wounded the community.
Now, let me introduce
you to someone not found in our scriptures this morning. Her name is
Nola Ochs and you may have seen her picture in the last issue of AARP
magazine or, perhaps in a recent newspaper article. Nola, 95, is the
world’s oldest person to graduate from college. She earned her BA from
Fort Hays University in Kansas this past May. Actually, the story of her
higher education begins 77 years ago when she enrolled in a
correspondence course at Fort Hays in 1930. But, as so many of us do,
she got sidetracked: “I lived on a farm. I was a mother, grandmother,
great grandmother,” she says, “I had plenty to do. But the yearning [for
learning] didn’t go away.” After her husband died in 1972, she began
taking correspondence courses again, slowly plugging away at her
Bachelor’s Degree, and she spent this past year at Fort Hays in a dorm
for non-traditional students working on her general studies degree. When
she graduated in May she received her degree alongside a very special
fellow-graduate—her granddaughter, Alexandra. What does Nola say about
tomorrow? “I’m considering a Master’s Degree.”
Now, I would wager that
there was no less dedication, no less attention to work and, over the
years, as much expenditure of time and energy on that BA for Nola as
there was for the accumulation of grain in the rich man’s barn. What do
you think?
On the other side, compare the results:
The rich man sought to insure his life—save
his own soul. He appears to have lived out of a compulsion to acquire
and to keep, a solitary occupation which may well have left him to die
alone, in the shadow of those great barns.
Nola was satisfying a yearning for fulfillment. She spent years in
selfless child-rearing, home-making and education. Today, she is
supported by a rich web of priceless relationships. She has truly
enjoyed—derived joy from—the life she has been given. And I’ve no doubt,
she has had more fun!
This is not rocket
science, I know, but it certainly bears repeating and it calls for a
little self-examination, doesn’t it? What are we up to? How are
we spending or hording ourselves? God delights in our
creativity and in our productivity, yes, but not for ensuring wealth or
security or life—THAT is vanity—but because in these ways we .honor him
and serve our neighbor. God delights in the ways we give of ourselves
for the sake of giving, create for the sake of creating, and love simply
for the sake of loving. This is being rich toward the God who has so
richly blessed us.
You know, when I look
at our Bishop Magee here, I fear that this caricature does not justly
convey his priestly soul. He looks so dour I want to tell him to lighten
up! Same with you…no, not that you look dour, any of you…but I want to
say to you as well, “Lighten up.” You will not live forever; you do not
know when you will die. You cannot save your own life. All of your days
are in God’s loving hand. Let go, then, and enjoy what God has given you
today.
Back to Sermons
|
