“So Walk As Christ, Made Alive Together with Him, Seeking Things that are Above”
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
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11 Sunday after Pentecost
From Paul, and his brethren, to the church at Colossae: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Bridge
If you’ve missed the news over the last two weeks, England has a new prince. In line for the throne, a
little baby of 8 pounds, 6 ounces they named George Alexander Louis (or “Georgie, as he’ll be
nicknamed) was born Monday, July 22nd, at 4:24 p.m.
It appears that, for the time being, he’ll have (aside from his parents) his own security force of 50
armed guards to protect him. In line for the crown, Prince George is the most precious baby in the
country.
On that same day, another 216,000 babies were born worldwide, 2,000 of which were born (along
with George), in England. Even though they all looked pretty similar, none were granted what George
has been. From fanfare to prestige and notoriety to instant wealth and an earthly-successful future,
baby George has every other born that day (or, likely, any other born most any day) whipped in countless
spades. Regarding “being all that he can be”, George (just by navigating his mother’s birth-canal) has
that quest pretty-much guaranteed.
He will, as Prince … and, then, King of England … be the beneficiary of England’s crown jewels in
every sense of the word. Net worth, just for being born, stands to be the assumption of holdings valued
at around 12 Billion dollars.
Now, I have to tell you, that little baby won’t consume 12 Billion dollars worth of stuff. Most all of
that will be a trust that he’ll be charged with passing down the line … to children and children’s
children. George will have a stock-pile. But it will be his duty to pass that stock-pile on … even make
it bigger … for the benefit of future babies to be born into that royal family.
Text
Today’s readings talk about stock-piling. They describe our options for such a task that’s before
each one of us. Even our births offer a charge-of-stewardship that we have to assume somehow …
and, just because a whole country didn’t invest in us handsomely, someBody did. The only question is:
what do we do with that investment?
King Solomon had a lot, personally, in common with the future King George. Born into the wealth of
Israel entrusted through his father David, Solomon knew nothing but the best. David, at least, could
remember a humble start, but Solomon never experienced anything but the courts of royalty. His
responsibility (because of the flesh of his skin) was to receive, stock-pile, steward, pass-on, and, even,
build upon what Israel and his father, David, handed him.
Comparatively, the country of Israel had gone through a profitable run, so through battle
acquisitions … and, quite honestly, God-given prosperity … England’s royal wealth had nothing on
theirs. Even without the same level of news-media, still, then in Israel, royal births and movements were
the talk-of-the-towns. Premier to any local happenings, the royal ones Jerusalem’s-way were cherished
(like in England) as the nation’s own.
But Solomon was a student of human nature … including his own. He began this book of
Ecclesiastes’-obversations with “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity”, and he proceeded to account the rather
useless pursuits of people (himself included, too often) seeking the wrong stuff.
The Hebrew word translated as “vanity”, there, also means “vapor”. “Smoke and mirrors” …
“vapor” every quest of this earth is, Solomon said. The man who had everything said that vaporous is all
the earthly stuff that he possessed and he and other people spent lifetimes and livelihoods chasing
after with a vengeance. “Vapor” the earthly stuff all was.
He put it this way: “It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy
with.” The toil, or “sweat of his face”, as God calls it in Genesis 3, will earn mankind a “sorrow”, even
in the so-called revelry in its fruits. Why we had to invent the phrase “stop and smell the roses” is
because “smelling roses” is about as good as things of this world really get. Advertisers will tell you to
never be satisfied … and they only tell you what you already know … you never can, really, be
satisfied after you’ve done even the best of your earthly-only toil.
Humans grow up for the purpose of growing up ... that’s about it. Then, when grown, they wish
they could re-capture their youth. They work for the weekend, then dread Monday because it’s, yet,
five work-days until, again, the weekend. They labor for a retirement and comfort of a lifestyle.
Vacations, from their efforts, are cherished and they enter their older years wishing they had more
time. “Spending the children’s inheritance” is the joke because they’ve worked to build the inheritance
that they’re afraid they’ll never get to use.
Solomon called all of that “vanity” … the “unhappy business, [again], that God has given to the
children of man to be busy with.” Without Him and His ways to be busy with, the rest is (and can
only be) “vanity”.
Jesus identified some of that “vanity”. Asked, by someone, to adjudicate earthly possessions between
two brothers, Jesus judged the whole issue as wasted energy. “Take care, and be on your guard against all
covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” and His parable,
then, described the goofiness of strivings for money, possessions, things, power, position, or fame from
His Divine perspective. Listen to how Jesus tells this … and try to follow it from His Father’s
perspective:
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have
nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones,
and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods
laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is
required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Now, you may feel exempt from that warning because you may consider yourself not having
earthly “treasures for [yourself]” to begin with. But I’m going to tell you that not having them never,
ever, stopped too many folks from trying to get ‘em. If you doubt me, look at the successful venture of
the “lottery”. And, then, there’s all those who covetously wish they could be a movie star, sports hero,
singing talent, or CEO. “One’s life does not consist, [Jesus said], in the abundance of his possessions”
… nor (Solomon might like to add) in the sweat generated attempts to get them. “Vanity of vanities!
All is Vanity!”
Paul’s letter to the Colossians has been building to this point. “So walk” (we’d been urged) in a
different way than the vain ways of this world. If, indeed, you’d been “raised with Christ” (which is
that baptismal raising), “seek [the Epistle says] the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Why?
Because “you have died”, it tells us, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is
your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Hidden in Christ, you have an ability that those who aren’t don’t. That second paragraph of the
Colossians reading lists a whole bunch of things that you can do without. That “sexual immorality, [the]
impurity, [the] evil desires, [the] covetousness idolatry” … you know: the being dis-satisfied and
wasting your time chasing “vapors” stuff. Those, and so many other sins of this world, you can escape
because the Holy Spirit, in you, helps you with that if you contribute to the process.
We sang a hymn last week that speaks wonderfully of this: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
His righteousness” (which we can do with the Holy Spirit), “and all these things [needed] shall be
added to you” noticeable, by you, as gifts from God to be satisfied with … gifts, from Him … therefore
things from above that you can be “abundantly thankful for”. ……
I don’t Facebook much, but I did, however, connect with an old friend who I worked with years ago in
Austin, TX. I remember Navdeep Sooch next to me in left center field as I was in left for our work’s
softball team. He was fast and, maybe, I had a good eye, but we (together) used to dare guys to try and
drop a hit into our side of the field. Nav nicknamed Ben (then Caston’s age) Ben-jamatic, enjoying him
for his pleasantness and energy (Ben’s still got some of that).
Nav is an electrical engineer … a good one (young, at the time). I’d found him, again, on Facebook
and read, not there, but another place (Forbes Magazine) that, then at the age of 39 (been a few years ago)
he’d made the list of America’s “Richest under 40”. Following, at the time, Michael Jordan (number 9 on
the list) and Tiger Woods (number 16), my old friend Nav was just two behind at number 18, having
started his own company and, apparently, doing quite well with it. At the time, his holdings got listed at
$186 Million and I hazard-to-guess what they might be now … I hear his company, though, is still doing
well.
Anyway, I have no idea of his riches in Heaven. I pray that there’s a mansion awaiting him there just
as, I’m sure, he’s living fairly comfortably here. I’d emailed him, at one time, through Facebook
(thought I’d say hello and give him an update on Ben-jamatic). I’ve not heard back, but, then, he’s got to
be a busy man, so who knows if I will. I do pray, however, that his busyness includes a good dose of the
Lord God. He’s from India, so may have some Hinduism in him, but I don’t know because I’d never
asked. He makes me, though, conscious of a hope that the temptations of acquisition aren’t influencing
everything that friends of mine are acquiring.
Application
I said, earlier, that, even though a whole nation didn’t invest in you or I handsomely as if we were
royalty like, maybe, Prince George or King Solomon, someBody did invest in us … and did so as if we
were, each, royalty. The Gospel is that, as if you or I, individually, were the most precious of all babies /
people in the whole history of mankind, God chose to pass-on to us everything that was His. He gifted
to everyone He adopted through baptism His own name, granting the benefits of a flesh-and-blood
deliverance-by-His-Son’s-death, the priceless kingdom that He had to give.
The marvelous news is that we are royalty. We have mansions waiting for us to grow into them
and we have all the benefits of being princes or princesses here and now until we fully inherit. And all
we need to do is know that and walk dignified in that. No doubt, Prince George will have to learn to
walk as Prince who will be King. It will be, both, his pleasure and responsibility to know who he is and
be properly who he is.
The same applies to us. The treasury is there and all one needs do is be escorted to the vault to
view the wealth. If you think yourself too timid to ask, then you may never fully understand what you
have. But if you do, and get shown, then all other earthly entrapments pale in their comparison. And,
by entrapments, I mean those things of “vanity”, as Solomon calls them. “Striving after wind” is a farcry different than walking (even, imperfectly) in the Lord’s way. The Lord’s way is learned (because
it’s not natural) and learned by submitting to its training. Where mistakes get made, forgiveness-to-tryagain is always available, but choosing the mistake is, I’m afraid, the idiocy against which our texts
warn.
You are royalty … your baptism into the redemptive work of the Savior made you that … and your
wealth can’t be measured by any earthly currency. Your wealth, though, can be exercised here, and
your charge is to do just that. May our contribution to the estate of God’s monarchy be the
appropriate mind-set of one who’s an heir … with efforts, energies, and focus away from the things
that would cheapen it … toward (instead) those things worthy of its honor. In +Jesus’ name. Amen.