Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12-14, 18-23
Psalm 49.1-11
Colossians 3.1-11
Luke 12.13-21
I saw a post this week
that I liked a lot – a dark background with no images, only text printed in
white – the words “stop the glorification of busy.” It’s a perfect fit with
today’s lessons. Many of us like having a lot to do. We interpret it as being important,
staying connected and having the products of our labor be valued. But filling
all of our hours with doing leaves us with little time to be – to consider who
we are and who we are becoming apart from what we accomplish or produce.
That’s part of the feeling of sorrow
and futility expressed by the author of today’s Old Testament lesson . He finds
that he has put considerable effort into accomplishing results that the passage
of time and his own mortality force him to leave to others. He can do nothing
to maintain the integrity of his legacy – someone can come along after him and
reinterpret it, distort it or even destroy it. That’s true for all of us. It’s
true for the church. We fear that and it motivates us to try to pile up more
and more of our selected variety of accomplishments and figure out how to
safeguard them, like the character in today’s gospel lesson. Jesus reminds his
hearers that human life is finite – that is both blessing and sorrow – but it
is true. It will feel more like a blessing if we use our time and talent and
the resources that come our way with the knowledge that all of it comes from
and ultimately belongs to God.
The Vestry met yesterday in its annual
retreat. Right now this parish has one of the most committed, talented and
generous teams of lay leaders that I have every worked with. In their charge
are the temporal affairs of this congregation. We talked a lot yesterday about
the big challenges: getting the taxes paid every year on time; completing the
repairs to the building and parking lot that still need to be done; discerning
what our congregation’s mission is on an ongoing basis; constantly building
community within and reaching out effectively beyond the walls of this
building. There are differences of
opinion about priorities, goals and how to go about accomplishing them. We
agreed to take initial steps and continue the conversation. When I reflected
last night on the meeting, I was not sure how I would characterize what we
accomplished yesterday. I know we’re in no danger of feeling like we have to
pull down our barns and build new ones in order to store our possessions. I
feel like we began to take a look at the work that we do as a congregation with
the careful eye of discernment – to be sure that we know the difference between
being busy and building God’s kingdom.
As a small congregation living on a
shoestring with an expensive building we live daily with the reality that it
could all be taken from us. One of my less sensitive colleagues once suggested
in a public meeting that St. Mary’s building would make a great brew pub and
its selling price give a nice boost to the diocesan coffers. With a 150 year
old legacy preceding us, we feel a sense of urgency that it not be lost and
particularly that we not be the ones to let it slip away. But that danger
overshadows all of human life and endeavor.
People of faith spend their lives
discerning the balance between our temporal responsibilities and our ultimate
home in God. We are called to build the kingdom as we are able in time and
space, knowing that our efforts will never complete it. We struggle with
competing claims upon our time and energy, to make good decisions about how to
use the resources that God provides. The
truth we return to is embodied in the prayer with which we began this morning –
our dependence upon God’s protection and direction. To know and feel what it
means to be protected and directed by God, we have to stop glorifying “busy”
and let our selves be silent and empty. God fits most easily into empty time
and space. In today’s lessons we are reminded of the human inclination to fill
up empty spaces – the work of the spirit is to keep them empty and open for God.
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