Living Rich Toward God

Based on Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; Psalm 49:1-11; Luke 12:13-21; Luke 2:18-23

Please pray with me: Lord, may your words edify our minds and soothe our souls. Amen

Everything we have heard this morning, from Solomon, David, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus, speaks to one, same theme – the utter futility to live for the primary purpose of producing economic wealth because life on earth is temporary and you can’t take it with you.

Further, in that pursuit we fail to pay the degree of attention to God that the Teacher has instructed us to. We hear that no matter how much wealth one accumulates, how much wisdom we are endowed with, no matter how long our list of accomplishments, we cannot buy one more minute of life. We can prolong it perhaps with the wonders of science but even that is dependent on God’s will. If we are to hope for something more than this earthly life, we must look to God for eternal salvation.

In other words, we were born to live an earthly, physical life and die an earthly, physical death. We were also born to live an earthly, “spiritual” life and ultimately, to move on to an eternal life with the risen Lord.

So, in that equation, where should our focus be? On storing up our acorns? Or, in doing what is necessary to best prepare for eternal life? One could argue that the best answer is “both”. Afterall, we have to provide for our families, and we want to live comfortably. Therefore, let’s prepare while we provide.

Ahh, if only such a balance were that easy. Actually, it could be . . . if it weren’t for sin. You see, sin gets in the way of simply providing for our family, for just living “comfortably”, while also living a Christ lead life of peace, joy and love. Solomon gives a label to living with an excessive belief in our own abilities . . . vanity. He laments the fact that someone that did not lift a finger of toil, will be master over all that he worked for. He is the wisest man in the world, he has accumulated vast wealth and despite all that he knows, all that he has, the one thing that he cannot control is time and his eventual death.

I would ask why the leader of Israel would invest himself in such negativity. Isn’t he setting a poor example, a high bar of ingratitude? Perhaps on the surface, yes. But this is where his wisdom shown through. Because as the leader of Israel, he had an obligation to bring all citizens together and, in that role, he sought to “congregate” his people into the worthwhile purpose of Godly worship and away from the fruitless works of this world.

David agrees in the Psalm, “We can never ransom ourselves, or deliver to God the price of our life. For the ransom of our life is so great, that we should never have enough to pay for it, in order to live for ever and ever and never see the grave.” Paul speaks with a focus on rising to eternal life. He tells us set our minds on things above. To put to death the evil in our lives . . . anger, wrath, malice, slander, impurities, evil desires, and greed.

The most revealing thought comes from Jesus himself in Luke as a man asks Jesus to help him settle his family inheritance. This was not uncommon in ancient times, a local Rabbi often served as an intercessor in settling family inheritance issues. But this wasn’t just any Rabbi as we know, this was the Rabbi of Rabbi’s! Jesus tells him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is, with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

So, how do we deal with the truth in these lessons? It’s a lot to deal with. Our earthly responsibilities, the futility in pursuing excessive economic wealth in view of our impending death, the interfering role of sin, and a preparation for eternal life or the Teacher’s words, to be “rich toward God”.

Let me acknowledge that everyone here is a saved Christian. Everyone here therefore will undeniably receive the gift of eternal life from Jesus. But we are instructed to live, that’s in the here and now, in a way that is “rich toward God.” What does that mean exactly, how can we do it or best make the effort?

I first tried to define it in a way that even in my human condition, I could perhaps understand it better. I came up with this idea of what Jesus was telling us. In my words, I think to live richly toward God is to praise God in our thoughts, by our words and by the things we do in life. That’s a tall order. So, how do we make our best effort at it?

My best answer is through faith, faith in his goodness, in his forgiveness, in his grace and in his love. I can readily find my faith on Sunday mornings. I can find it in your faces. I can find it when I see goodness in the world. But it can also be easily shaken. When I see terror in the faces of children living amidst war, when I see hunger and fear on faces of families, and the poor living in the street. It was shaken when my wife and I lost a baby at 5 days old, when I lost a brother to illness too early in life, when my career took an unfair turn.
Faith can be a slippery fish. It isn’t hard to catch but it can be difficult to hold on to. Once found, how can it be sustained and strengthened?

To help us all in that regard, I have constructed a “Christian Pyramid”. I am disappointed to know how easily my faith is shaken. But I am weak, I am a sinful man and I need any crutch I can muster. Thus, the Pyramid. The elements of the pyramid will be familiar to you. You may have a similar construct of your Christian walk, your own method of finding and sustaining your faith. This is just an example, and it works for me.

Let’s look at the pyramid, https://ronsblogs.blog/2022/12/31/christian-pyramid/ starting at the bottom with the three principal columns that support the pyramid. You see the columns titled “Bible”, “Prayer”, and “Christian Community”. All roads to and from my faith emanate from the Bible, thus it is the first column. One road leads to praying more, praying better, meaning more honestly and openly with Jesus. In more recent years, I added a previously neglected road, leading to my Christian community, which is now integral part of my Christian faith.

Going down the “Bible” column, you see that it gives us the Law, and in it we find forgiveness; we see hope play a part in the face of lose. We also learn what is good and what is evil in the eyes of God. And at the bottom, bearing the most weight because it is the strongest factor our faith, is Love.

In the next column, our “Prayer” is both personal, one on one with Christ, and community prayer, praying with family and friends, even strangers. It gives us the opportunity to confess our sin; it gives us an outlet to express our anger, frustration, our disappointments and our thanks. In prayer, we have the opportunity to express our love.

In the “Christian Community” column, we find education, giving us knowledge and tools to face life, as well as process for order in our lives. In this community, we also find support and encouragement, a commiseration of friendship, and of course, love.

These three columns then, are the underpinnings for our faith. They enable us to “persevere” in the face of ongoing problems; we learn to be “patient” with the Lord and to wait on his solutions. In Galatians 6:9, we read, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up”. We are emboldened with “hope” to get us through tough times. My favorite verse regarding hope is Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

Lastly, the penultimate feature to my pyramid, we find his unending love and in that, we learn to love others. Finally, at the pinnacle, all these things work together to sustain our faith. And I would throw in two more elements you don’t see. In faith, we find God’s healing power for our many wounds and a firm trust in his intent for our eternal life.
In our faith then, we are empowered to praise God in thought, word and deed. . . to live in a way that is “rich with God”.

Please pray with me: “Teacher, we need your presence in our lives. We know that in your love for us, you are indeed present. We thank you, we love you back. Amen