2022 07 31 Sermon
What Makes for a Good Life?
Pentecost 8 C
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14 & 2:18-23; Luke 12:13-21
Last Sunday, Greg Feld entertained us with a great 50-year retrospective presentation about House of Prayer. During the presentation he hearkened to the amazing monument known as Mount Rushmore, with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and of course the newest addition—Jack Bennet! Our very own “founding father”. We need to make a little more room on Mount Rushmore, however, because we can’t have Jack without Kathie. And we also have to remember the man who’s probably the most popular Founding Father these days. Who has seen the musical? Hamilton! When I was on vacation with my family in New York last month, we made a visit to the gravesite of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, along with a long line of other admirers, as we wound our way through the graveyard of Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street.
I find Alexander Hamilton to be a fascinating man. (You’re pretty fascinating, too, Jack, but Alexander Hamilton is a little more famous.) He was, I’d say, a genius, with energy and ambition even greater than his intellect. One thing he often struggled with, however, was the ability to make sound judgements—wisdom. There is a song about this in the musical, sung by Hamilton’s sister-in-law, about how Alexander would “never be satisfied.” He had a hard time knowing when to stop, when to say “it is enough—I can be satisfied with this.” This characteristic was, in part, the source of both his rise and his fall, including the duel with Aaron Burr that led to his untimely death at age 49.
Alexander Hamilton is not the only one who has wrestled with when to say “This is enough—now I can be satisfied.” He’s not the only one to wrestle with determining what makes for a good life. Even someone like King Solomon in the Old Testament—one of the wisest people to ever live, as well as being the most powerful and successful king to rule the Israelites—had a hard time with it. While Solomon is never mentioned by name in the book of Ecclesiastes, many have either attributed it to him, or seen this writing as being inspired by his life (similar to how a musical could be inspired by the life of a Founding Father like Hamilton!). So in the snippets of Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2 which we heard today, we hear of King Solomon’s internal struggle about what makes for a good life.
He basically says how he’s accomplished all that life has to offer—you name it, he’s “been there, done that.” He built great works—beautiful houses, a majestic Temple. He planted vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards. He developed irrigation systems, gained herds and flocks of livestock beyond number, stockpiled silver and gold. He was the richest person of his time. He indulged in delights of music, as well as delights of the flesh. He applied his mind to gaining wisdom and knowledge. He enjoyed it all.
He said, “I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure from all my toil—this was my reward.” Until he realized: “What happens to the fool will also happen to me—we’ll both die!” Then Solomon began to hate all he had accomplished, chagrined that it will be others who will enjoy all of his accomplishments, and those who come after him will use up all that he had gained. He realized that eventually we’ll all be long forgotten; so then, what makes for a good life? Every generation wrestles with this question. And each generation tries to answer it in their own way, whether is Generation X like myself, or the Millennial Generation, or the Baby Boomers, Generation Z, the Silent Generation or the Greatest Generation.
They were still wrestling with it in Jesus’ time. As he was walking around, teaching about the Kingdom of God, someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” You’d think that maybe Jesus would take up the guy’s cause, if it was his brother who was the one responsible for properly distributing the inheritance with his family, and he wasn’t doing his duty.
Instead, Jesus tells a parable—and interestingly, it seems to be about someone like his brother, who is hoarding the wealth. This man in the parable has got plenty of land, he grew plenty of crops; so much so that he couldn’t store it all. Rather than sell them so that his hungry neighbors might have something to eat, he pulled down his old barns, and built bigger barns to hold all the grain. He figured he’d just sit back, relax, and live off of all he had stored up. But that very night he died, and all that he worked for would now be divided up amongst the rest of his family, and he never had a chance to enjoy any of it.
What makes for a good life? According to Jesus’ parable, a good life means being able to share your resources, putting them to their proper use, and enjoying them with others. It means seeking the wisdom to say at the appropriate time, “OK—this is enough for me—I can be satisfied. Now, who doesn’t have enough, so that I can share with them?” All people deserve to live an abundant life. But as Jesus taught in this parable, “Abundant life does not consist in the abundance of possessions; so be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” Use what you have with others in a responsible way, instead of hoarding it for just yourself.
This teaching is not something limited to the days of Solomon or Jesus. Every generation of humanity, in every culture and nation, wrestles with the question of what makes for a good life. As Jesus teaches in this parable, your value does not come from how much stuff you have or don’t have. Your value does not come from how you stack up against your brother, or sister, or neighbor across the street.
Your value—everyone’s value—is given by a God who is so generous that he did not withhold his own Son, Jesus Christ, who willingly went to the cross, and gave himself to lead us away from our greed, our shame, our selfish pride, our sin, our human tendencies to never be satisfied even when we could be. And Jesus rose again from the tomb, in order to open up a new way for us to be in the world, so that we would learn to see our all of our fellow human beings as being “just as worthy as I am” to be given grace and love from our generous God.
Because of God’s grace, we can keep wrestling with the question of “what makes for a good life”. And we can be confident that following Jesus’ way of humble service and love provides a great way to be satisfied. Amen.