(Audio)
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
All of those things which the rich man stored up in barns from his bountiful harvest prove to be vanities. Both Qoheleth and this rich man reach the same consensus.
And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun (see Ecclesiastes 8:15).
Similarly, the rich man who says to himself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!"
The idea seems to be to make the best of the situation in which one finds oneself. However, even the simply requirements of daily life, seemingly necessary things, grasped too tightly, become snares when they are taken from us.
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
It isn't that eating, drinking, being merry, and enjoying one's labor are problems. Indeed, we should make the best of these things. The trouble is when the rug is pulled out from under them and we find that is all we have. We find ourselves clinging desperately to that which we cannot hold.
We have something which is not vanity, something which neither Qoheleth nor the rich man knew.
Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
We know how to be rich in what matters to God. We know that we can store up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not steal (see Matthew 6:19-21). Living this way starts off a little more involved and apparently less simple than the path recommended by Qoheleth. But this is only true because we have so much that is earthly of which we need to divest ourselves.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
The new self, renewed in the image of its creator, is rich in what matters to God. It is built on a foundation that is unshakeable. The things that matter to it do not need to be produced through effort, nor can they be taken by circumstance. It includes not just the one in the isolation of his ego, filling his own barns, but all people together as one.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.
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