“What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

“A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow. All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has already been, in the ages before us. The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.” (Ecclesiastes 1-2)

All is vanity. Or as we might say, “What’s the Point?”

Today’s scriptures are challenging ones. They make us look with undisguised eyes at what we are doing in life and why. What we do with our money and wealth and why. What we do in our daily living and why. And what it all means when it is assured that we will die.

Everything is vanity and chasing after vanity.

            I work hard, it is for nothing.

                        I die and my stuff is giving to someone else. All in vain.

            I struggle and strive and sweat and advance, and for what? All is in vain.

I take on the pleasures of the earth, wine, women and song, and what? All is in vain.

                        What is the point?

Ecclesiastes is a strange biblical book. It is also known as Qoheleth, the Hebrew word which means “the one who speaks to the assembly.” Martin Luther translated it as “The Preacher.” Traditionally the speaker was assumed (as is claimed in the book) to be King Solomon, though no modern scholars believe that to be true. It is a book of wisdom and a book about life.  A book about searching and not finding. A book with an eye toward God and a depressing take on the spinning out of our lives.  It is most famously known for the verses made into a big hit by The Byrds: “to everything there is a season, a time to live, a time to die” etc  and for a quite a few other sound bytes: “the race is not to the swift”  “There is nothing new under the sun.”

The basic question in the book is what is the point of our existence on earth? And how do we relate to God? Why do we do what we do?

Jesus asks a similar question when he tells the parable of the rich man who didn’t have  a big enough storage unit for all his wealth so he undertakes a huge construction project to get the latest in secured, temperature controlled storage only to die that night. What was it all for?

We’ve all heard the story of the person who works hard all his life, lays money aside, is responsible and thrifty and careful. And finally, finally retires only to die the next month. What was the point?

Is work a means to an end—like retirement? Is work a means to a more basic end—money—that can then buy leisure or consumables or whatever else we might desire?

Or is work to keep us from starving, being out on the street, or without health insurance?

Why do we work so hard for money, sacrificing all else to that?

What’s the point?

My much older cousin was so worried she would be a poor old lady when she died. As a single person she worked, saved and saved. She never spent anything on herself, yet she retired and didn’t spend any money then either. She didn’t give it away, itjust stayed in bank, shoring up against her fear that she would be poor. What’s the point?

Jesus does not ask us to work. Really. When you look at the parables he taught, the messages he preached, none of them say, “go and work and earn money.”  This isn’t to say that work is wrong or bad. It is just we sometimes think work is what is most important. Even if we are not hooked by wanted the next greatest cell phone or car, we can lose sight of what we are doing and why.

We are called as Christians to heal and tend, strengthen and forgive, and love and serve others. Sometimes we do this through our work. Sometimes aren’t able to as easily. But in neither case is work the point, nor the money gained from that work the end goal. Work may be a tool that allows us to do what we are called to, or gives us the assets, the money or time or skills, to live the life that Jesus calls us to. 

And leisure is not the answer either. Sometimes we work so we can then play. If I work five days, then I get the weekend. If I work, I get the money I can spend on my boat or movie tickets or spa treatments or whatever. So work is in service of leisure or fun. But the voice from Ecclesiastes pulls us back from that as well. Even leisure does not satisfy. It is all vanity in the end.

So, what’s the point? Of work? Of life?

This sermon isn’t a traditional stewardship sermon that ends with asking you to give more money to the church and its ministry.

In some ways it is a much harder sermon than that. It is a stewardship sermon that instead asks you to look at how you value your money, your work, yourself, your life. To take a time out and ask the hard questions: why am I doing what I am doing? Does it serve God or Jesus, do I feel the movement of the spirit in what I do? What am I doing with what I receive from my work? Is it a yardstick to see whether or not I have succeeded, or a wall against fear, or a way to avoid admitting that nothing in life is certain and no amount of money can make it so?

The truth is that wealth in the bank is no guarantee of happiness or longevity. We will always be interdependent, vulnerable human beings. And as Christians we believe we are ultimately dependent on God for all things.

Ecclesiastes puts these realities in a stark light. And, “one of the things Qoheleth admits is a sense of meaningless and despair regarding those things which one would have expected to provide a sense of meaningfulness and joy; namely, wisdom or reasoning and work.” (Shauna Hannan, workingpreacher.org)

As a child, John D. Rockefeller Sr. was strong and husky. He made up his mind early to make money and drove himself to the limit. At the age of thirty-three, he had made his first million. At forty-three, he managed the largest company in the world. At fifty-three, he was the wealthiest man on earth and the world's only billionaire.

Then suddenly he was stricken with an illness called "alopecia." All the hair on his body fell out. He became thin and drawn, shrunken like a mummy. His weekly income was well over a million dollars, but he could eat only milk and crackers. He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards day and night. He could not sleep, was no longer happy, and enjoyed nothing in life.

The doctors predicted he would not live longer than a year. The newspaper had gleefully written his obituary in advance-for convenience of sudden need. Those sleepless nights set him thinking. He realized with a new light that he could not take one dime into the next world. Money was not everything. (sermonnuggets.com)

Then what was? What was the point?

Most of us try to amass money or securities or insurance etc for ourselves and our families. Why? What do we save money for?
Our legacy—to show how important we are

            For security –hedging Against time of need or Scarcity

                        Inheritance--Children and family—to give them what didn’t have

            Getting our name on building or program or something as a result of a gift

Because it is fun

                        Because we want to give it away

Why do we save money?

Let me ask you, How would your life be different if you could not leave anything after you died—not to your family, to your children or grandchildren, not to your favorite charity etc.?

How would it be different if this life was all that money tied to? Not only couldn’t you take it with you, but no one else would receive it either. It disappeared. No financial legacy. Vanity of vanities.

Our nation is about to face a big fight over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts which in particular include the so-called “death tax,” a tax on inheritance after someone dies. Why are we fighting about that?

And another questions:

How would your life be different if guaranteed health care thus did not have to stockpile money against need for care? Does losing fear give us greater ability to live life openhanded and openhearted?

All of that is vanity says Qoheleth. If you die, none of it will matter, not to you anyway. And to be saving against emergency means not trusting others or community.

Ultimately, what matters is God, our faith and belief in God, our trust in God, our covenant with God, our dependence on God. This is dramatically shown in Amish communities. Most Amish communities do not allow their members to have insurance. No insurance on their homes or barns, no health insurance, no social security if they have an outside job. They do not have insurance because they believe it destroys community.

If my barn is insured, I do not have depend on you to help me rebuild it, nor do I have to help you build yours. Their “insurance” instead lies within the faith community, in the bonds of love and service and belief in Christ that bind them together. Very different from our dependence on premiums, legalese and the court system.

I know this isn’t cut and dried. And we can be very judgmental against people we think have not saved well or lived well or managed well, who we believe have spent foolishly. And when it gets right down to it, we don’t like to be dependent. We like to fancy ourselves independent.

But interdependence is what living a faith life is about. We serve one another. We live for one another. We sacrifice to each other. And we reach out and reach out to others.

That’s the point. Not the insurance or the savings bonds or the bank account. It’s like the old story of what you would save in a fire at your home. Would you be riffling through the drawers looking for your bank statements? Even if you stored your cash at home in your mattress, I think you would be grabbing for the family photo albums and not the dollar bills.

Or in imagining your last moments before death, the stereotypical life flashing before your eyes: Do you think your last memories are going to be visions of your checking balance or your life insurance policy…

One morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel was quite surprised to read his own obituary in a French newspaper. Obviously, it was a journalistic mistake. One of his brothers had died, and a careless reporter had used a prewritten obituary of the wrong man. But as he read, Nobel was shocked and deeply disturbed to learn what the world really thought of him. He was seen simply as the dynamite king, the merchant of death, who had amassed a great fortune out of explosives. Nobel had hoped his inventions would be useful to people and to nations. At that moment, Alfred Nobel resolved to show the world the true purpose of his life. He revised his will so that his fortune would be dedicated to the recognition of great creative achievements with the highest award going to those who had done the most for world peace. Today, we all associate him with the Nobel Peace Prize. (Lindy Black, Sermon Nuggets)

Then again, dying and not having to worry about money and work is different than living and wrestling with money and work everyday.

This topic made pastors very uncomfortable this week on my lectionary list serv. Emails poured in all week as folks wrestled with the implications of these messages. The emails get topic headings and one read: Is a 401K the equivalent of the foolish man’s barns? Response after response came in as pastors confessed that yes, they think so, but how do we live differently? Some quipped that they just wouldn’t ever retire. Others talked about their denominations mandated retirement funds so the question was in theory at least “out of their hands.” But really there was a deep sense of discomfort in thinking through why we have pots of money stashed in banks with our names on them.

Is it just smart business practices? Is it stewardship of resources? Is it faith-less living?

Do you ever wonder why you have all those pots of money here and there? And what you might say if Jesus asked you about them? Not in an accusatory way, but just asked, “so, what’s the point?”

There is no easy answer. For Qoheleth the human condition is one of sadness and wretchedness. We cannot attain things of lasting value because eventually we must perish and a fool may take our place.

The church reformer John Wesley believed folks should:  "Make all the money they could; save all the money they could. Give all they could." John Wesley

But if ultimately, it is all in vain, then what is the point?

Or, to put it another way, what are you giving up in your life, in your service to Jesus, due to your search for stashing of money?

If the meaning of life is not money or work or possessions or inheritance or children or pleasure—what’s the point?

I think we come back to last week’s sermon where Jesus taught the disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer in a condensed form saying, this is how you should pray:

God, hallowed be your name

Your kingdom come

Give us our daily bread

Forgive us and we forgive others

And lead us not to the time of trial

The point is to love and hallow God, meaning to see as holy. To seek a relationship and to offer praise to God.

The second part is to serve God through what we do—through justice, through companionship, through love, through offering and receiving forgiveness and grace.

So, when we ask what is the point, we look to those things, those things of God and God’s kingdom. Not work, not money, not degrees, not family, not knowledge, not accolades, not assurances and security.

For what is truly meaningful is not found in those things. And those things can be destroyed, can be taken away, can dissolve, can be lost. But service to God, love for God’s people. That can never be lost. Even after death, that goes on.

To get back to Rockefeller, living in wealthy misery, he had a turning point.

One morning found him a new man. He began to help churches with his amassed wealth; he aided the poor and needy. He established the Rockefeller Foundation whose funding of medical researches led to the discovery of penicillin and other useful drugs. He was soon able to sleep, eat, and enjoy life again. The doctors had predicted he would not live past fifty-four, but he lived to the ripe old age of ninety-eight. 

Not to say that if you do the right thing you will live to old age—we may still die tomorrow. But doing what is right, what is true, what is holy, what is of love, and doing it now, is never in vain.

In seeing all things as vanity,  we search for what is not in vain, and find what offers true life. Love, justice, worship, vulnerability and acceptance. For when we live in God and Christ lives through us, we no longer live in vain.

Amen.