18th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving, TX
Qoheleth asks, “For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?” Then, some 2,300 years later in 1905, the German poet, Rainier Maria Rilke, writes to God about His people: “Lord, the great cities are lost and rotting./Their time is running out…./The people there live harsh and heavy,/crowded together, weary of their own routines. […] Their dying is long/and hard to finish: hard to surrender/what you never received./Their exit has no grace or mystery./It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly/like a fruit inside them that never ripened.”* If Rilke is right, then the answer to Qoheleth's question – what does all our work and anxiety profit us in this life? – the answer is: not much. As followers of Christ, as those who work to become Christ in the world, this answer is encouraging! Given the vows we've made and the sacrifices we are ready to make, this answer strengthens our hope! (Yes, we're an odd bunch.) Paul lays it out for us: “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
We have died. Therefore, we are dead. The work, the anxiety, the vanities of the dead are dead. Sure, we breath and metabolize and sleep and eat but we do none of these outside the life Christ. Rilke's dark report to God about His people's plight tells us what our lives look like when we live outside our hiddenness in Christ. When we run after attachments and accomplishments in the world and applause from the world. Or worse, when invite the world into our hiddenness and give it free reign to rule. Paul urges us, “Put to death...the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.” This isn't a plea for us to adopt priggish, suburban etiquettes or self-righteous manners. It's a how-to instruction on tearing down the deadly idols we worhsip, esp. the deadliest idol of all: Me, the god of ego. The god I made of myself w/o the God Who actually made me. If I have died with Christ, risen with him, and now live a life hidden in him, then there is no Me for me to worship. There is only an imperfect Christ cooperating with God's grace to be perfected. What stands in my way?
Mostly, me. I have seen the enemy and it is me. Not society or genetics or gov't or any other external force. Just me. And that is more terrifying than any foreign army or terrorist cell or politician. Why? Because with authority comes responsibility. I choose. And as a follower of Christ, I choose freely. Blaming culture or science or economics for the consequences of my choices frees me from responsibility. But the truth is – it's pride or wrath or lust or some other deformation of my virtue that makes my life hard. Greed is our lectionary theme this morning. Paul says that greed is a form of idolatry, an adulterous relationship with our desire for more and more. Jesus tells us to guard against greed because we are infinitely more than what we possess, or more precisely, we are more than what possesses us. He shares a parable about a rich farmer who stores up his abundant harvest and then decides to party as if he'll never face famine. When God calls him to account, what good will his bulging barns do him? All that work, all that wealth, and what will it matter in death? Not much. If he had worked for the glory of God and worried after his holiness – his harvest, his treasure would be a fit answer and offering. But he chose greed. He chose more and more and more of nothing that matters.
“If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is our call to holiness. Life in the world but not the life of the world. It's not easy line to walk. The world is greedy for followers, for cattle to herd, and our vow to follow Christ sets us apart. Apart. Not above. Never above. We are not meant to rule in the world but to serve. And so long as we serve knowing our labor is for the glory of God and not the applause of men, then our treasure is stored in heaven. This is why we can hear Qoheleth despair and still smile. Yes, our work is in vain. Our blood, sweat, and tears are all shed in vain. Our wisdom and knowledge and skill – vanity, vanity, vanity. In the light of heaven and the promise of our eternal end, it is all work we must do for God's glory. But by the measure of the world – all is vanity.
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