LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Proper 13C + August 4, 2007 + St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever wondered what life is all about? What it means? Have you ever worked hard to achieve a goal, finally accomplished it, only to find that your success didn’t bring the lasting joy you expected? The Book of Ecclesiastes expresses just those feelings. Right at the beginning are the familiar words “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity!” Or, in the more modern translation of the New English Bible, “Utter futility – all is utter futility!” The famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung voiced a similar theme when he wrote this observation: “About a third of my patients are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but rather from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives.” The Jewish Hassidic literature says the same thing, namely “When the rays of the sun enter a house through a dusty window, they form illuminated pillars, but if one tries to feel them, there’s nothing there!”

In the Bible readings assigned for today, the Church confronts us with the question of the meaning of human life, a question which has faced humanity since the dawn of time, and which most every religion seeks to answer.

Does anything make a difference? Listen to more words from Ecclesiastes: “What’s the point of working hard? A generation passes, another comes along, but the world remains the same. Humans are no better than animals for both have the same fate – both die. In my short life, I have seen this: that a good person dies in spite of his goodness, and a wicked person dies despite his wickedness. So, why exert yourself to be good?” Not very encouraging words, to say the least! Nor are they unique in the Bible! The 49^th Psalm which we recited just a few moments ago has much the same theme when it says “We see that the wise die. Like the dull and the stupid, they die, they leave their wealth to those who come after them. Even though honored, they cannot live forever. They are like the beasts that perish.” All of that brings us back to square one, our starting point. What is life all about? What does it mean – or does it have any real meaning at all?

The culture in which most of us live reflects the idea that “the good life” is one characterized by being able to have expensive cars, large homes, fancy clothing, and few, if any, financial worries. In pursuit of that “good life,” people invest deeply not only through expenditures of time and energy, but in the not-always-conscious expectation that, once having attained a better job, the next promotion, or a big increase in income, a new element of happiness and contentment will be theirs. And yet, the reality is often quite the opposite! Not too long ago, a fascinating study was made of business executives who had reached significant positions in top management, but who, within six months showed an amazing rate of serious, even clinical depression. The “newness” of their jobs had worn off, frequently replaced by a realization that the promotion had not provided the meaningfulness which they had expected.

The same conclusion had been reached years earlier by Carl Jung who observed that, all-too-often, “The achievements which society awards are won at the cost of a diminution of personality.” He explained his claim by saying “Many aspects of life which should have been experienced, instead lay in the storeroom of dusty memories because people had been ‘too busy’ to enjoy them.”

One of the great classics of world literature is Goethe’s Faust, the story of a man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for just one moment so fulfilling that he will want it to last forever. You may remember that Faust seeks that happiness by trying to live without any limits. He reads all the great books, learns to speak all languages, and tastes all pleasures. He is really trying to be a kind of god, going beyond all human limitations. The Devil gives him everything: wealth, political power, beautiful women – and yet, Faust is still not happy. Goethe’s message is that, when one seems to have everything, and yet finds that that “everything” is still not enough, one is in hell!

The rich man in today’s Gospel symbolizes the person who sees meaning in life largely, or even only, in terms of wealth. At some point, one has to step back, get beyond concerns about money and face the fundamental question: what is my life about?

Through the years, in talking with people facing decisions about possible mid-career changes, I would often ask “if you suddenly inherited a hundred million dollars, and ignoring for a minute the financial help you could be to family, friends, and worthy causes, what would you want to do, since the purpose of that “doing” would not be dictated by a need for economic survival?” Sometimes that question helped focus on the question not just of the meaning of life, but the meaning of that person’s life.

It is not unusual to find people so yearning for particular goals that gaining them seems akin to heaven on earth, while failing to achieve them to be a kind of hell. It really doesn’t matter very much whether the goal is marrying one’s sweetheart, becoming CEO of a great corporation, getting a pony, or amassing enough money to last through retirement. Sooner or later, none of those goals, as fine as they may be, prove adequate to provide the meaningfulness for which Faust, and the rest of us, hunger. They are all like the pillars of light formed by the sun shining through dusty windows. In today’s Gospel, God doesn’t say “you evil person,” but “you fool!” The point of the story is not that possessions are wrong, or that having enough money to feed our families and pay our bills is sinful. Rather, it is a call to see those quite legitimate needs for what they really are, to put them in a realistic perspective as being worthwhile, but not the most important things in life.

Saint Paul said “when I was a child, I thought as a child, but when I became an adult, I put away childish things.” The great American Jewish theologian, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”

Let me ask you this: when your earthly life is over, what will it have meant? What legacy will you, and I, leave behind, and how will that correlate with the values we claim as being ours?

In his book “When All You Ever wanted Isn’t Enough,” Harold Kushner writes about a peculiar kind of moth called “the moth with no mouth.” It’s a species of caterpillar that lays its eggs and then changes into a moth without any digestive system, one with no way of taking food, so that it starves to death in a few hours. Its only purpose seems to be to reproduce, to lay eggs and so pass on the life of the species. That’s it! That’s all! Something in us, as humans, seems to demand that our lives must have greater purpose than that. We exist for something far beyond mere reproduction of the race! Which brings us full circle to the question with which this sermon began: What’s it all about? What does life mean? Saint Augustine’s well-known words come to mind: “O God, you have made us for yourself alone, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”

As fine as they are, knowledge, skill, or fame are not enough. As enjoyable as they are, wealth, power, possessions, (even a Lexus) are not enough! In fact, even piety and good works are not enough! Only in God, the personal and loving source of life can real meaning be found. If we truly try to live as the sons and daughters of God, wealth and power can be used to accomplish all sorts of wonderful things. Knowledge and skills can be used to help others as well as to bring profound fulfillment and joy to the user. When God is at the center of life instead of somewhere on the periphery, we find that meaning and peace which, as the beautiful prayer at Evensong puts is, “the world cannot give.” Meaning and peace which truly do pass all human understanding, realities which can be experienced by virtually everybody – even you and me! That’s what our faith as Christians says life is about.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, this could be just a pitch for the Church’s “party line” – a kind of ecclesiastical “commercial”- if it were not for the fact that I have known, and my life been enriched by people whose lives showed that peace, that meaning. I suspect the very same thing is true for many who are here this morning at this Mass. The amazing and wonderful truth is that God wants all of us to discover, and live, is that all is not futility, all is not vanity. Instead, life not only can but should have meaning.

When your car needs gas, where do you go to fill the tank? When you need to get more food for the dinner table, where do you go to get that? When you face your need for meaning in life, to whom do you turn?

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM