[sorry, no audio today]
Sermon – What Matters?
Colossians 3:1-11; Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23
Farmville Presbyterian Church
8/3/25
Have you ever noticed that life is actually really good right now? Generally speaking, we are better off medically, financially, educationally, and materially than ever before in human history. In this current age, this means we are on average healthier, wealthier, better educated, and more comfortable than ever before, but the tragically funny thing about this is that we don’t feel that way. In fact, just me saying that we are better off probably led you to dispute me in your mind. You might have responded to yourself, “That can’t be right,” or “It certainly doesn’t feel that way.” And that is actually the point of what is called the “Progress Paradox.” On paper, so to speak, things are really good for humanity, but that does not match our actual feelings about how good things are. The disconnect between how things should seem and how they actually seem leads us to some difficult places psychologically or emotionally. We might even sound like the writer of Ecclesiastes – “all is vanity and chasing after wind.”
To be honest, I love the book of Ecclesiastes, and that is not the normal response. Most people probably find that it sounds fairly depressing, but I find it refreshingly practical and honest. It says the things that we really think and feel and does not whitewash over some of the questions we have. It has no problem asserting the lack of fairness in the world and that our efforts largely seem to be for not much of anything. To clarify, the “vanity” business is not about appearances as in someone loves the way they look. It is not that kind of vanity. This is the older kind of vanity as when we said something could done “in vain” or “for nothing.” If your efforts are “in vain,” then they are “for nothing” or worthless. The actual Hebrew word there is a great one. It means a vapor or mist – there then gone. How sad it must be for something to seem important but to prove to be meaningless.
The ultimate snub that kicks off the book of Ecclesiastes is our life’s work. Can you believe it starts off with something so weighty? It makes no difference how hard you strive or how diligently you work or how shrewdly you save or how smartly you invest, once we are gone from this earthly existence, all of that profit will go to someone else, and we have no guarantees how they will use what we saved. Maybe they will blow it in one big, stupid purchase. Maybe they will put it all in one very risky investment. Maybe they will simply indulge themselves with every luxury that we put off. John Wesley (one of the fathers of Methodism) made a dramatic point of not leaving anything for your children unless you were certain that they would use the funds responsibly and faithfully, but the issue remains that Ecclesiastes raises. We really do not know what will happen to what we leave behind, and that can be aggravating, frustrating, and stressful. Even the most strenuous legal precautions cannot force people to do anything good with our life’s work. Ecclesiastes calls it an exercise in meaninglessness. It can make you not want to go to the trouble to begin with. Thankfully, there is an answer to this in Ecclesiastes, but this does not mean we do not all struggle with some version of this question. We all struggle to find meaning and purpose and good at times in our lives. Some of us dwell in periods of lack of meaning. Some of is live in the vanity of Ecclesiastes for extended periods, even though the world is actually a positive place.
You might imagine what it is like in Ukraine where they have done such an amazing job in their nation’s defense. It would seem so natural to ask whether they were pleased to have held up as well as they have, but my suspicion is that they might not be as pleased with all of the sacrifice and hardship that they have endured. Sure, they have managed to frustrate the larger capture of their nation, but they are somewhat stuck between victory and defeat without a clear path to restoration. They need something new, something that will give them hope. We can all use some hope. In fact, hope is always one of the vital keys to facing the day.
I think this is why so many people prefer the New Testament books to the Old Testament. They are more hopeful. Today’s reading from Colossians is no different. It presents a picture of a new way of life remarkably building from a simple idea: faith, hope, and love. This letter to the folk in Colossae opens with this encouragement:
we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you.
In a world that struggles to find purpose and joy and meaning, there is a response. In a world that is so easily lost in meaningless and vanity and disconnection, there is an answer. Wherever we struggle to find the life that we want or to be the people we want to be, there is possibility in three things: faith, hope, and love. Each one of these is important and powerful, but when we take these three together, they can change lives and the world. When people get lost in the ways of this world, this life, and the dreariness of the mundane, we have a picture of something greater and something more.
Literally anyone who wants to be renewed in Christ has this gift of grace. Anyone who is frustrated or defeated by the answers of this world and personal value or worth, can find a different set of values. Jesus fills our hearts with love and enables us to love one another. Jesus believes in us and asks for our faith in return. There is much more to this world than what we experience, and it is very good, and this can always be our hope that better is coming.
Just this week we lost two of our church family. For both of them, they entrusted themselves to the grace of God in Christ Jesus up to the very end because they believed God was with them, they loved what God had done and shared that love, and they both had hope in something more than what they faced. Clyde was unrelenting in his desire to know healing as hard as the treatment path was, and now he knows perfect life and healing. Barbara was looking for the care of family and friends, especially after the death of Carolyn, and she found that in North Carolina, as hard as it was to make that move. Both of them lived lives of lasting significance.
If you find yourself caught looking for answers in the worldly things and being frustrated and unfulfilled, there is more for us to discover. Even people who have been renewed are not done yet and still struggle with chasing after the wind, but where there is love, there is room for faith. Where there is faith, there is room for hope. Where there is hope, there is reason to love. This world does not own us. The ways of the world do not define us. Even the labels of this world fall away for those who are new in the grace of God through Christ Jesus. We have chosen a new life that has been given to us for us to live out. It is a new pattern of living that will bring blessing and enable us to weather the storms of this world. We will not be focused on ourselves alone but be able to reach out in concern for others. We will be better able to know faith, hope, and especially love. Friends, this is what matters. To God be the glory. Amen.