Sermon 8-3-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Lessons for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26; Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 12:13-21

Whose Will They Be?

The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes is attributed to King Solomon, the third king of the united kingdom of Israel. Scholars date it in the 930’s B.C., toward the end of Solomon’s reign. The book’s Hebrew name translates roughly to A Testimony to the Assembled Congregation.

Solomon’s accession to the throne was filled with political intrigue. But it was the will of King David, Solomon’s father, that Solomon should succeed him. When Solomon became king, there was no temple yet in Israel. For it would be one of Solomon’s tasks to build a temple for Yahweh in Jerusalem. So, to worship, Solomon went to Gibeon, where the Tabernacle of the Lord was at that time. 2Chronicles chapter 1 tells us that Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings before the Lord and that night Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

Now, you know that in a dream you can’t really speak. The words come out disjointed. But, in this visionary type dream Solomon was able to address Yahweh clearly. Thus, we read in 2Chronicles 1:8-12, “8 And Solomon said to God, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 O LORD God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?’ 11 God answered Solomon, ‘Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king, 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like.’”

The Lord was as good as His word. There was no one like Solomon. He was renown for his wisdom in deciding a case in which two women claimed a surviving child. He was a great academic, cataloguing many species of the creatures of the earth. The queen of Ethiopia heard of Solomon’s wisdom and came to see him for herself. She was very impressed, and Judaism was established in Ethiopia as a result of her visit. Solomon’s reign was very successful in every way. He built a superb temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem. Ancient Israel reached the height of its prosperity and glory under him.

However, he proved to have one failing. As a wealthy and powerful king, he could have any woman. So we read in 1Kings 11:1-8, “8 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.” 

Unfortunately, Solomon’s great wisdom failed him in his later years. For human wisdom is no substitute for obeying the voice of the Lord. Solomon knew this. For, he probably wrote Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” 

He also should have written this proverb: When the fear of the Lord disappears, human wisdom ends in disaster. For, Solomon’s disobedience set the stage for the next 350 plus years of Israel’s existence. Israel was divided into little northern and southern kingdoms that warred with each other. During the entire period, both kingdoms flip flopped back and forth from faithfulness to Yahweh to the worship of the false gods of the nations around them, just as Solomon started them on this course. Eventually the Lord punished both the northern and southern kingdoms for their unfaithfulness. They were swallowed up by the great empires that emerged in those years and the kingdom disappeared. It was only by faithful Yahweh’s plan that as a people Israel did not cease to exist — as remains true to this day.

When I was young. Ecclesiastes was one of my favorite books. For it expressed the despair, futility and anger that had taken root in me as a result of my studies. For in those years the atheists were winning the battle in academia. Or, so it seemed to me. My philosophy studies in college undid whatever assurance was mine that there is a God and that we can surely know Him. Study in the most liberal seminary in the country did nothing to quell the spiritual turmoil I was going through. For, is there a Jesus who positively could not have been born of a virgin; could not have done the miracles attributed to Him; and in no way could have been bodily resurrected from the grave? There is. Just attend a liberal seminary and you’ll learn about this false Jesus. Is there a universe and an earth that absolutely could not have been created by an uncreated God. Are Adam and Eve mere mythological people? Was there no worldwide flood? Is all religion, worldwide, including Christianity, merely an evolutionary outgrowth of our mythological attempts to understand life? Attend a liberal seminary or church and you’ll discover that the answer is yes to all these questions. For liberal Christianity has submitted to the world view of the anti-Christian philosophy of Philosophical Naturalism, also known as Materialism. In this worldview, anything supernatural is totally impossible.

In the time of Jesus, Judaism was divided into two major camps. We learn an interesting fact about this from Acts 23:8, “ . . . the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” Both these camps were united in their opposition to Jesus. But were bitterly divided in everything else. The Sadducees were the theological liberals of their day. They basically denied the supernatural dimension of this life, just like modern liberal Christians.

In any event, as I said, Ecclesiastes well expresses the futility I was feeling even in my first years as a pastor. For as we heard this morning Ecclesiastes pulls no punches, stating outright in chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, “1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” In wave after wave, the book then goes on to express the futility of life on this earth, ranging from how all physical processes are cyclical, to how all striving and building eventually ends in ruins, and finally how death ends everything on this earth. It’s a sobering read. For it more than adequately expresses the judgments Yahweh has leveled against His rebellious creatures here on earth as a result of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin.

Now, the part of Ecclesiastes in today’s first lesson matches up with Jesus’ parable in the Gospel lesson. For we read in Ecclesiastes 2:18-19, “18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” This matches up with what Yahweh says to the rich fool in Jesus’ parable: Luke 12:20 “. . . ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”

Indeed, whose will they be? Anyone who has ever sold their parents’ home and belongings knows about this. And even worse, there may be much that no one in the succeeding generations want out of an estate. Who wants the Hummel figures that were once such a rage? Or the stamps that were so carefully collected? Indeed, who will want to read or hear the collected sermons of just another local preacher?

In the parable, Jesus made a major point. Luke 12:15, “And he [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” In other words, collecting stuff in this life is not only futility, it blinds us to what is important. This is somewhat similar to Solomon’s conclusion, but it’s different.

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.”

In Jesus’ parable, the rich fool sounds like he is taking Solomon’s advice, for he says to himself in  Luke12:19, “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’" There was only one problem. The rich fool didn’t please God. In some way he lacked wisdom, knowledge and joy. And this comes clear in his words. Instead of addressing Yahweh, from whom his bumper crop came, and giving thanks to Yahweh, the rich fool addresses himself — his own soul — as if somehow he is independent of Yahweh, his Creator. The conclusion of the parable confirms this when Jesus said in Luke 12:21, “‘So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Yahweh was rich toward the rich fool. But in no way did the fool acknowledge this. And so, he was judged out of the blue. He was judged to be lacking — lacking relationship with His Creator.

There are different ways to be stingy with Yahweh. Our first thoughts might be about stinginess with physical stuff like tithes and offerings and mercy toward the poor. We can certainly be stingy with the Lord this way.

But what about stinginess in what is not tangible, but spiritual? The fact that this rich fool did not praise and thank the giver of his bumper crop says a lot. The fact that the rich fool did not consult Yahweh’s word to direct his solution to the bumper crop also shows us the problem. Now, it’s obvious that the rich fool had joy over his good fortune. But, it’s also obvious that his joy did not come from the wisdom and knowledge that Solomon speaks of.

In the entire book of Ecclesiastes Solomon doesn’t speak much about the wisdom and knowledge that can bring joy. He’s more concerned with describing the futility of this cursed existence. However, Solomon does acknowledge that any good thing that may be experienced in this life comes from Yahweh, especially wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, we should ask what kind of wisdom and knowledge. We should also ask what Jesus meant when he said that life does not consist of abundance of possessions. What, then, does life consist of?

From our New Testament perspective, the wisdom and knowledge we have is to be found in Jesus Himself. Likewise, real life is to be found in Him. It’s to be found in the Gospel of Messiah Jesus. 

Today’s second lesson describes a very important result of being Born Again and baptized into Jesus Christ. So, we read in Colossians 3:1-4, “1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is you life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Let’s work this backwards. We’re promised in both the Old and New Testaments that Messiah Jesus will return. And when He comes all earth’s dead will be raised in immortal bodies. But there will also be judgment. Those, like the rich fool, who ignore, live independently of, refuse to believe in or despise Yahweh will be set free from Yahweh’s righteousness forever. In pure evil they will spend eternity in the absolute futility of evil that they knowingly or unknowingly have desired. That’s why Jesus said there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

On the other hand, those who are in Jesus when He appears will appear with Him in the glory of eternally pure righteousness and goodness. They will never experience the futility of this existence again. For they will see their Creator as He is. They will know Him as they have been known by Him. They will fully enter into the eternal joy of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For as it is prophesied in Revelation 21:3-4, “3. . .Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

But, all this is future. In the present world, everyone who is in Jesus has died to the present corrupt and perishing world along with Jesus. True believers live in this world and have to function in this world. But, they know this world has nothing of permanent value. Therefore, they live for what’s coming when Jesus returns and not for the lusts and corruption of this present world.

Why should we set our minds on the glorious, righteous goodness that’s coming? First, Paul declares that by the New Birth into Jesus, we have already been raised from the dead with Jesus. We’re no longer dead to our Creator God in the power of sin. In Jesus, we’re alive to Him as He is to us. Also, in His resurrected, immortal human flesh, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father — the place of privilege and power. This is tremendous news. One of us is at the Father’s right hand, ruling the universe at the behest of the Father. In fact, we’re told in Ephesians 2:4 that not only are we raised with Jesus, we’re already seated with Him in the heavenly place of rule. In other words, those who are in Jesus have an unimaginably spectacular future and eternity as the Father’s most precious children. Nothing here can compare with that future, not the most glorious sunset nor all the gold in the world.

However, our spectacular future comes by faith in these tremendous promises. It comes by faith in the God who has made these promises to us. It comes by faith in the salvation Jesus has worked for us upon the cross. It comes by faith in the forgiveness of sins He won for us by not considering equality with God a thing to be grasped. It comes by faith that Jesus became a servant and followed the life-script of Messiah to death, even death on a cross. It comes by faith that Yahweh rewarded His obedience by raising Jesus to the highest position in the universe that at His Name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I leave you with this. Fifteen years ago, radio talk show host and former Cincinnati Reds pitcher, Frank Pastore, talked about the trap of possessions in his book, “Shattered.” He said, “the problem was that no matter how much I had, I wanted more. No matter how many good write-ups I got, or how much cheering I heard in the stands, it was never quite enough. This was weird, because it presented an unsolvable problem: If feeling good depends on amassing stuff, and you constantly need more stuff to satisfy that craving, then what do you do? How can you ever get enough?” 

Well, the truth is that you can never get enough because futility is programmed into this world by the judgments of Yahweh. And the quest for “enough” will only lead a person deep into rebellion against Yahweh. 

Instead, the Christian knows that only in Jesus can we find enough. Only in Jesus can we find enough to justify our sinful lives before Yahweh. Only in Him is the righteousness we need to have a glorious, righteous future with our loving Father in heaven. That’s why we set our minds on the things above that are waiting for us. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.