Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading, from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, takes a different tone than much of Scripture. Its author tells us that “all is vanity.” A man who spends his life in wise labor, skill, and success, must leave all he has done to someone else. What does he gain from all this? In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is asked to settle a dispute between two brothers. Jesus refuses, and warns them against greed “for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.” Jesus then tells them a parable about a wealthy man who harvested more food than he could store. To fix this dilemma he orders the building of larger storage buildings: then he will be satisfied. But seeing this, God calls him a fool, for his soul will be in demand (ie, he will die). All his riches will not help him as he stored up treasure for himself instead of making himself rich in the sight of God.

There is much to these readings, but unfortunately most of the sermons I’ve heard over the years have reduced Luke to “don’t get greedy or you’ll be sent to hell.” Truthfully, I think most preachers ignore Ecclesiastes because they don’t fully understand it.

And I get that. Most of us know about this book only from the song Turn, Turn, Turn written by Pete Seger in the 1950s and recorded by The Byrds in 1965 (you can look it up). But much of the book reads, frankly, like someone who is done with life and doesn’t fully understand its purpose.

Many of us know about the rabbi and author Harold Kushner for his landmark book When Bad Things Happen to Good People he based it on the Old Testament Book of Job. He’s written several books since (and I enthusiastically recommend them all), but I wish to concentrate on his book When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough which he based on Ecclesiastes.

Rabbi Kushner speaks of a belief among some that Old Testament King Solomon (son of King David) wrote three books in the Old Testament: Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Song of Songs speaks of the love between a husband and wife and Soloman wrote that as love poetry when he was a young man. In middle age Solomon wrote Proverbs to impart wisdom to young people on how to negotiate the world. And as an old man he wrote Ecclesiastes when he fell into cynicism and despair over the fact that his life was coming to an end.

Most scholars don’t think this is true, but there something to the cynicism and despair of the writer. Because on some level it’s true: what good does it do to spend your life making good choices and doing the right thing when, at the end of you life, you face the same fate as the wicked? Both of you are going to die. When we were in college my friend Jim wrote to me during exam week and quoted Ecclesiastes: “As to more than these, my son, beware. Of the making of many books there is no end, and in much study there is weariness for the flesh.” It spoke to me.

And I think that many of us find consolation and even wisdom here. From our earliest memories we try to do the right thing, to make good choices, to be men and women worthy of respect. But we also recognize that again and again we are at the mercy of forces beyond our control. Several years ago I met a man, who I’ll call Ken, near the end of his life. He was a good man who loved God, his family, and his country. He worked hard to make good choices in his personal and professional career. But he worked here in the United States for a Savings and Loan. In the 1980s he found himself in the middle of a scandal where some S&L’s were found to be cheating people to pad the bank accounts of a few executives. He wasn’t one of those people but he was painted by the same brush and he lost nearly all of his retirement. He spent several days being grilled and accused by government regulators who were convinced he was just another crook. He was devastated and hearing his story 20 years later I could hear his pain and it brought me to tears.

As he told me this story he recognized that much of the social status he had taken for granted was gone. No longer could he count on the adulation of his peers or the respect of his neighbors. Automatic upgrades from coach to first class became a blessed memory and countless people he counted as friends abandoned him. The things he valued for much of his life were gone.

But, to his credit, he adapted. He began to value the respect of those who knew he did nothing wrong. He stopped caring about those who liked him for his status and kept caring about those who liked him for his moral compass. For those (like me) who didn’t meet him until decades after the crisis, his choices spoke to how little he cared about the S&L crisis and how much he cared about those who chose the right path.

And that has informed our understanding of Luke’s Gospel. The man who approached Jesus clearly was a man of some wealth because he spoke of his inheritance: we know nothing about him except that his father had enough wealth to pass to his sons. They were both blessed.

But while they don’t recognize their blessing, Jesus does. First Jesus refuses to get caught up in their dispute, and then tells them a parable that I can only hope embarrassed them.

If you are blessed, if you are given more than you need, what should you do with the surplus?

If the author of Ecclesiastes wonders why he should work hard to provide assets for others, the two brothers in Luke fight over how to divide the assets given them by someone else. It’s not hard to imagine that the author of Ecclesiastes gave birth to these brothers in Luke. The father of these two men must have despaired of how they honored him (or didn’t) by their behavior.

As often happens Jesus refuses to get ensnared in the dispute at hand, but Jesus’ concern was not how the father’s wealth would be divided between the brothers, but how it would be divided between everyone.

I hope these readings don’t shame modern day accountants or those who are saving for retirement. It doesn’t. The parable assumes the wealthy man has more than he will ever need. Why did he amass wealth beyond what he would ever need? We don’t know.

But we can look to today for some clues. Here in the United States we are engaged in a spirited debate about wealth inequality (or “class warfare,” depending on your perspective). But nobody doubts there are a few who now possess much more than they will ever be able to consume. They love to look at numbers that make them “the wealthiest” only for bragging rights. Perhaps the wealthy man belonged to that group.

Or perhaps not. Maybe he was simply a man who had been blessed and feared that if he gave too much of it away, something would happen down the road that would cause him to regret his generosity.

And frankly that fear feeds a cottage industry for many of us. We need to grab as much as we can as fast as we can in case something happens. Because life expectancy has dramatically increased in the last 100 years we now face the fear that we will “outlive our money” and die poor.

I don’t wish to ignore this fear, but I want to put it in its place. The fear that we might not have enough should inform but not overwhelm our actions. Years ago I heard something that sticks with me. Someone, in a committee meeting, asked where they should store their surplus food. Another in the same meeting responded by suggesting they store the surplus in the stomachs of the hungry.

In our lives we will all face the dilemma of the author of Ecclesiastes. And in honesty we will all ask Jesus to settle a dispute in our favor. But I hope we will face inevitable suffering with the courage and imagination I found in Ken.

Because years after his death I, along with all those who knew him, continue to honor him not for his wealth here in earth, but for his wealth in the eyes of God.