The readings for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost are taken from Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26; Colossians 3:1-11; and Luke 12:13-21.
King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes as a warning against spending our lives on trying to get what we do not have or cannot keep. The word translated “vanity” is better translated “breath,” as when you see your breath on a cold day and then you don’t see it. Reducing our life to a body in a material world in time is necessarily burdensome and full of despair. But Solomon shares the soul’s perspective, seeing our life in this body in time as a gift. God’s care for us means we are free to eat, drink, and enjoy good in our labor—as serving God and not just people. God adds to that good experience wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
Paul makes a similar warning in Colossians. God regenerates our soul by His Word and fills us with His Spirit so we seek things that are above—things that matter, that last, that are according to God’s design. At the same time, we put off and cast away futility and the passions of our corrupt human nature. Paul also mentions knowledge, according to the image of God: purposeful, enduring, comprehensive.
In Luke, Jesus warns about the futility of asking God to help you satisfy covetousness. One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Solomon learned this the hard way. Paul learned it the hard way too, on the road to Damascus. Jesus provides another way to learn the lesson, by remembering the parable of the “rich farmer.”