Vanity
When I returned from my sabbatical, I began offering a prayer before the final blessing during worship. This is the prayer:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to seek any reward
Save that of knowing that we do your will
I don’t really remember where I found this prayer but it touched my heart so much that I have it in my prayer book so I can share it with you during worship - to serve, to give, to fight, to toil, and to labor, all in an effort to do the will of God. What a blessing!!
Vanity doesn’t suggest that life is meaningless or that somehow the things we acquire for ourselves through life have little to no value. Vanity poses a particular question: Does your faith reside in yourself, the things you have acquired, or in something larger than yourself? In other words, from where do you derive your meaning or sense of purpose? What keeps you grounded? What anchors you?
The past few days have been hellish for some of our brothers and sisters in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. Two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, have unleashed the fury and power of nature on them; our hearts go out to them, and we pray for their safe recovery.
The destruction has been incalculable, and watching all this play out on TV just scares me. The power of the wind, the rain, and the relentless waves of the sea, all raging at the same time.
Many are the homes that hold wonderful memories for families and friends were abandoned and destroyed. Shops and buildings where people trade have been destroyed. School buildings where people go to study and learn have been destroyed. Churches where people go to hear stories about a living God have been ruined. There’s so much destruction in all these different places because of the weather - something we cannot control. Life that people and communities have built over many years, destroyed overnight.
The point here is that as painful and devastating as this experience has been for millions of our brothers and sisters, there’s a teaching moment for each of us. We are always reminded that we leave everything behind when we die, but the reality is that we don’t have to die to leave everything behind, we can still be alive and leave everything behind because we simply cannot take everything we have - valuable or not - to where we need to go to secure our safety.
During times when our personal safety is in question, we simply take ourselves and a few things that we can handle, and walk out on the gathered illusion that we thought our entire lives depended on. We take the little we can manage and walk out of the material world that provides us with a mirage of a kingdom. It is at these moments that we come to appreciate the fact that we value our precious lives more than the properties we have worked so hard to accumulate. The interesting thing is that we don’t see ourselves as being defined by anything material.
Psalm 39 paints this picture: Surely a person goes about like a shadow. Surely he heaps up vain things of wealth, and doesn't know who shall gather them. The fact that the psalmist is suggesting that we acquire wealth and do not know who will gather it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t gather at all. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with acquiring wealth.
What is wrong is when we compromise the principle of the kingdom of God in the acquisition of that wealth - i.e. when you use deceit, thievery, mischief, greed, and pure disregard for others. What is wrong is when we place a premium on wealth over and above our relationship with others. What is wrong is when we place value on wealth over and above our relationship with God.
And the fact that we don’t even know who will gather what we have spent our lives working for makes the point about vanity even more striking and profound.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words will never pass away,” Jesus reminds us. The words that will not pass away are the words of the kingdom - the good news that anchors each of us in God, bringing meaning and purpose to our lives, the good news that transforms our lives, bringing us out from the shadows of darkness into God’s beaming celestial light, the good news that renews our trust in God, even when we’ve had to leave everything behind or lost everything.
As we reflect on our annual pledge for the coming year, I’d like to implore you to reflect on what Christ Church means to you. For me, Christ Church is the epitome of a sanctuary where all are welcome, all are cherished, all are fed, all are cared for, all are visited, and the water of life that springs forth from here transforms life and lightens our darkness. If we believe in the work of the kingdom that is carried on here at Christ Church, then may it be our joy to support our congregation.
The invitation to prayerfully consider our absolute participation in this stewardship campaign is to open the way for us to reassess God’s place in our lives. It is to help us to understand that our commitment to God comes before everything else. It is to challenge us to believe that God takes precedence over all that we have, and our dedication to God includes making sure that the good news of the kingdom continues to be shared at Christ Church.
This place of human fulfillment teaches us to serve, to give, to fight, to toil, and to labor, all in an effort to do the will of God. These are the sort of things that bring meaning and value to our lives, that anchor us and keep us grounded, and so long as we do them, our lives will never be in vain.
Blessings,
Manny +
To pledge to Christ Church for 2025, please visit www.christchurchcolumbia.org/pledge-2025