May we hear your word, and know your gift of life, that we may become more like you, our God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It has to be said that our readings today do not seem very cheerful on the face of it!

Most of us will know the famous reading from Ecclesiastes – Vanity of vanities – all is vanity!

What is the point of life or of bothering at anything at all, the author seems to be saying – whatever you do, whatever you achieve, is all vanity, all a waste of time and effort because, in the end, we all die and all we have toiled for is gained by others.

I’m sure we’ve all heard people speak this way, and maybe even felt it ourselves at times too.

The whole passage is full of weariness – world weariness – with no hope of redemption in eternity – and really, if this is how it is – then I think we really would all pack up and give up here and now.

Unfortunately, in today’s Gospel – we might catch something of the same gloomy message too – in the Parable of the Rich Fool, we see how death creeps up on us and takes away all that we have stored up for ourselves. 

Perhaps Paul’s letter to the Colossians will cheer us up – after all over the last few Sundays we’ve been hearing the glorious descriptions of who Jesus is – thrilling, uplifting and enlightening in every way!

There certainly is good news here – Paul says that now we are raised with Christ and part of his new life, a new creation, there is amazing hope for us all! 

However, its clear that while we are offered this new life, it’s also down to us to choose it, repeatedly, in everything we do.

‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are here on earth.’

Of course, the Rich Fool in Luke’s Gospel, is not doing that at all – quite the opposite – he is obsessed with his worldly goods and wants to hoard them all for himself, thinking of course that this will keep him in the style to which he has become accustomed for many years to come.  

The Rich Fool is making the mistake that Paul is warning the Colossians not to make.

‘To be human is to err and to forgive is divine’ is a well-known saying – and its certainly true but this is not to be used as a lazy excuse – I can’t help it, I’m only human and it doesn’t matter, because God will forgive me!

It does matter – it matters enormously – because our own souls are in jeopardy.

If we repeatedly make the wrong choice – it damages us profoundly, as well as others and the wider world. 

The greed of the Rich Fool in the parable denies someone else of the food and resources they need. While he hoards it in his many barns and storehouses, others are dying of hunger.

And his choice, in the parable, leads onto his own death.

Selfishness and greed kills our sense of morality, and leads us even further into the wrong choices.

And those wrong choices imperil our souls and harden our hearts – and as we heard last week in Canon Bill’s sermon on the final part of the Creed, we will be judged at the end of the age on how we have lived our lives, on the choices we have made. But those wrong choices can also lead us into all kinds of dangers, as we create enemies, outrage and resistance.

The beginning of the Gospel reading might bring to mind the sort of disputes going on in our world today – disputes over territory, inheritance, and the earth’s resources. 

If we focus on these things we miss the bigger thing that really matters – to choose the Kingdom – the gift that God longs to give each and every one of us. 

If you read on in Luke – Jesus tells his listeners ‘Do not worry about your life’ and next week’s Gospel begins ‘Do not be afraid little flock – it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom’. 

Why do we squabble over the little unimportant things of life – the things that end up separating us from each other, even our closest families and friends, when God wants to give us the greatest gift of all?

In Colossians – we see how they have already made the choice that matters – their old way of life is dead – and they have chosen life in Jesus Christ. 

But they have to keep making that choice day by day – in all the little things too – so that bit by bit, they become more like Christ – in whom the Kingdom of God comes near.

Paul lists two different sets of failings or vices, the things that must be done away with to live the Christian life. The first set are the dramatic sins – the things we can more easily say – thank God I’m not like the terrible sinners who do those things! 

But the second set – anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language or words or even thoughts about others – which one of us can say we are completely free of those sins?

And yet we know, and Jesus makes this very clear in the Sermon on the Mount – if we are angry with our brother or sister, he considers it as bad as killing them.

As we see being played out with terrible consequences in Gaza right now – once we begin to see others as less than us, to allow our anger and hatred to take hold – it becomes easier by degrees to turn to killing them.

And as for building ever bigger storehouses to contain all of our ill-gotten gains – well, even some of our world leaders are at that game.

The stakes are so high – the power imbalance so huge and surely our influence so little, that we can easily end up saying – vanity of vanities – its all pointless – we might as well give up.

But no! For every one who makes the right choice in our ordinary lives, we become more and more caught up into the life of God – every time we resist anger or slander – the kingdom of God comes closer – and every time we turn to God in trust and hope in the face of the despair all around – we realise it is not down to us on our own to put it all right – even to save ourselves – but simply to keep on choosing God, to choose life.

As we sang in our opening hymn;

All my hope on God is founded, he doth still my trust renew.Me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone,
calls my heart to be his own.

Service: Revd Michelle Dalliston 3rd August 2025. (St John the Baptist Church Peterborough UK)

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1.2,12-14; 2.18-23; Psalm 49.1-12 (or 49.1-9); Colossians 3.1-11; Luke 12.13-21