By Rev. Stephanie McDyre Johnson, preached at Earth Ministry’s 17th Annual Celebration of St. Francis: Creation-Care Sermon Contest on October 1, 2011.
Ecclesiastes 2:4-9, 24-25
Imagine a society which over the course of, maybe 150-200 years, shifts from an agrarian lifestyle to a commercially driven, consumer oriented world. A new social class is created with merchants and tradesmen. Commerce is no longer about the exchange of goods and service, but rather coins: cold hard cash is the new commodity.
Farming becomes a business as crops are sold at market for coins rather than bartered for services. As people move into towns they become detached from the land which sustains them. In fact, the land becomes just another commodity sold off and traded. Wealth is equated with the number of buildings one owns, buying more stuff to keep ahead of the neighbors becomes the goal, and owning more than one needs is a source of pride. Personal value is measured by the things which are acquired.
It could be that I’m talking about our time: the period of western development from the Industrial Revolution until today, as consumerism has become the mark of our society.
Or it could be that I’m talking about the time period when the Book of Ecclesiastes was likely written; during the last half of the 5th or early part of the 4th Century, B.C.E, according to some scholars. The presumed author of the book of Ecclesiastes is Qohelet, or the “teacher.”
An ancient day Donald Trump, Qohelet managed to obtain more than any one person could ever need. He built houses, planted vineyards, made gardens and a park for his own enjoyment, diverted precious water in a desert to create his own forests of trees, bought herds and flocks, gathered silver and gold “all the treasure of the Kings.” (v. 8) The list goes on and on.
It’s not at all unlike today with our oversized houses which destroy the landscape, massive cars which pollute the air, media rooms for the newest electronics where the old, outdated electronic equipment is dumped in the trash. AND we actually rent storage units to store all our extra stuff that doesn’t fit in these big houses. All the while, our list goes on and on.
But it’s not just the stuff which becomes a problem; it’s the fact that we are never content.
We are constantly in pursuit of something, thinking perhaps that we can find happiness in the next purchase. We begin to make golden calves out of the next and newest technology: the big screen TV, the high-tech car, the perfect kitchen in an oversized house, or the newest cell phone.
As we speed through life on this highway of endless consumption we become worshippers of both things, and the pursuit of things.
A recent Pew Foundation survey of the absolute richest people in our society, multi-millionaires and billionaires, found that even they are anxious and unhappy. With their seemingly limitless ability to buy they haven’t found happiness.
Qohelet too recognized that for all the pursuits necessary to buy the best and the biggest, it was “All vanity and chasing after the wind.”(v.11) In the end, Qohelet noted that there was “nothing to be gained under the sun.” (v.11) He realized that though he “became great and surpassed all who where before him in Jerusalem” (v. 9) it was all just “hebel.” Hebel is a Hebrew word which has many meanings, but can be interpreted as either vanity or absurdity.
Think for a moment about the absurdity of our chasing things. A few years ago there was a commercial about a guy coming home from a car dealership. He’s shown driving a car one block forward, running back to get another car and driving it ahead another block. Because the price of the new car was absolutely too good to pass up, the man bought not one but two cars.
Talk about absurdity! Yet how easily we fall prey to these absurd ideas of consumerism.
For much of American society, our weekend pastime is shopping at the mall. We are encouraged to shop as a patriotic duty to help our failing economy. We are constantly bombarded by advertisements that persuade us that only by acquiring more things can we find true happiness.
At this point you may be wondering about how to connect all this talk about our absurd pursuit of things to our relationship with God. I invite you now to take just a short moment to reflect on a time where you have experienced God.
While I’m not much of a mind reader, it’s unlikely that many of us just recollected an encounter with God in the mall, or in front of a big screen TV, or driving the newest, best car.
Because, of course, God is not to be found in those things.
Instead, perhaps you reflected on a moment when you first held a newborn baby, received an unexpected hug from your teenager or a word of deep gratitude from an aging, ill parent. Perhaps you remembered a breathtaking view from a mountain top or a deep sense of exhilaration as waves pounded against the ocean shoreline. Maybe you recalled a silent, peaceful walk through the forest or kayaking on a calm still lake.
It is in these moments we experience God’s love; in caring relationships and in the beauty and mystery of the natural world. But with our continued consumer driven ethic, we love the things that we have made, not that which God has given us to cherish. We’ve forgotten that the gifts of Creation and relationships between God’s children are the true “things” we need. Instead, we have become consumed by the need for material things.
The true price we pay for our consumer culture is separation from God and desecration of all that God loves in his Creation. As the Earth Charter reminds us “The major cause of continued deterioration of the global environment is in the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production.” By our obsession with possessions we are destroying the Earth for all of God’s beloved creatures today and those yet to come.
How can we as Christians respond?
When the Council of Jamnia met in 90 CE to determine the Hebrew canon, there was a debate that the Book of Ecclesiastes was too radical to include. After all, Qohelet goes against the norms of the day in claiming that the pursuit of things offers no real joy, it is only “chasing at the wind” (v. 11) an activity which is always fruitless. While Qohelet was initially main stream, perhaps even a trend setter, ultimately he became counter-cultural, pushing up against all that was accepted by his contemporary society. As Christians we are always called to be counter-cultural just as Jesus modeled for us. We are called to model a life outside the mainstream, to question those who claim to represent accepted cultural norms.
But it’s not easy in our country to swim against the stream of consumerism. Believe me, I know, as I drive my mini-van around town with my cell phone and IPod charging in the front seat. Yet I think back to my childhood: I grew up in a world where one landline phone, one car and one TV sufficed for a family of four. It wasn’t really all that long ago that life was less cluttered.
God’s generous love does not promise a life of great material riches. What God has offered, according to Qohelet, is “for mortals to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. “ (v. 24) We are to find joy and blessings in the basic necessities.
Qoholet continues that this joy is a gift “from the hand of God.” (v. 24) The hand of God reaches down to gently guide us in a life of simple pleasures that make our lives rich not in things but in the moment, in our relationships with people, and in the natural world which God has created.
Like Qohelet, we are asked to stand up against cultural norms as we re-imagine our lives freed from the false idols of possessions. Otherwise, we threaten our relationship with God and the very heart of Creation by our destructive purchasing habits. As for me I’ve been trying to make choices based on need rather than want. I buy used clothes, live in a smaller house, fix rather than buy new. I do these simple acts as an offering of gratitude to God; small acts of love.
Some churches have begun to observe a Season of Creation which starts today, St. Francis Day, through the First Sunday in Advent. It is a time set aside to honor and preserve the earth. It is a time to thank God for the blessings of Creation. I’ve begun to think about celebrating this Season as a period free from consumerism. Spending my weekends not at the mall but with those I love. Putting aside more time to enjoy nature rather than looking at ads in newspapers and on TV about all the things I should buy. Treasuring the real gifts that God has given us while modeling a new life outside the mainstream.
It’s hard, as Qohelet experienced, to rally against the absurdity of society’s expectations. Yet when we begin to un-clutter our lives, our minds and our energies from the golden calf of consumption, then we can make room in our hearts, space in our thoughts, and energy in our steps to love God more fully as we are fully and completely loved by God.