Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

‘Fool, this night your
soul is required of you.’

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This God has said. He has said it to a rich man. By rich,
the Lord does not merely mean someone who has great wealth. He means one who
trusts in his wealth. One who takes comfort in his wealth. One who seeks after
more wealth; more things; more entrapments; more vacations; more leisure; that
he may take comfort.

It is a strange thing, it may seem, for the Lord to call
such a man a fool, for did not the preacher of Ecclesiastes say that there is
no higher wisdom than that a man ‘eat and
drink and find enjoyment in his toil’? Such is the way of the wise, to find
enjoyment in what they earn, in what they create, in what they grow, in what
they build.

The wise indeed enjoy the fruit of their labor; in the sweat
of his brow he takes pleasure in his meal; in great pain she enjoys her family.
What is wisdom beyond enjoying what the Lord has made?

It is not merely wise to enjoy created things; it is divine.
For our God in six days made all that is seen and unseen; by His Word did He
divide the waters; in Wisdom did he lay the foundations of the world and cast
the stars across the heavens. In beauty He founded it all; in majesty did He
forge the universe. In six days did He make it; and then He rested, for it was very good.

‘How great are thy
works, O Lord, thou hast made all things in wisdom.’ And Wisdom’s final
demand is this: Rest, and remember the Sabbath day; behold what is good, and
enjoy. So the Father heeds the counsel of His own Son by whom all things were
made, and enjoys the works of His labor. The seventh day.

God rests in what He has made, and rejoices. The wise man
rests in what he has earned, what he has built, and rejoices. But the rich man
says to himself, ‘I will say to my soul,
you have ample goods laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, and be merry.’
And he shall burn, for this night his
soul is required of him.

The Lord God commands ‘Remember
the Sabbath day’; the day of rest; the day of joy; joy in all that is made.
But before this command, another is given: ‘Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.’ Before we may rest, we must vanquish
the gods. Before we may rejoice, we must crush the idols. Before we may rule
over creation, we must crawl out from beneath it.

The fool in our Lord’s parable has failed to do exactly
this. God calls us, indeed commands us, to take pleasure in the infinite beauty
and delight He has made for us. The fool does not take pleasure in what is
made; he does not delight in what is made; he trusts in what is made; and in so
trusting, he has become an idolator, a
worm, and not a man, returned to the dust from whence he was made.

What is the dust of the earth, that it should be trusted in?
What are the stars, that they deserve your respect? What is wealth, but
something drawn forth from the earth, and possessions, but what is forged from
the earth?

Do you not know what the Lord has spoken concerning you,
dear Christian?

‘Ye are gods, and sons
of the Most High.’ ‘Partakers of the divine nature.’ ‘Who shall judge the
angels.’

‘Put not your trust in
princes’, neither put your trust in any created thing, for God has no need
of creatures, and neither does His image have need of created things, for His
image shall rely on God alone, even as the reflection in a mirror exists only
because of him who gazes into it.

To those who worry; to those who are ruled by anxiety; to
those who ‘reap and sow and weave and
store into barns’, these are fools, and the Lord declares, ‘This night, your soul is required of
you.’

For such as these have become idolators; slaves of things
made with hands; captives of green paper; chattels of digitized numbers;
partakers not of the divine nature, but of created nature, and as all created
things, they shall pass away, for only God is eternal.

Only God, and God’s children. For the Lord Christ has assumed
humanity into His divinity; and has sanctified the waters. He has assumed the
creation into His infinity; and has consecrated the wine; that all water may
give birth to immortal gods; that all wine might nourish heavenly sons.

You then, who are born of water; are you not as gods? For
you have been taken into Christ our God. You then, who drink of the holy
chalice, are you not sons? For you have been filled with the only Son.

Live then, as gods, immortal. Live then, as sons, free. As
one who shall never see death, trust not in dying things. As one who is born of
water and the word, be not enslaved to what is beneath you.

‘Make not graven
images, and have no other gods’, ‘but remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.’

Rest, whether in plenty or in poverty, whether in luxury or
lack, rest, be wise, and be free, and
enjoy the day which the Lord has made, and think not of tomorrow, what you will
wear. For there is an everlasting tomorrow, which shall require your soul, and on that day, you shall not wear wool
or cotton, gold or jewels, but you shall wear all the radiance of God.

‘For when Christ who
is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.’

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Preached by Pastor
Fields

Sermon texts:
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21.