Uncle Luther's Porch

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI had some harsh words about the global economic crisis this week. According to the pontiff, a person who pursues money and success is building a house on sand. He also said money and the pursuit of wealth are worthless. “We are seeing now in the collapse of the big banks that this money is disappearing, is nothing,” he said.

It seems almost backwards, doesn’t it? In our society a person is often valued based on their investments or material possessions. We live our lives in excess and we don’t just work to put food on the table, we work to maintain a lifestyle. We work to hold on to our luxuries. We all have dreams of one day owning a bigger house or a fancy car. Some are working toward a beach house or a boat, and yet we have one of the world’s foremost religious leaders saying the wealth we spend our lives striving to acquire is fleeting and worthless.

But, from an eternal perspective – the pope is right. Jesus warns against storing up treasures on earth, telling us instead to store up treasures in Heaven by doing good and by being obedient to His teaching. The idea of the money that often defines our worth actually being worthless is also found in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Few people in the United States ever explore this corner of the Bible. Part of that is because Ecclesiastes has an odd name and doesn’t sound particularly interesting. The other reason is the book is fairly clear in its assertion that most of what we live for in America is meaningless. If we were to give the book a name befitting of its content it would probably be, “Life Sucks.” It is one of the most direct assessments of what life is about in the entire Bible.

In our present financial times, it would do every citizen in the United States – both rich and poor – good to read this book. The perspective offered in it is life changing. It’s themes are the opposite of the way most of us think and live in our day to day lives, but it is truly wise. Here is an excerpt from it on the topic of wealth.

If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich. Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night’s sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.

Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it, and then lose it all in some bad deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children. We leave this world just as we entered it—with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us.

It isn’t right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get? We get to live our lives in darkness and grief, worried, angry, and sick. Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

If God gives us wealth and property and lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have worked for. It is a gift from God. Since God has allowed us to be happy, we will not worry too much about how short life is.

I have noticed that in this world a serious injustice is done. God will give us wealth, honor, and property, yes, everything we want, but then will not let us enjoy it. Some stranger will enjoy it instead. It is useless, and it just isn’t right.

We may have a hundred children and live a long time, but no matter how long we live, if we do not get our share of happiness and do not receive a decent burial, then I say that a baby born dead is better off. It does that baby no good to be born; it disappears into darkness, where it is forgotten. It never sees the light of day or knows what life is like, but at least it has found rest— more so than the man who never enjoys life, though he may live two thousand years. After all, both of them are going to the same place.

We do all our work just to get something to eat, but we never have enough. How are the wise better off than fools? What good does it do the poor to know how to face life? It is useless; it is like chasing the wind. It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.
-Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:9

photo credit: openDemocracy