Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12–14, 2:18–23; Psalm 49; Colossians 3:1–11; Luke 12:13–21

Amid Ecclesiastes-style recognitions of life’s stark, brute facts — “no ransom avails for one’s life”; “when we look at the wise, they die”; “mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish” — like some weird desert flower blooms the psalmist’s astonishing conviction: “Why should I fear in times of trouble?” (Psalm 49:5).

The word and water and meal and community that come to us in worship from God’s generosity aren’t a refuge or an escape from hard “reality.” Rather, they signify, they promise, God’s work within the messy materiality and perplexing bitterness of our world, our history. Exactly so, they point to a bigger picture, a larger story: “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The gifts of worship suggest what it means to be “rich towards God” (Luke 12:21).