In Act 5 Scene 5 of Shakespeare= s Macbeth, the main character is on the castle walls, under siege by his enemies. A cry is heard from within the castle, and Macbeth learns that his wife has killed herself. There was a time when such a message would have chilled his heart, but at this point he is surprisingly stoic and accepting, resigned to the barren futility of life. He goes on to give one of the most famous Shakespearean speeches. Do you remember it?

A Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life= s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.@

A terrible view of life - to suggest that life is nothing but a shadow having no substance, no meaning.

What is the meaning of life?

A philosophical question, to be sure, but this is not only the philosopher= s question. It is a genuinely human question and therefore a question that we all ask. Not necessarily every day, but from time to time. We may ask it in despair or hope, out of cynicism, or out of sincere curiosity and a deep desire to have goals and guidance in life. However we raise the question about the meaning of life, it is our most basic and fundamental question.

It is, in fact, the question we have been asking ourselves this month: A What is really important to me?@

As we begin to answer that question, we begin to identify what we understand to be the meaning of life.

There are multiple answers to both of those questions, and the way our society has answered them has not always been positive.

There is a statement making its rounds on the web attributed to George Carlin C comments he made on the death of his wife. Carlin himself denies making this statement, but with him, you don= t really know. The statement, whether Carlin= s or not, is profound:

A The paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences but less time.... We= ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We= ve added years to life but not life to years. We= ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We= ve done larger things, but not better things.@

Carlin describes the results of how modern humanity has tried to answer the question of the meaning of life.

Sadly we have tried to find the meaning of life in ourselves and in the world of things, of science, of knowledge, of achievement.

But that is not the way that leads to real life.

The Psalmist tells us there are two paths in life, and one path leads to fulfillment and happiness while the other leads to emptiness and nothingness. I love the paraphrase of Psalm 1 printed in the front of the worship folder for it states it so succinctly: A Happiness comes from immersing yourself in God.@

Or, as the NRSV puts it: A Happy are those [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.@

In other words, if you want to choose real life, then choose God.

Make God the center of your life, your thoughts, your focus C immerse yourself in God and you will find the meaning of life.

The earliest Christians gathered together for prayer twice a day, morning and evening. Before that, the ancient Jewish synagogues observed public prayer at the third, sixth, and ninth hours.

Such devotion is today only witnessed in monastic communities, or among Muslims, who are called to prayer 4 times a day.

For centuries in the church this practice regulated and marked the daily life of Christians. There was a rhythm to life every day between moments focused on God and moments immersed in the world.

This practice was viewed as a serious responsibility for each Christian: to pray the prayer of the church, to intercede for the world, to offer praise to God, and to grow in holiness as God= s people.

It was an active means of immersing one= s self in God.

That is no longer true. Instead, most of us, and I include myself, are absorbed in an alternative method of marking our days and hours.

This alternative form of ritual prayer is the divine office of consumerism. Glowing at the center of this new divine office, in place of the Easter candle, are the broadcast media C especially television and radio. Though programming is technically available twenty-four hours a day, for many of us, our favorite shows appear in the morning and the evening, around the same time as the traditional gathering times for prayers in Christian tradition.

Those who celebrate this new office may find themselves attracted more to some morning or evening prayer services than to others. Certain liberals have been drawn to prayer on Sunday evenings (A The West Wing@ and A The Sopranos@ ) while other A law and order@ types have actually had three or four nights for prayer. Those of a more A enthusiastic@ bent have been drawn to prayer on Tuesday evenings (A American Idol@ ) and those of a more mystical nature have turned to Wednesday evenings (A Lost@ and A Invasion@ ). Of course, there are those who celebrate the Little Office of the NFL on Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings. What really holds this new cycle of prayer together, however, are the commercials that punctuate virtually all its hours. In this regard, commercials function much as the psalms of the Hebrew Bible, which have served as building blocks of all the versions of the daily prayers in the Church.

Just as the purpose of regular, repeated daily prayers was to form the Christian more and more into the image of Jesus, even so the purpose of the Church of Consumerism is to shape the moral and cultural outlook, views and opinions of Americans in a particular mold.

A view of life, and the meaning of life, that does not lead to fulfillment, regardless of what the commercials tell us, but to a life withered up and dry, blowing in the wind, scattered into nothingness.

Both these prayer practices show their true core in what they lead us to do with our money. If we follow the call and guidance of the commercials, we continue to use our money in pursuit of happiness and success and fulfillment in life by purchasing cars and cell phones and vacations and I-pods and computers and investment strategies and medications for all sort of dysfunctions.

If we live a life oriented to God= s purposes we will use our money to care for other people. As John the Baptist taught: A Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.@ This is what people A do@ as a demonstration of their family connections to faithful Abraham. Or, we will be like Zacchaeus, who said to Jesus, A Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I pay back four times as much.@ This is what Zacchaeus does, demonstrating, as Jesus puts it, that A he too is a son of Abraham.@ Indeed, the chief characteristic of Zacchaeus, the one that really matters, is that he puts him money in the service of the needy through his generosity.

Now, we are not all monks or nuns, called to an austere life that renounces personal property and spends all our time in prayer before God. But, we would do well to ponder the spiritual effects of relying on possessions to define who we are and what our treasure is.

Far too often we tend to forget God in the equation when seeking the good life, real life, honestly, because we fear what God might ask of us.

In A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis tells the story of an experience that his wife, Joy, once had:

A Long ago, before we were married, [Joy] was haunted all one morning as she went about her work with the obscure sense of God (so to speak) > at her elbow,= demanding her attention. And of course, not being a perfected saint, she had the feeling that it would be a question, as it usually is, of some unrepented sin or tedious duty. At last she gave in C I know how one puts it off C and faced Him. But the message was > I want to give you something,= and instantly she entered into joy.@

Left to our own devices, we all tend to A put God off,@ not realizing that God A wants to give us something.@

We have inherited the ancient tendency to forsake God, the mysterious A fountain of living waters@ that we can neither possess nor control, and put our trust instead in broken cisterns that can hold no water.

We forget, as we heard the apostle Paul tell Timothy last week that the wealthy must not A set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.@

Do you want to take hold of real life?

Then make sure that you are taking hold of God.

Happiness comes from immersing yourself in God.

That includes making time in your life for God, significant time; in daily prayers, in daily scripture reading, in daily thinking about God and what God wants you to do.

It includes joining with others regularly, on Sunday morning or at other times, to devote oneself publicly to attending to God.

And it includes making sure that nothing else is taking the place of God in your life, like your money, or your job, or your achievements of success, or your possessions.

As we do that, we take hold more and more of God.

As we do that, we take hold of the life that really is life.