Ecclesiastes: Meaning in Life

Well, there's a bunch of positivity to uh lead us into 2017.

We'll get to why it is positive because it it will lead us there.

It'll lead us somewhere quite beautiful.

So the very wise Jim Carrey, speaking of beautiful, the very wise Jim Carrey said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.

Now, if you want somebody maybe more cultured, perhaps, I don't know, Oscar Wilde, 19th century novelist, said almost the same thing.

There are only two tragedies in life.

One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

So, what are these two guys saying?

Two guys, different centuries, quite different from each other, both artists, both insightful.

Well, philosopher Pete Rollins uh he explains it by talking about the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote.

Anyone grow up watching Roadrunner?

I did.

I grew up watching Roadrunner on Saturday mornings, that and Tom and Jerry, which is pretty much the same cartoon if you think about it.

It is the same thing, like one guy chasing the other.

And so I would I woke up in uh Wiley Coyote to catch you up to speed, if perhaps you've never seen The Roadrunner, Wiley Coyote would chase this bird every Saturday morning and never catch him.

Never.

And and Wiley Coyote was well resourced.

I mean, he had weapons, catapults, traps, bombs.

I mean, he had some, he had really good gear and he'd spend all his time building whatever, and he had his plan, and then it just never happened.

He just it was just week after week after week, uh, just never quite getting that bird.

So now Wiley, uh, he could have given up, right?

He could have said, I'm I'm done.

Uh you know what?

I'm just gonna go get a job.

I'll I'll take up some fishing.

That might probably be easier than catching the roadrunner, and I'll watch TV and hang out.

Like that's what I'm gonna do.

But you you know, you know what would be true.

In the back of his mind, he'd be thinking, if I had only gotten that bird.

If I'd only gotten that bird, right?

If I had just gotten that bird vent, then I would be satisfied.

Right?

I mean, this is a dangerous line of thinking for life.

If I if I could only get that or her or it or then, then I will be satisfied.

As for this present moment, I'm not willing to consider any type of present moment satisfaction.

If I get that, then I'll be satisfied.

But what would have happened?

What would have happened if Wiley had actually caught that bird?

What would have happened?

We know what would have happened.

He would have made a little campfire, he would have cooked that bird, he would have had a nice little meal, and he would have woken up the next day and he would have found another bird to chase, wouldn't he?

And you know why we know that?

Because we do it, right?

Like that's why we know it, because that's that's that's life.

And that's a little bit what this Ecclesiastes is talking about.

This is what it's coming around to, that the next day always comes.

Jim Carrey saying it, Oscar Wilde saying it, and then we get to this book of Ecclesiastes, we're gonna spend the next couple of months in.

It's a strange book.

It's a strange Old Testament book.

It's full of rants, a lot of pessimism.

So there's but it's gonna lead us somewhere beautiful.

But you have to hang in there, especially if you're a person who loves positivity and you're not quite sure if you want to move into realism or cynicism at all, you're gonna have a hard time with this, but you've got to hang with it because all the rants always lead us somewhere beautiful.

Now, there's two voices in the book of Ecclesiastes, it's important to know.

So the first voice is the narrator.

The narrator is in chapter 1, verses 1 through 11.

We just read it, and the narrator then jumps back in at the end of the book in chapter 12.

Everything in between is another voice.

Now, it's assumed everything's written by one person, but the middle is it's a creative writing, right?

Biblical creative writing.

We're okay with that, by the way.

It's a creative writing.

And everything in between is this other, just this ranting, raw honesty, sort of like pessimistic, and kind of catches himself at times and kind of comes back into like a measure of like what would be good for him, and then he rants again, and then the narrator comes back in at the very end of the book and he says, Hey, by the way, here's the answer: fear God.

Now we think Solomon wrote it, but we're not sure.

It could have been written by somebody else, like as a biography of Solomon, but we know it is about Solomon and King Solomon's life.

And we know it is, it feels like a journal, like a really dark, depressing journal.

Yeah, so come to church in the coming weeks.

That's what we're gonna be reading.

A dark, depressing journal of somebody's.

Now, Solomon was loaded.

He had probably in modern terms, you know, people like to work up the calculations, but maybe he's pulling in a billion dollars a year.

A lot of money.

Money's not a problem.

But it's never really about money, is it?

It's almost never about money because money is the thing that we use to feel adequate or comfortable or somebody.

Like finally I will be okay.

And Solomon was he was revered.

I mean, he had accomplished something.

He wrote Proverbs, by the way, in case you're wondering.

I mean, quite a book to write, a little bit of wisdom coming out of him.

He's known.

And we think, oh, if I could have these things, if I could be approved, if I could be approved at this level, then, then, like if I catch that bird, if I catch that roadrunner, then I'll be satisfied.

And this guy, who has had all of this, he says, by the way, vanity of vanities, to all of that, to that line of thinking.

And that word vanity, it means vapor.

Like it's here, and then it's just gone.

So, what do you do when everything you thought would give you meaning, and then you figure out it doesn't?

What do you do then?

Well, let me reread a few of these words as we go through it.

Ecclesiastes 1, 1 through 3, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, vapor, vapor, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

So, a few points.

Point number one, all of the good and all of the bad can feel like vapor.

Now, I'm not saying it is vapor, right?

And the Bible's not saying everything is vapor because this is a reflective journal of some guys.

He's saying it feels like vapor.

We can feel like it's just all meaningless.

It's just vapor.

So on the way to the gym, every morning, I walk out of my driveway, down the street, I walk up to the hospital, I walk up the hill.

I cut in between two buildings to get back to the health place gym.

Cut them between two buildings.

There's these three silos that I walk by.

I don't know what they're holding, but this vapor comes out from underneath them every morning.

I walk through this cloud that I'm relatively sure is gonna give me cancer.

I walk through this cloud and I come out the other side.

Every morning I do this.

This cloud comes out from under the silos, it only goes up to about seven feet, and then it's gone.

It's gone.

Because it's just it's just just vapor.

See, this is how Solomon is feeling about his life.

I mean, have you ever felt like that?

We're not saying it is that, we're saying have you ever felt like that?

And in the grace of God, he's burying his soul.

So, verses four through seven, the narrator goes super poetic.

I won't reread those.

Preachers like to get super poetic.

And then jumping back in in verse eight, all things are full of weariness.

A man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

So, point number two, I'll say it, you already know it.

This life is full of weariness.

That's why some of you are starting to fall asleep.

Right?

A little bit, a little bit is me.

I understand.

But some of it's just like life is so weary, you finally sit still and you just fall asleep.

Right?

It just feels like, it just feels like the laundry and the conflict and the job that's just it's not great.

And driving down the expressway, and then you drive back up the expressway, and the rejection again, or like when will I ever break through whatever that thing is again, and the feeling of not being enough?

I mean, it's just all so weary.

And that person's still that way, I've been trying to change them, it's not working.

And it's all this feeling like I need to do something else.

Like this present moment, not not, I'm not willing to come into this present moment and let Jesus be sufficiency for me here as all satisfaction.

Surely Jesus is not really the answer to full sufficiency because I'm not feeling that.

What I'm feeling is like King Solomon, I am feeling like everything's weariness.

And it can feel like that.

And so we cope, right?

We cope by forming dreams.

Or we cope by reliving the past.

Or we cope, like last night I take a home tour on my phone of Oprah's home and telluride.

Now, why am I doing this?

Why do I know she owns a home and telluride?

I know how much she paid for it.

I know the square footage.

I've been in all the rooms.

I've been in every room.

Why am I doing this?

Because I love to cope with reality.

I love to cope with disappointment.

I love to cope with anxiety.

I don't turn to alcohol, I don't turn to a lot of other things, but I love to form a dream.

I love to form a dream way out in the future, and I'll cope with this.

And I'm not quite sure Jesus is sufficient right now.

So I'm feeling.

So, you know what?

I'll form a dream and I'll just entertain it.

I'll just entertain it.

You know what it is?

It's my little roadrunner.

Right?

Just a little roadrunner for me to chase.

We all do it.

I don't know what yours is.

We all do it.

And all of this is very bothering because it's just so real.

It's just how we feel so much.

And this is what Ecclesiastes is doing is it's just opening up how we feel about things.

Because Solomon's just letting it rip.

I mean, he's just letting it rip how he feels about reality at the moment he's writing this thing.

And then verse 9 what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

A lot of motivation for entrepreneurs and inventors and artists, right?

It's how he feels.

Point number three, there's nothing new in this life.

This is how he feels.

So this is just that feeling, this is the feeling like this again?

Like a like again, like eating again?

Like I just ate.

I'm gonna do that again, I'm gonna do it again, I'm gonna do it again, I'm gonna do it again, I'm gonna do this again, I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna do this like work thing and come home and this again, and then I'm gonna do that again, I'm gonna do that again, I'm gonna do this laundry again, I'm gonna do this again, I'm gonna go again and again, and the kitchen sink's full, again, I'm clipping my fingernails again, like it just keeps coming over and over and over and over.

Like, not to mention pain, not to mention grief, because you're hurting again.

Christy and I went to this uh Christian worship uh event this week, and I was thinking, oh, this is gonna be just a great day to get get away for the day.

I don't think I'm not in charge of anything.

And we get there and we immediately see a friend that we haven't seen uh a few years, and like right away it's very clear that he's very sick because his speech is is uh slurred, his movements are are kind of off, and we don't say anything about it, but we're we've been with him for about an hour, and then he finally says something about his health, and and then we said something, and we end up talking for like two hours about his health, a neurological disease I can't figure out, and then on top of that they find out he has cancer.

And you're like, oh wait, again, like more pain, more more pain for him, right?

Like the neurological disease wasn't enough, like cancer also, right?

Like more pain, and then you know what, you're like, oh again, now I I have another another friend that's sick.

You're like, it's just so weary, it's just so wearying.

And Solomon's saying, hey, I I like I get that.

That's how I feel.

I'm gonna I'm letting this out.

I need to let it out.

And there is no southern evangelical composure going on here, right?

I mean, you this is not, this is not that.

There's no pretension here.

It's just I'm not feeling it.

This is how I feel.

But a hint is given in this text, just a hint.

You could read over it so quickly.

And it's this phrase under the sun.

Everything's vanity, everything's vapor under the sun, which excludes one thing.

The sun.

And this is this poetic hint because the sun is the light of the world, and then the narrator comes in in chapter 12 and says, hey, the answer to all this is to fear God, which is the Old Testament's way to say, come under God, come under his authority, live in humility to receive from him.

He is sufficient for you, he is sufficient to declare morality, he is sufficient to declare pleasure, he is sufficient to give you peace, come under him, fear him.

But being your own God, seeking your own pleasure, attempting to make meaning of any of this by your own autonomy, that is vapor.

That's under the sun.

That's not the sun beaming light onto you, which changes everything.

Because Paul says in the New Testament, something quite different than what Solomon's journaling here, what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 31, so whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

So Paul's saying, Solomon, I'm a good Jew.

I know your book.

I know it.

I've read it.

I know how you feel.

But in the grace and the glory of God, and the light of the world, Jesus, everything means everything.

See, the hint was given.

Solomon gave the hint, but he just feels one way at the moment.

But the truth is something different.

And it comes from outside of us.

It's the beam of light, it's the light of the world, it's Christ.

And Paul says, unto the most basic, unto the most basic of life things, the most mundane, the most wearying, the thing that's not new, eating.

Right?

Like a bowl of cereal, milk and Cheerios, or cinnamon toast crunch.

Anybody's cinnamon toast crunch.

I mean, unto that, at the kinchin counter with your spoon, to the glory of God, it has meaning.

Not just the church stuff and the devotional, not all of it has meaning.

Because you are a created, beloved child of God, and he shines his light on you, which means everything you do has meaning.

This light is known in the cross.

That's why we keep talking about Jesus as sufficiency.

We talk about Jesus as sufficiency because at the cross he takes on our sin and shame and he gives to us his righteousness, and so we're forever God's beloved.

Listen, we will die.

We will all die.

That's not news.

And our lives are filled with ordinary actions.

Now, don't be misled to think your life is gonna be filled with radical faith stories.

It's not.

Hate to break the news.

It's not.

You're gonna have some, praise God.

You know what?

You're gonna have some great faith stories, praise God.

You're gonna tell your friends, it's gonna be wonderful.

There's gonna be a whole bunch of bowls of cereal, is what your life's gonna be.

You're gonna clip your fingernails, you're gonna cut the lawn, you're gonna do the laundry, a whole bunch of ordinary actions.

And you know what?

Paul says, unto the glory of God, all of it.

And I know it doesn't make the headlines, and we don't do like testimony videos, and we're not up here interviewing Cindy Lou, how she did the laundry and folded it for her little kids unto the glory of God, but that is incredibly relieving for us.

You're gonna have some great faith stories, and then you're gonna have a whole bunch of ordinary, and all of it has meaning.

All of it has meaning.

It's ordinary and it's meaningful.

Because this love that we receive gives meaning.

So at this Christian conference we were at this week, I had not been to anything like it in years.

Uh I have no idea how long, a long time.

And I walked in, I found myself getting quite uh emotional and grateful.

And it could have been the bass drum because it was really loud.

Very possible, because I feel the same at Coldplay concerts.

So it's possible, but it's not totally, it's not totally it.

I know it was more than that.

Because this place had served just oh so formative in my life, like about 18 years ago.

And I find myself very emotional being there this week.

And part of the Lord was helping me to see as I was standing there and I was reflecting and being emotional.

For 15 years of my Christian life, I used emotion to feel secure with God.

And if I wasn't feeling emotional, then I felt like I wasn't secure.

This was a path unto meaninglessness.

This turned spirituality into vapor.

Some of you know what I'm talking about.

And this is how this is how secular life and religious life can both be vapor.

And this is why gospel, which is the beam of light from outside of you under the sun, the sun unto you, given to you, is always meaningful, whether you feel it or not.

And so I'm standing there, I'm feeling the same emotions I used to.

So, okay, I'm going 18 years ago, I'm doing this.

18 years ago, same thing, same emotion, same feeling.

But for so long, I used this feeling to feel secure with God.

And then by God's grace, when I was in exhaustion, going, like, what is this?

Why do I feel like my faith is meaningless?

Why am I about to walk away?

The difference is to then see that I am secure by Christ's work for me outside of myself.

And that security births emotion.

And then there's days that there's not emotion.

And then the grace of God that's fine too.

Because the core of my being rests, rests in Jesus and in the unmerited love to me that God has.

See, our satisfaction in Jesus does not create our meaning and our security.

Rather, Jesus is our security and sufficiency, which makes him our satisfaction and birth emotion.

I'll read that whole thing again.

I worked really hard this week.

See, our satisfaction in Jesus does not create our meaning and security.

Rather, Jesus is our security and sufficiency, which makes him our satisfaction and birth demotion.

So listen, there's rest for you.

On that day you feel like Solomon and you sit down with a pen to journal and you're letting it rip with raw honesty about how it feels weary and it feels meaningless and it feels like vapor, there's rest for you, there's grace for you.

Or the day you feel like King David, and you just wonder where God is.

Where's he at?

Or maybe the day you feel like Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, and you realize you can't pull it off.

You can't pull it off.

You can't maintain being a good enough Christian, and you're left with only one beat of your heart, and the only thing it's saying is, thank God for Christ Jesus.

Thank God for Christ Jesus.

Hope of glory, hope of my glory.

So, my brothers and sisters, you are loved and you are redeemed in Jesus.

May you know the beam of light that shines from above and gives you great rest and great meaning and great satisfaction.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace to us and the gift of Jesus, that we might know you.

Thank you that we do not have to rely upon ourselves and our work or our emotion.

But we can rest in something that's permanent and secure.

May that great work and the gift of your spirit into our hearts be our hope.

And may nothing else be our hope.

Would you teach us to trust greater in you, who you are, your work for us, that we might find satisfaction in you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.