Eccl 11:7-12:14 sermon
* Life doesn't last forever. In fact, every day you live is a day closer to the day you die.
* Everyone faces that same reality – they grow old, and then they die.
* Meaning cannot be found in anything that humanity can do.
* Meaning belongs to God alone. But that means that meaning can be found!
* Living for God does not preclude enjoyment of life, wisdom, pleasure, wealth, political power.
* Only God can give meaning to all these things for us.
New Testament allusions
- Without resurrection, there is no hope for Christians.
- Salvation comes by God's grace.
- Work for eternity is all that holds true meaning.
Stuff
Life is better as a Christian. The Christian life should be desirable, people should be jealous of us. Old people who become Christians should wish they'd become a Christian earlier so they could have lived more of their life this way.
Words
Last week, I described the book of Ecclesiastes and its search for meaning in life like a man in the desert trying to find an oasis. Just as a man dying of thirst in the desert will discard everything he owns as he searches for a drink of water, so does the author of Ecclesiastes discard all the things that clutter up life as he searches for meaning in a desert of meaninglessness. He has discarded pleasure, possessions, wealth, religious observance, wisdom, power, and any skills or talents he may possess, as being insufficient to bring meaning to life. All of these we have seen discredited in the last four weeks. They are good things, yes, but ultimately unsatisfying in the quest for meaning. In fact, last week what we saw was that there is nothing a person can do, nothing you or I or anyone can do, to bring meaning to our lives. Our lives, as Ecclesiastes tells us over and over again, are in and of themselves meaningless.
Just let me stop for a moment here, and welcome you to the belief of the outside world. What I have just described is the beginning and end of reality for a lot of Australians. As far as they are concerned, they are just freakish living beings in a dead universe, they live for 80 or 90 years if they're lucky, then they die, and that's it, there is nothing more. Most will be remembered by their families for at least a generation or two. Some very lucky few might be remembered for a couple of hundred years, perhaps one or two for a thousand, and there would be little hope of anything better than that. Certainly there is not much in the way of hope in heaven, or any sort of eternal life. Some would think that on the cosmic level, they are just such a small, tiny, insignificant part of the universe, that nothing they do really ultimately matters. Others might think that meaning is subjective – that is, that life has no more meaning than what they themselves give to it. So they might try and live a good life, or they might just try and maximise their pleasure, or make the biggest impact on history, or make the most money, or become the most powerful person, or learn as much as they can, raise and look after a family, depending on what they think will give their life the most personal meaning before they die.
For them, the message of Ecclesiastes is not just a philosophical quandary, it is their ultimate reality – nothing they do will ever have any objective significance. There are even scholars who read the book of Ecclesiastes this way – who see its entire message as one of depression, desperation, and ultimate futility. I thank God that it's not like that, and if you've been sitting through these sermons learning about meaninglessness, meaninglessness, meaninglessness, and thinking, “Yeah, but I know Jesus is at the end”, then you should thank God for that, because any comfort you find in that thought comes entirely from God, and it is a comfort that many people in our country simply don't grasp.
As I said, Ecclesiastes doesn't end that way. As we saw last week, and as we've seen in previous weeks, the book as it unfolds gives tantalising tastes of hope in amongst its oceans of futility. Yes, we are told that everything we do, whether it be making money, spending money, gaining pleasure, becoming wise, reaching for power, or even just working day by day, has no ultimate meaning. But the author says, “Keep doing it. Live your life, enjoy what you have, do your work, learn wisdom.” Our inability to give our own lives meaning should not prevent us from living and doing all the things that people across the world do every day. You see, every time the author of Ecclesiastes has discovered a truth about life, it has been not only that the thing he was pursuing – pleasure, wealth, wisdom, whatever – is in and of itself meaningless, but he has also come back to a truth that seems inescapable to him: that to have a life to live, to have work to do, food to eat, wisdom and knowledge to ponder, wealth to spend, and the ability to enjoy these things and be glad – all these things only come from God.
He says this again and again as the book progresses – in 2:24-25 he says, “People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
In 3:12-13, “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.”
In 5:18-20 he says, “This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for people to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives people wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. 20 They seldom reflect on the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.”
In 7:14 he says, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.”
In 8:15, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”
Finally, in 9:7-9 we read last week, “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.”
And so as the book of Ecclesiastes comes to an end, and we find ourselves here in chapters 11 and 12, we shouldn't be surprised that this idea of enjoyment in life coming from God should appear again. In these last two chapters, in fact, we find the two finishing ideas, the wrap up, the two conclusions of the book in its search for meaning.
The first conclusion is about life, and how we should live it in the face of our inability to bring meaning to it ourselves. In chapter 11, the young are told to find joy in their youth, to follow their hearts and to pursue whatever they want - but in the knowledge that God will bring judgement on them for whatever they do. I think there is a strong idea in our culture that your youth is a time for experimentation, trying new things, getting into trouble and up to mischief, before you settle down and grow up and stop enjoying life. Our society seems to just accept that young people will get drunk, young people will indulge in anti-social behaviour, young people will die in car accidents, they will do stupid and reckless and irresponsible things. Well, Ecclesiastes says that there is nothing wrong with enjoying the days of your youth, but that you should still remember that God will hold you in judgement for what you do, even when you are young. Society might not have high expectations of you, but God does. How many of us made mistakes when we were teenagers or in our early twenties that we wish we could go back and change? Probably all of us.
So the first point of Ecclesiastes is this: Enjoy life! It is a gift, it only lasts so long, and there is no reason not to enjoy it and be glad in its living. This is not the sort of message I think we expect to hear from the pulpit. And to be honest, it's not the sort of message a lot of people expect to be in the Bible either. There is some strange feeling we get about following God, as if he desires us to not enjoy ourselves or have fun or be glad. It's not a new idea either. The Jews when reading this message in Ecclesiastes, even before Christ was born, would argue and question whether this was a godly idea, and whether Ecclesiastes should even be in the Bible, because it encourages so much enjoyment of life. And I think most non-Christians today would have similar feelings about Christians stopping people from having fun and enjoying life. “Why can't I have sex outside of marriage? Why can't I get drunk and take drugs and watch pornography, perhaps at the same time? Why can't I experiment with human embryos? Why can't I live my life selfishly for myself? You Christians don't have any fun, and you just want us to be miserable too.” We'll come back to these people later.
Here comes the second point Ecclesiastes is making - that life and its enjoyment come from God. It doesn't come from anything we can do. It doesn't come from being young – those people who think only young people can have fun and enjoy life, read verse 10, “So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.” No, enjoyment of life comes from God, both for the young and the old. Enjoyment of life is a gift from God that we should acknowledge as coming from him.
The very next verse, chapter 12 vs 1, says it clearly, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"”. In the following verses it describes, quite poetically, the process of aging and getting old. Earlier in chapter 11 life is described as “being in the light”, and of course the whole book has referred to life as being “under the sun”. But now it describes the clouds coming over, bringing darkness and gloom as we age – the light of life fades. It describes the body as a household wearing down: the keepers of the house tremble (trembling hands), the strong men stoop (the bones bend and become fragile with age), the grinders cease and become few (thought to be the teeth), and those looking through the windows grow dim (thought to be the eyes), the doors are closed (thought to be the ears), and so the sound of grinding work fades. As people grow older, they wake up earlier, with the birds, but they struggle to hear their song. They become afraid of heights, and of dangers on the road. The almond tree blossoms (that is, the hair goes white), and the grasshopper drags itself along the ground and desire is no longer stirred. (Whether this is talking simply about the lack of appetite as one grows old, or is being rather more euphemistic, I will leave you to ponder for yourself.) But the truth is, for all of us, that we all age, and then we die - we go to our eternal home as it says in verse 5. The reader is urged to remember God before this happens. Verse 6, Remember God before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken (referring to the falling of a rich lamp, the light again representing life, and death is the falling and breaking of the lamp). Remember God before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well (so now life is represented by water, which is quite common, and death by the inability to get that water).
God gives you this life, and eventually he will take it away again. Ecclesiastes has made no secret of the fact that life has its good times and its bad times, its light and its darkness. And it has made no secret of the fact that both the good times and the bad come from God. Now it's interesting that so many people look to God when times are tough, and say, “God, why do you let this happen to me? Why are these bad things happening? Surely there cannot be a God, when so many bad things happen to people.” But how many people, when times are good, when life is enjoyable, when having fun, how many people look up to God and say, “God, why do you let this happen to me? Why are all these good and enjoyable things happening? Surely there cannot be a God when so many good things happen and people enjoy life so much.” They don't, do they? Ecclesiastes says that God brings both, the good times and the bad. Chapter 11 vs 8 says, “However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.” For people whose lives have been basically good, with lots of fun, friends, food and enjoyment, it's only when things change and something bad happens – sickness, poverty, sudden death of a loved one – that they look up and say, “Why did you let this bad thing happen, God? My life was so good, and now it's been tainted by death and suffering and badness! There is no God!” The message of Ecclesiastes is not that God will only bring good into people's lives. It is that both the good and the bad of this life are eventually meaningless. It doesn't take much of a shift of mindset to realise just how freeing and comforting this truth is. When the storm clouds come over, when pain is present, when things are bad, when we are suffering, when evil seems to be winning, when we want to ask “Why?”, God says that you can look at these times and say, “It's okay. At the end of the day, this suffering and evil is ultimately meaningless.” It's not how we're used to thinking, but there is comfort in that knowledge. We can look at the good times, and the bad, and remember God our creator in them both.
The first conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes was that we should enjoy life as much as we can. The second conclusion of Ecclesiastes is that life, in both its pleasure and pain, comes from God, and just as God controls when we live or die, when we are happy or sad, when good things and bad things happen, so does he control whether life has meaning. This is great news! It means that life has meaning! The search for meaning in life is over! We may not have control over it, and so that can sometimes make it seem meaningless. But God has control, and he will determine its meaning.
But how does this truth affect our lives? Okay, so we should enjoy life, but we don't actually have control over whether we enjoy it or not, God does. Good and bad things happen, but at the end of the day, God controls them. Our lives have meaning, but God is what gives life meaning. So what should we do with our lives? What should our response be to this truth? To find the answer, we have to go the very last verses of the book of Ecclesiastes. Before we get there, we are reminded of just how wise and true the sayings of this book are. The sayings of the Teacher, the Preacher, the Leader of the assembly, who wrote these words, we're reminded of how wise he was. We're told that we should let the truth of this book impact our lives, it should prod us like an ox goad, it should move us in the right direction, it should guide us like a shepherd. Then we are told, in verse 13, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the [duty] of every human being. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
This is the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. The confronting truth is that you have no way of giving meaning to your life. You don't even have control over whether you can enjoy food or not. When you look at this reality, and see that only God can control whether your life has any meaning, what other option is there but to fear him, and to obey his commands? What option do you have but to trust God, to give up your illusion of control, and to just trust that he will do the right thing? Given no more information but that you have no control, God has all the control, and that the only way you will enjoy life, the only way that your life will ever have meaning, is to trust God, to fear him, to obey his commandments, what do you do? And so this is the conclusion of Ecclesiastes, given no more information than that. Enjoy life, fear God, obey his commands, and trust that he will gift your life with meaning.
We don't need more than that. The rest of life can remain a mystery. But it doesn't. No, it doesn't, for God in his grace has revealed to us so much more about life, and meaning, through his son Jesus. When you look at the gospel after having read the book of Ecclesiastes, you cannot help but see just how closely it mirrors the truths that the wise writer of Ecclesiastes came to hundreds of years before Christ was even born. Because the gospel says that living for pleasure, for wealth, for possessions, for wisdom – all of these are not what life is about. The gospel says that no matter what you do, you will not ever reach meaning in your life. The gospel says that all that we can do in this world in our own strength and by our own hand is ultimately futile. The gospel says that life has hope, but that death has no hope. And the gospel says that God can give your life meaning.
You see, Ecclesiastes paves the road to Christ without even knowing the name of Jesus, only by knowing God, knowing life, and knowing wisdom. Then we learn in the New Testament that the son of God comes not as a king dressed richly, living in mansions and palaces, but that he comes in poverty, born in a food trough in a stable. We learn that he does not attract to himself the wisest, the smartest, the most intelligent - but fishermen, tax collectors, uneducated men. He does not crave wealth or desire money, but instead teaches that you should pay your taxes, he gives food to the poor, he helps the sick, the despised, the marginalised. And we see that he does not live his life seeking the highest pleasures of his body, but he actually suffers pain, and indignity, and death on a cross. The New Testament tells us that there is nothing we can do in this life, by our own strength or talent or skill, that can bring meaning, and that by ourselves we are by nature objects of God's wrath, because we can't even obey his commands. But God, who holds all things in his hand, including meaning, says that it is by grace you have been saved from his wrath, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not from works, so that no-one can boast.
The New Testament tells us that this life is ultimately meaningless, but that where there is life, there is hope – and that the true hope is to be found in eternal life, in a resurrection from death with Christ Jesus. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all others. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” The New Testament tells us that through service to God, what you do in this life can have eternal meaning. Jesus tells us, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. ” We cannot achieve anything on our own, but with God with us, we can change eternity for people. Wow. God can make our lives go from meaninglessness to meaning, and he even tells us the kind of impact we can have.
Now here's the kicker. Do you remember those people who say, “Christians are only out to make everyone not have fun and not enjoy themselves”? They couldn't be more wrong. The truth of the gospel is that a life spent serving God, fearing God, and obeying his commandments, is more enjoyable. The truth of the gospel is that life as a Christian is a better, more enjoyable life, because it is not sex, drugs or rock and roll that bring pleasure. I know, right? Are you as surprised as me? That lie sold to us by the world really turns out to be not true! All pleasure, enjoyment and gladness doesn't come from money, it doesn't come from stuff, it doesn't come from being smart or pretty or cool. All the pleasure, enjoyment and gladness in the world comes from God. So that means you can live without drugs, without alcohol-fuelled parties, without promiscuity, you can live without mansions and millions, and still have joy, because joy comes from God.
So let me ask you this today. Does your Christian life reflect that truth? The Christian life is better. The life of obedience to God and hope of eternal life is so much better, brings so much more contentment, enjoyment and gladness, that people without it will be jealous! They should look at us and say, “What is it that they have that I don't?” Do they look at you and think that? Now obviously we can't control what people think. But look at your life, and ask yourself – is the reason my life is so good, is the reason I am so joyful, is the reason I have gladness in my life because I am a Christian, because God is in control and he gives me enjoyment of the things I have? Or am I really only happy because I have a big house, or a large family, or a good job, or lots of friends? I won't pretend that I have that one sorted out. Sometimes I get miserable because I don't have a full time job, and it's so easy to see yourself and your value and your happiness as tied up in your employment, or in your wealth, or in how popular you are. But that's not how life works. All that stuff is meaningless. Only God is in control, only God brings you joy. Now let's all get out there and live our lives knowing that, and make people jealous for God. Let's get out there and follow God's commands, and make disciples, and realise the real meaning of life.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment